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Memos from the Moon

Gilding the Pine Sprig

Teenagers can usually be counted on to do exactly the wrong thing in any given situation, and I was certainly no exception. Take the time I won a gilded sprig of pine needles, for instance. Now, I used to be obsessed with winning things from radio stations. I had my

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2 Min
By: William Shunn
Memos from the Moon

Tunnel Vision

I've got a real thing for tunnels. Not a small thing, either. What I have is a great big oversized granddaddy tunnel jones. I really don't know why that is. All I know is that I've loved tunnels ever since I was small. On

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2 Min
By: William Shunn
Memos from the Moon

I Want to Hold Your Hand

August 26, 1985. It began as an evening of high hopes, grand dreams, towering expectations. It ended in dashed hopes, bitter disappointment, and crushing guilt, on almost every front. But at least the music was good. It was the Sting concert at ParkWest ski resort (now called Wolf Mountain) in

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4 Min
By: William Shunn
Memos from the Moon

Breaking the Ambulance In

This is the story of why I'm cautious when I cross the street—though still perhaps not as cautious as I should be. I got off easy, after all. I was—what?—eight or nine years old? The family was living in Bountiful, Utah. I was in Cub

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3 Min
By: William Shunn
Memos from the Moon

Occasionally, Um, Terrifically Satisfying

It must be going on two years ago now that came home to my Brooklyn apartment to find a message waiting on the answering machine. Much to my delight, the message wasn't for me, and I found it entertaining in the extreme. I made a careful transcription of

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1 Min
By: William Shunn
Memos from the Moon

Drowning on Dry Land

St. George, Utah—a desert resort town a stone's throw from Arizona—is the last place I ever expected to find myself drowning. Likewise, I'm sure the last thing the patrons of the Valley Discount Book Center expected to see in their midst was a drowning

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3 Min
By: William Shunn
Memos from the Moon

Drowning, Not Waving

Okay, so yesterday's memo, while interesting, was really just a digression so I didn't have to write about what I'm going to write about today: my happy little dunk in Yellowstone's Firehole River. It was stupid—I'll admit that right

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6 Min
By: William Shunn
Memos from the Moon

How to French Kiss in One Easy Lesson

Saving my life at the swimming hole isn't all that my cousin Steve did for me. He also taught me how to French kiss. Okay, so he didn't actually demonstrate—he only explained the proper technique. But how many friends do you have that will do

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4 Min
By: William Shunn
Memos from the Moon

Ye Olde Swimming Hole

I really have no idea how I got out to the raft in the first place. I must have swum there—I mean, I know I swam, I was there, I did it—but since I really can't swim, you may begin to understand some of my puzzlement.

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3 Min
By: William Shunn
Memos from the Moon

Shit and Silver

The following piece was written in May 1997 as part of my former essay series "The Writings of Daedalus," which was in turn an outgrowth of my work for Alexis Massie's now-defunct Web site Pandora's Box of Tricks. Sometimes you have a day

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2 Min
By: William Shunn
Memos from the Moon

50 Ways to Induce Labor

Phys. Ed. was such a traumatic and humiliating experience for me in junior high and high school that there was no way I was going to take any similar courses in college. For me, perhaps the most significant aspect of my high school graduation was fact that it signaled the

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3 Min
By: William Shunn
Memos from the Moon

Bowling Alleys and Big Macs

Do you ever have one of those moments where you consider some behavior or predilection of yours—one so deeply innate to your personality that you never thought to question it before—in an entirely new light, and in a sudden flash of insight you understand how it originated and

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2 Min
By: William Shunn

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