Article Archives: Words with Woods

Squirrel

September 12, 2013 | by CJ Woods III

One of my favorite movies has, as a bit player, a squirrel. In National Lampoon’s Christmas Vacation, the family cry is “SQUIRREL!” followed by that animal exploding from the interior of a Christmas tree. The squirrels in my old neighborhood displayed antics that amused me in much the same way … Read More

Murderers Row

September 5, 2013 | by CJ Woods III

Early most mornings, I take a walk in my micro-hood. (Micro-hood: what I call my small bit of the larger neighborhood.) I walk to the nearby convenient store to buy a newspaper; if I am out of coffee, I buy the 99-cent cup. The sinuous curve of my street takes … Read More

Tonight, She Danced With Her Father

August 29, 2013 | by CJ Woods III

“Tonight, I danced with my father.” A woman wrote this on a public wall; it was posted on a site that has become for me a rich source of humor, anger, information and idiocy, and on occasion, heartbreaking honesty. I know the woman, and I fell into the post in … Read More

Now I Lay Me Down

August 22, 2013 | by CJ Woods III

“Joni, do you get mad?” I was sitting with my mother as she lay dying, and that question came out as she struggled to find a more comfortable position in the bed that was her prison. She spent most of those dying days in an underwater sleep, waking occasionally when … Read More

600

August 15, 2013 | by CJ Woods III

When I discovered that I had been conscripted into the service of this publication, I asked the creative director what I should use as a guide to determine how to fill the column assigned to me. “Ohthenumberofwordsintheothercolumnsisfine,” fired Paula Nicewanger, and once I replayed her voice at 33 RPM, I … Read More