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No one wants to talk about the elephant in the room.

There’s a good reason for that here. There is no elephant. It’s a hippopotamus. So let’s talk about it.

There are two generally known species of hippos, the common river hippopotamus and the pygmy. But there is a third one: the micro hippopotamus. It’s considerably smaller than the pygmy species and ultra micro. No one talks about the hippopotamus in the room, because, unless you live in a river, the hippo standing next to you is one of the micro specie. They are roughly the size of a tardigrade, colloquially known as a water bear. Like the water bear, micro hippos live in tiny drops of water, in the dew on the leaves, in puddles, in not quite empty beer bottles and in leaking faucets. Micro hippos do not live in rivers. They do live at Substack.

If you are looking for someplace that actually discusses hippopotamuses, then you have come to the wrong place. This magazine is not so much about hippopotamuses as it is a micro project where, occasionally, a micro hippopotamus might come by to read or post something. The micro hippo is my muse. When you are that small and live in a droplet, what else is there to do except think and write stories and ponder things and make wisecracks and seek insight and indulge one’s fancy?

You might want to read or subscribe to this magazine. Honestly, it might or might not be to your taste. Or even mine should I later change my mind. For many years I have practiced law for a living and written as a hobby. I do not kid myself: setting up a Substack page is not going to change that. Nevertheless, the Substack model is better than the old commercial publishing model, so, if not to support my work, you should subscribe at least to support Substack's.

I knowingly violate some of the central tenets of online writings - to be consistent and to post at regular intervals. There are several reasons for this.

First, I like to dabble and experiment. I write novels, short stories and funny stories. Some are plain and ordinary. I write fables, sci fi, parody, whimsy and whatnot. I write a line or two of poetry, or what I self-critically call "poultry." I comment on our world and culture as I see it. I see history not as a series of dates and events, but as a 3D tapestry of time, geography and political economics, all connected, all interwoven, backward and forward. The writings are segregated by their styles and flavors and content. It's a smorgasbord of topics and perspectives.

The second reason why I am not concerned with regular posts or consistent styles is that I like to fiddle and twiddle. Michelangelo could sculpt by chipping away to reveal the image he saw within the stone. I cannot work that way. I head down dead-ends. I get knotted up in bad ideas. I have to edit and polish and step back to let things ripen. Sometimes they go rotten. There will be times when I will post several writings all at once and sometimes there will be droughts when I would rather post nothing than post worse than nothing. In some ways, that's a marketing plus: I will not put something up just for the sake of posting something. There is value in that in today's world.

Welcome to HippoMuse. Read what you like. Skip what you don't. Think a little. Chuckle a bit. Enjoy. Reflect. Come back again some time.

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