Colin Dullaghan

“I’m going to go ride my bike,” I said, and by “bike” I did not mean motorcycle. For once.
(There was a time when I was becoming an avid cyclist, always off gallivanting around under the motivation of two pedals alone, cranking my away along streets and byways with such regularity that I even bought a [...]

I’m in favor of a mild degree of spousal mocking – I think it’s healthy.
That’s why when Penny is going off about paint not transferring correctly through her silkscreen, or the paper store discontinuing her favorite paper, I usually don’t resist the temptation to giggle and repeat her complaints in a loving falsetto.
“Yeah!” [...]

This morning I had a dentist’s appointment at 10 o’clock. It went okay.
I ended up buying a special toothbrush and agreeing to be fitted for a special mouthpiece I’ll have to wear when I sleep, because apparently I grind – or “gnash,” as the dentist put it – my teeth at night. This is no [...]

Before I get into this, let me say a few words about that story I wrote and posted here: Thanks for reading it.
Now: I’m not sure why, and I’m happy to entertain suggestions, but I get really depressed whenever I see or think about job resumes.
I just had to research the standard resume format [...]

Before I get into this, let me say a few words about that story I wrote and posted here: Thanks for reading it.
Now: I’m not sure why, and I’m happy to entertain suggestions, but I get really depressed whenever I see or think about job resumes.
I just had to research the standard resume format [...]

Before I get into this, let me say a few words about that story I wrote and posted here: Thanks for reading it.
Now: I’m not sure why, and I’m happy to entertain suggestions, but I get really depressed whenever I see or think about job resumes.
I just had to research the standard resume format [...]

Before I get into this, let me say a few words about that story I wrote and posted here: Thanks for reading it.
Now: I’m not sure why, and I’m happy to entertain suggestions, but I get really depressed whenever I see or think about job resumes.
I just had to research the standard resume format [...]

Before I get into this, let me say a few words about that story I wrote and posted here: Thanks for reading it.
Now: I’m not sure why, and I’m happy to entertain suggestions, but I get really depressed whenever I see or think about job resumes.
I just had to research the standard resume format [...]

Before I get into this, let me say a few words about that story I wrote and posted here: Thanks for reading it.
Now: I’m not sure why, and I’m happy to entertain suggestions, but I get really depressed whenever I see or think about job resumes.
I just had to research the standard resume format [...]

Don throttled up further, not seeing the exterior panels of the building warping and caving, creaking agonizingly and threatening to buckle. The entire structure leaned slightly inward, yielding to the hellacious thrust.
Over the deafening roar, he was clawing at the controls, pulling levers and twisting dials and yelling down to Virgil, who could hear nothing [...]

At first all they could see was a wheel, or more accurately a tire, but they could see that its tread was gigantic, easily the width of a garden row, and steadily rolling down forward toward them.
Then more, and more, it emerged, silencing everyone as it roared to itself, a towering, flaming giant that [...]

…Jerry, in the drivers’ seat, beamed up at Ex, waiting for his signal.
Virgil nodded, and the V8 grew louder, building into a familiar, syncopated growling. The gallery stepped back, nodding appreciatively. Mr. Exner apparently wanted to show off the new car’s power.
The V8 roared, the tone from the tailpipes resonating melodiously off the hangar’s [...]

…On this cue, two workmen, skilled craftsmen from Virgil’s days at Chrysler (whose salaries were now paid from his cashed-out stock options) released the locks and drew open the hangar doors.
At first only a sliver of sunlight fell into the cavernous opening, glinting off the mirrored finish of a chrome-dipped bumper.
The photographers readied [...]

“Gentlemen, thank you all for coming,” Virgil boomed, standing on an overturned parts crate outside the double-padlocked doors of Project Bay Four, the home to many of his creations over the years, and now to this, his crowning achievement. The sun was coming up over the San Fernando Valley, burning off the misty chill of [...]

“That was horseshit and you know it, Jerry,” Virgil growled into the handset. “Now, I know things have changed on my end, but this project is still fully funded and we’re going ahead with it. I’ve got Don’s word on it.”
“Okay, Ex,” said Virgil’s long-time associate and the closest thing he had to a friend. [...]

“Morning, Mr. Exner.” The chief mechanic, whose name Virgil did not know, greeted him as he entered the hangar.
“Morning. The engineers gone yet?” Virgil asked, squinting over the man’s shoulder to gauge the night’s progress.
“Yep. They left around seven. Everything looked pretty standard, they said, considering…”
“Good, good.” Virgil cut him off, already on [...]

Spring, 1960Virgil scooped his Wheaties, half-noticing the crunching sensation ringing through his fingers as the milky metal edge of the spoon burrowed through the hearty, dampened flakes. He was trying to ignore the murmurs of his daughter’s friends, Kathy and Sharon, who had stayed over the night before and whom he knew called him “Vagisil [...]

Luke, I wrote a story. You flipped me off and kicked my ass and I thank you.
And now, in honor of my friends’ trip to Story, Indiana for their wedding anniversary, I’m going to post my story here.
It is a fictional piece about a real person: Virgil Exner, Chrysler’s first vice-president of styling, the [...]

“C’mere! Here, boy! That’s a good boy!”
“No, wait, don’t get in the car yet, not yet, wait… DAMMIT, VINCE, YOU CRUSHED THE WHOLE BACK END OF THE CAR!”
“AND THERE GOES THE FRONT END TOO!”
“DAMMIT!”
“No, I’m sorry, I’m not yelling at you… you’re a good boy, you just…”
“FOR THE LOVE OF MIKE, HE JUST TOOK [...]

A few months back I wondered in print if Google was indexing the things I write here. It turned out that it was not, which disappointed me more than it probably should have.
But it all worked out, because now I’m more overjoyed than I probably should be upon discovering that Yahoo *does* index my [...]