Scotching the Serpent ~ an adventure in serialized fiction! (Part Two of Four)

The Shaugnessy family was hardly lace-curtain Irish. The grandfather of Harry’s step-father had been the Attorney General of the State of Massachusetts.  When Harry first brought her home to Rochester,

Scotching the Serpent ~ an adventure in serialized fiction! (the first of four parts)

~ by Eugene O’Brien

The trouble, as far as Rachel was aware of it, really got going when Harry met a Pentecostal evangelist named Juan Baptista.  Somehow Harry put together the man’s remarkable name with the fact that his own mother’s name was Mary, Mary Shaunessy, and drew a wholly unwarranted conclusion.  That he felt the Holy Spirit descending upon him after the full immersion baptism which followed this, his latest conversion, did not help matters any.

Rachel felt that Harry should have noticed that she was hardly Mary Magdalene. 

Ballad of the Big Women

~ by Eugene O’Brien

for Sandy Allen, recently deceased,

one of the tallest women ever

Perhaps this all began as a misguided attempt to get over Rachel. She looked like Botticelli’s Venus, and, when we broke up, was in her second year at Harvard Law. What quality can such a woman lack?

Tyler Hill Gives Valedictory Address at BCC Commencement

Please be aware that while the sound quality is excellent, the video is sometimes shaky. Run-time is 9 min. 14 sec.

Tutoring Conference Descends Upon BCC

The 2009 New England Peer Tutoring Association conference - photo by Stephanie Halstead

~ by Eugene O’Brien

On Saturday, April 4^th, BCC played host to the New England Peer Tutoring Association (NEPTA) conference.  There were students, and tutoring faculty, from four states in the Northeast.

Who Was Rhoda Sheehan?

Late faculty member Rhoda Sheehan

~ by Eugene O’Brien

Rhoda Sheehan, for whom the school’s poetry competition is named, was a deeply treasured member of the BCC faculty from the late ‘60s to the late ‘80s. A schoolgirl and college friend of Elizabeth Bishop, one of the finest recent American poets, Rhoda was responsible for the fact that Bishop read some of her Brazilian-themed poems at BCC more than once, around 1980.  Indeed, what is arguably the most famous of Bishop’s poems, the villanelle “One Art,” was revised at Rhoda’s house off River Road in Westport.

BCC Hosts Audism Unveiled Showing

~ by Eugene O’Brien

At first glance, the title of this review may appear to be a typo to many.  Surely “autism” is what is intended?  To which the answer is “No!” vigorously signed in American Sign Language.

No “Smoking” Gun

~ by Eugene O’Brien

I am not usually someone who sees conspiracies everywhere.  I even believe that JFK was killed by Lee Harvey Oswald, acting alone.

A Memory, a Monologue, a Rant and a Prayer

A Theatrical Production

TO STOP THE VIOLENCE AGAINST WOMAN,

WOMAN MUST STOP THE VIOLENCE AGAINST HERSELF.

-Alice Walker, author of The Color Purple

The Ring ~ a short story

~ by Eugene O’Brien

The first time Jim Calvin tried it, an unlikely acquaintance had called offering an even more unlikely Celtics playoff ticket against the Bulls.