Baseline

Saturday morning, looking for shorts to wear to the high school track where I’ve been rehabbing, my hip, not the track, I come across the tennis skirt I bought last July at the Sports Authority Final Clearance Sale. The tag is still on it. Smiling, I get it out of the closet and step into its crisp, white, pleated perfection, pulling it up over my spider-veined legs with a darling new tattoo at the top—a five inch scar on my right butt cheek. Skirt is cheeky, tad bit … [Read more...]

Hecho En Mexico, Well, Not So Much

The comedy of errors continues in my path to higher education. Two years ago, almost to the day—I graduated after a 42-year summer break, from the University of New Mexico with my B.A. in Journalism and Mass Communication. Seemed fitting, since I’d been a journalist for lo these many years, with a few political press gigs, corporate communications and a truck load of video production dumped in, just for good measure, and, well, better pay. I was super proud. I felt … [Read more...]

Grab Ahold

I fell down in the middle of the street in Brooklyn one time. Broad daylight, busy intersection. I’m clumsy that way. Okay, I was looking at my phone and I tripped. Down goes Whatley. Fell hard on my knees, elbows, chin, my cell phone bounced off the asphalt and scittered away, further into the street. “Mamí, Mamí,” a man standing in the doorway of a corner grocery comes running to help me up. “Mamí, are you okay?” He reaches down with muscular arms. I grab ahold.  He … [Read more...]

Overstimulated at the Airport Bar

Logan International - Boston, February 5, 2013 TV monitors everywhere.Hillary in the flippy-do debuted her new website today. Pundits pounce. Pakistan is erecting a theme park near Bin Laden’s former lair,amusement by any other name. Pat Boone’s become a pitchman for geriatric bathtubs. Get a grip, sister. Your old man is only draggin’ you into the tub cause you stinky.He’s not trying to drown you.Portugese water dogs, oh man! Obama! No fear of going under there, cept’ … [Read more...]

They Work Hard for Their Money

So the blog's been neglected, as if you've been pining way for witicisms from Jean, right?  It's because I've been a workin' fool lately. Good thing, as the wolves, in the form of not only one, but two goons with missing teeth have, of late, been knocking at my door. I won't go into detail, but I ain't lying. While I continue to do book talks (shout out to Kenn Ann Smith and Victoria Babu for hosting this month!) and I've been seen out on street corners selling books … [Read more...]

Lovers, Brothers and Democrats

***This is an essay I submitted to Salon.*** Probably too late and too long, but I wanted to share with my readers.*** I’ve got that tingly feeling. Not the way you feel when you’re about to speak in front of an audience, not the way you feel when the house lights go down, or just before that first kiss, this tingly feeling is limited to my left arm. It’s tingling all the way from my elbow down to my pinky finger, where it stops, because there is no sensation there, at … [Read more...]