Tom Nussbaum

Tom Nussbaum is a retired Seattle special education instructor. He has lived in Mexico since 2015. He has written three novels; “Completing the Course,” “The Boy in the Book,” and “The Dark Blue Heart;” a memoir “An ‘H’ of a Life;” and a collection of short stories, “The Clothes in the Closet. . .and the Tales They Tell.”

Tom Nussbaum

10SNE1

That looks like an airline reservation confirmation code, doesn’t it? But it isn’t. It is, however, one of my favorite vanity plates. It was on an expensive car, the make I’ve forgotten, the kind that wealthy country club folk drive. People with names like Thurston Howell III. It took several minutes of deciphering, but I …

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Fade Out

Patrick O’Rourke’s smile was as white as an Irish Easter lily, his eyes radiant blue like the Irish Sea glistening in the sun. He was, as his name implied, Irish through-and-through. His pale skin was as pure as a freshly laundered Irish linen bedsheet. But the Catholic twenty-six-year-old’s black hair wasn’t particularly Gaelic and, typical …

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Be Prepared!

“The first tropical storm of the season is forming west of Guatemala,” the online weather site reported. “OK,” I thought, and clicked on YouTube and watched a video of schnauzers juggling bowling balls. Then I watched a seven-month-old boy recite the Gettysburg Address in Latin. I didn’t give the announcement a second thought. I should …

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Hiking In Heels

Imagine, for a moment, hiking in stiletto heels. Or tap dancing in flip-flops. Or playing ice hockey in ballet slippers. Common sense says the inappropriate footwear would be counter-productive and could invite accidents. Now, imagine exiting a building in hiking boots, descending the first set of steps and, to avoid a second set, you take …

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Dr. Henscratch

Doctors in the United States are known for, among other more positive qualities, their illegible handwriting. Their scribbles on prescriptions and instructions have been a standard joke in television sitcoms and stand-up comedy routines for decades. While frequently exaggerated, examples of doctors’ notorious penmanship causing problems do occur and true tales exit hospitals and clinics …

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