My Tony Bennett Story

In the fall of 1986, during my first year of college, school sponsored a field trip to The Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York. It was unchaperoned, so we just wandered around the museum taking notes and sketching. We just had be outside, ready to leave, by a certain time. 

At the end of the day, while waiting for our bus ride home, my friend Rich yelled without warning, at the top of his lungs, "Oh my god, Tony Bennett! Look everyone, it's Tony Bennett!" So edgy. He scared the crap out of everyone, but we looked and, sure enough, there was Tony Bennett walking down the stairs to his ride. He looked back and everyone was mortified, some of us pointed at Rich who tried to hide. Tony had a look on his face that said "Kids..." When he got to the bottom of the steps I walked towards him. As he got in his car I said, "Sorry about my friend, he's kind of an idiot." He could have been grumpy or just ignored me, but he smiled at me and waved me off as if to say, "Don't worry about it. These things happen." He wasn't going to let some ignorant kids ruin his evening.

That's my Tony Bennett story. I didn't appreciate his music or learn that he was also a painter and loved spending time at the museum until years later, but based on that experience alone I always thought he was pretty cool. Still, I think seeing Rich get knocked out by Tony Bennett would have been a much better story.

RIP Tony.

I have a degree in such things

I keep a pair of tweezers in my desk drawer for occasions when I may need tweezers. Removing splinters, picking up tiny screws, and of course, plucking hair. The tips were a little janky and weren't working last time I used them. I noticed them just now and fixed them. 

I used the tweezers to hold an emory board and slowly, steadily slid the tweezers back and forth over the emory board, gradually increasing my speed (cause I ain't got all day) in an attempt to make the points where the tips meet nice and parallel. It worked perfectly. Where there was once a gap preventing it from firmly griping hair or paper, they now meet cleanly with no daylight showing. Emory boards and tweezers are great tools for your workshop if you ever work on small projects.

And after five years in art school and four years as a jewelry/metalsmith major, this is the extent of the use of the knowledge I acquired all those years ago. Don't be afraid to dream, kids.

Pure Imagination

I wrote this short story a while back when my daughter just didn't want to go to bed after she built a huge sofa cushion fort. It's another library contest entry.

You can read it at https://marcintosh.linefeed.app/pure-imagination-bef2f8

It's beginning to look a lot like Christmas Shirts

I've got a few Christmas shirts (or sweatshirts if you like) available at my Cotton Bureau store. They're based on the movie "Elf" and the Disney+ "Prep and Landing" specials. You can find them here. 

Short Story, "Initiating Safety Protocols"

I wrote a short story for a contest at my local library. The only rule was that it had to be less then 800 words. This one clocked in at 566, but I felt like it was still too long for the concept. The story shares the thoughts of someone who believes they’re about to die. There isn't much time for thought, so I made some revisions and got it down to 393 words. Still too long, but better.

Originally this was the beginning of a much larger story I had in mind, but I changed the outcome to fit the assignment. The story didn’t win, but was included in a volume of all submitted entries that you can borrow from the library. I'm counting that as being published. I really liked the exercise in brevity, both the writing and the editing.

You can read it at https://marcintosh.linefeed.app/initiating-safety-protocols-f6131d