Email Author Peter Gilstrap

1997 Stories by Peter Gilstrap

• Goodbye, Phoenix

  published May 29, 1997

  Today I consider myself the luckiest man on the face of the Earth. Not only because I do not have Lou Gehrig's disease, but because it has been my... More >>

• Loading Doc

  published May 15, 1997

  Some people have jobs that are rewarding on many levels. Their daily tasks fulfill. They help others, solve problems, right wrongs, contribute to... More >>

• Long Sell the King

  published May 8, 1997

  I am standing in a house at the end of a dirt road within shooting distance of the Superstitions, holding a pair of Elvis Presley's sunglasses in... More >>

• I Like the Sprite in You

  published April 24, 1997

  A troll named Turkll asked a human couple named Marilyn and Thomas Twintreess to put on Festival. When he made this request, Turkll was... More >>

• Coming Attraction

  published April 17, 1997

  Come on, kids, that's it, gather 'round while I tell you all about the good old days. What's that? You want to hear about what peep shows were... More >>

• Feline in the Sky

  published April 10, 1997

  For all intents and purposes, Chimpy is a normal feline. Some of you may remember him from my 1995 personal "Best of Phoenix" column, in... More >>

• The Hills Are Alive

  published April 3, 1997

  I was kneeling over a stack of 10-cent records in the Salvation Army thrift store on South Central Avenue a few months ago, thumbing through the... More >>

• Escaped Crusader

  published March 27, 1997

  Bob's scrapbook sits on his living-room table. It contains many pictures from Bob's teen years, which were spent in the small, idyllic town... More >>

• Greenhouse Defect

  published March 20, 1997

  Geochemist Wallace Broecker once voiced this astute observation about Biosphere 2: "To run three acres of land without God is really... More >>

• The Secret Worlds of Big Jake

  published March 13, 1997

  Visions are real, they do exist. Visions arise in intelligent brains. Every intelligent brain has the prerequisites for... More >>

• Young, Gifted, Gay and Animated

  published March 6, 1997

  Japanese animation icon Speed Racer does many extraordinary things. He has fantastic driving skills. His car can perform amazing feats. He... More >>

• Wild Weekend

  published February 27, 1997

  Sometimes a workingman gets bored. It's the same grind, shift after shift, everything heading forward like a crippled sludge barge into the... More >>

• Flag Stuff

  published February 20, 1997

  How many times has this happened to you? You awake to yet another glorious Arizona dawn. You tumble out of bed and immediately engage in... More >>

• For Your Ice Only

  published February 6, 1997

  Zamboni. You either know what it is or you don't. If you do, then skip the next sentence. The Zamboni is the big machine that drives... More >>

• Smoking!

  published January 30, 1997

  Prostrate they display themselves in desperate attitudes of boredom . . . smoking cigarettes to kill time. --Baudelaire, Les Salons de... More >>

• Ivy Covered Limbs

  published January 23, 1997

  I would never argue that macrame is the most exciting of art forms. Or that buckets of bleached seashells are something to get excited about. Or... More >>

• Going Underground

  published January 16, 1997

  To be perfectly honest, I didn't do it to uncover the long-hidden cache of rare coins that would send the children that I will probably never have... More >>

• Does Anybody Really Know What Time It Is?

  published January 9, 1997

  Rock visionary Steve Miller once wrote that "Time keeps on slipping into the future." He couldn't have been more correct. Time is, in fact,... More >>

• Speak No Evil, or From Here to Profanity

  published January 2, 1997

  On the outside, Craig Browning seems like a normal person, perhaps much like you or me. He has many friends, plays bass in a punk-rock band called... More >>