All posts by Eric Robert Nolan

Eric Robert Nolan graduated from Mary Washington College in 1994 with a Bachelor of Science in Psychology. He spent several years a news reporter and editorial writer for the Culpeper Star Exponent in Culpeper, Virginia. His work has also appeared on the front pages of numerous newspapers in Virginia, including The Free Lance – Star and The Daily Progress. Eric entered the field of philanthropy in 1996, as a grant writer for nonprofit healthcare organizations. Eric’s poetry has been featured by Dead Beats Literary Blog, Dagda Publishing, The International War Veterans’ Poetry Archive, and elsewhere. His poetry will also be published by Illumen Magazine in its Spring 2014 issue.

Source: Shadows Within My Mind on Facebook

Slowdive performance at The Charlotte in Leicester, England, photo by Greg Neate, 1992

“Man was made for joy and woe.”

“Joy and woe are woven fine,
A clothing for the soul divine.
Under every grief and pine
Runs a joy with silken twine.
It is right it should be so;
Man was made for joy and woe;
And when this we rightly know,
Safely through the world we go.”

–William Blake, “Auguries of Innocence” (1863)

Source — Memphis Muse on Facebook



Photo: Rudolf Koppitz, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons

My World-Famous Octopus-Swiss-Burger.

The trick to deliciousness is to pour the juice from the octopus can onto the beef while it is frying — preferably with Swiss cheese from the good people at Food Lion.

The last time I shared an octopus recipe online, somebody told me to “up my meds.”  Sigh … like pearls before swine, people.

Update — I know that this does not seem like part of a heart-healthy diet.  But it actually IS, because an octopus has eight hearts.



Photo of Times Square by Dan McCoy, 1973

Environmental Protection Agency.

Throwback Thursday: this 80’s-era fake wood paneling!

People on the “I Found This Online” Facebook page are joking about this weird faux-wood paneling from the 1980’s.  (It got 96,000 “likes.”)  There is even a Reddit page about them!  These walls were everywhere in my rural/suburban New York neighborhood.

I love them!  Sure, you couldn’t hang anything up because you couldn’t get a thumb-tack in.  But they’re dark and rustic, and they take me right back to the 1980’s.  Gimme a basement with these walls, a plush rug, a television, an Atari 2600 and a stack of 80’s horror films on VHS ands I’ll be very happy.  (Hopefully the movies will include 1986’s “Aliens” and 1982’s “The Thing.”)

Better yet, leave out a couple of liters of soda and some chips, and let me invite a couple of Longwood High School friends over.



“The Sleep of Reason Produces Monsters,” Francisco Goya, 1799

Etching, aquatint, drypoint and burin.

Move over, pineapple pizza. It’s time for OCTOPUS PIZZA.

I am a man who is loathe to tamper with a classic.  And every slice of pizza from Benny Marconi’s in Roanoke, Virginia is a damned artwork.

Still … they did not offer octopus as a topping.  (I searched their website pretty thoroughly.)  And then I realized that I had NEVER seen the most sublime of foods offered as a pizza topping.

Innovation built this country, and I have a flair for the culinary.  So I went home and concocted the brilliance you see below.

Update — Damn.  I just realized I wrote this whole post ignoring the potential for an “octupie” pun.



Cover to “Carnage: It’s a Wonderful Life” #1, Kyle Hotz, 1996

Marvel Comics.