About the City of Nouns

I began writing the quotes and thoughts in 1994, when my son, Bradley, was born. Unfortunately, the first two years are lost to cyber space, but the rest are archived at my pages on Coffeedrome. This is a massive collection, more than 600 pages when printed.

The title of the collection comes from a moment in the mall on Dec. 9, 2003: “Quote of the day: My 9-year-old son, Bradley, observed the cornucopia of holiday commotion surrounding him — the crush of people walking hurriedly with their packages, multi-colored posters pushing the latest last-minute sale, do-gooders wrapping gifts to raise money for charity, holiday music blaring from speakers, street vendors searing chestnuts, lighted trees, glowing menorahs, decorated windows, floors, walls, doors, a bird swooping to catch a morsel of dropped pretzel. Bradley was fascinated by the sensory stimulation and put it all together with, I’m guessing, his latest 3rd grade English lesson.

“Look at all the people with all their things in this place,” he said. “It’s a city of nouns.”

Sounded to me like a decent title for a massive collection of short stories.

Check out the blog post from the day the book came! I was SO excited!