Mar 18On the Line at Liquids and SolidsBy Ed Staskus “It took me awhile to understand the vibe that makes Liquids and Solids so special,” said Marla Gilman, a summer removed from her year working in the kitchen of the edgy gastropub in Lake Placid, New York. “I was visiting friends in Keeseville and they kept talking…13 min read13 min read
Mar 14Head Over HeelsBy Ed Staskus “The end is always near,” Greg Harper said. My ears perked up. His hands were free and easy on the steering wheel. He was driving well enough to keep us on the road, but his eyes were like pinwheels. The magic mushroom he had popped into his…9 min read9 min read
Mar 10Time is CandyBy Ed Staskus Three hundred and sixty-four days of the year parents tell their children to never take candy from strangers. …5 min read5 min read
Mar 4Never Look BackBy Ed Staskus The new-style lightning war that started in 1939 won the Third Reich most of Europe and substantial parts of Russia. Five years later the Red Army was poised to take revenge on its enemy. When the Wehrmacht on the Eastern Front tried to weather the storm and…11 min read11 min read
Mar 3Independent People (1939)By Ed Staskus “I started to help in the sugar beet fields when I was 9 years old,” my mother said. “My sister Irena started helping me two years later when she turned nine.” The year was 1939 when the sisters worked together for the first time. Six years later…10 min read10 min read
Feb 27One Way StreetBy Ed Staskus When Agnes was a kid, everybody said her mom was the best-looking woman on the hill. Eva Giedraityte’s hair was soft, not stiff like the neighbor ladies, and she colored it champagne blond instead of the brassy yellow and bleached white that was popular. She was shapely…17 min read17 min read
Feb 22Rough and TumbleBy Ed Staskus I’m on the shorter side, not too short, on the lean and mean side, but not too mean. I can be short-tempered when I have to be, but I am more friendly than not. I didn’t get it from my stepmom, for sure. I don’t get much…11 min read11 min read
Feb 20Luck of the IrishBy Ed Staskus Everybody both friend and foe called Danny Greene the Irishman. He was almost 42 years old the summer of 1975 and somehow still alive. He had never looked his age, but that had changed, although he still didn’t look his age. He looked older. Water under the…8 min read8 min read
Feb 18Dead Man’s CurveBy Ed Staskus Maggie Campbell was almost 22 years-old the morning she drove face first into a cement truck. She was driving a yellow 1973 coupe a girlfriend of hers at the Bay Deli, where they both worked, had sold her for one hundred and eighty-five dollars in cash. …6 min read6 min read
Feb 15Hoodlum EmpireBy Ed Staskus Little Italy was a fifteen-minute drive from the Central Station. Frank drove slightly under the speed limit and didn’t try to time the lights. It took them twenty minutes. He parked at the intersection of Euclid Ave. and Ford Dr. on the border of city life and…8 min read8 min read
