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JON ZAL

Your front-row seat to my nervous breakdown

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JON ZAL

A letter to my children from The Elf on the Shelf

December 20, 2011 26 Comments

Don't judge me, you bastards. I defy ANY of you to do this job and NOT drink.

Dear Jon’s Children,

I’ve tried, children. I’ve tried to be nice. For days now, I’ve sat quietly on a shelf, or hung from the Christmas tree, or peered down upon you from atop the mantle or the cabinets or the china cupboard or whatever other wacky spot it was into which I’d been wedged. And I’ve tried.

I’ve tried, by virtue of my silent presence, to gently coax you into compliance with your parents’ wishes. And I had hoped that my mere presence alone would be enough to keep you in line … but, after the display the two of you put on this morning, it has become clear to me that my pixie-ish grin and my kind, blue eyes aren’t getting the message across … so here’s how it’s gonna be:

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Filed Under: Jayna, Parenthood, Portfolio, Zan Tagged With: Greatest Hits

Zombie Dinner Party … with your chef, Dr. Hannibal Lector

November 16, 2011 28 Comments

Before dinner

“Ugh. Brains,” I whispered to my wife after the chef announced that the third course would include sweetbreads.

“What?”

“Sweetbreads,” I whispered, “are brains.”

“Oh,” she said, sounding rather amused, though far from relieved. “I thought they were balls.”

Hey, they might as well have been balls, because guess what brains and balls both have in common? Neither one goes in my mouth.

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Filed Under: Greatest Hits, Life, Portfolio

Hat Trick (or, How I Ruined The Postseason For Three Major League Baseball Teams)

October 13, 2011 16 Comments

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Hat Trick (or, How I Ruined The Postseason For Three Major League Baseball Teams)
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Dear Boston, Philadelphia and Phoenix:

I’m sorry. I was only trying to help. I had no idea that

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Filed Under: Featured Photo

Mother Nature is a heartless wench who will turn your own children against you

October 5, 2011 14 Comments

Embed from Getty Images

When I was a little boy, and thunder rumbled in the distance, my mother would react as though the approaching storm was an Afghani mortar attack instead of a minor weather event. Because of this, I spent much of my childhood reacting to thunderstorms in a similarly panicked fashion.

When my mother was a little girl, and thunder rumbled in the distance, her parents presumably reacted calmly … until that one time when the electricity went out during a storm, and they sent her to get from her upstairs bedroom something to play with, and she opened the door at the bottom of the staircase, and looked up to see that the second floor was engulfed in flames … because lightning had struck the house.

So she gets a pass.

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Filed Under: Jayna, Life

Take Me Out to the Ball Game Insane Asylum

September 28, 2011 20 Comments

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Take Me Out to the Ballgame Insane Asylum
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There are many things I must do in order to influence the outcome of the game. Things like

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Botany, booze and music trivia. This post has it all, baby.

September 15, 2011 11 Comments

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Botany, booze and music trivia. This post has it all, baby.
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This is another botanical beauty I shot during our recent visit to Longwood Gardens … and as I gazed down through the viewfinder on my camera while poised directly above this lovely specimen of agave attenuata, I thought to myself, “Self

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In a while …

September 14, 2011 5 Comments

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In a while ...
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I’d love to tell you a good story about this photo. About how I crawled on my belly, through the weeds and the mud

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Filed Under: Featured Photo, Private

Beauty and the Bee

September 13, 2011 7 Comments

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Beauty and the Bee
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Taken during a recent visit to Longwood Gardens … and I know I must be getting old, because

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FEATURED POSTS

Take Me Out to the Therapist… Take Me Out to the Shrink…

Hell hath no fury like white-male privilege threatened

Is it November yet?

There must be a reckoning

Gene Simmons on stage

Dear Gene Simmons of KISS, a.k.a. My Childhood Hero: I think there’s been a terrible misunderstanding. Either that, or you’re an overly sensitive dick.

Daddy Vader

If not for The Force, Darth Vader would have totally gotten his ass kicked, because that suit? Not very practical.

Turns out I have a bright future ahead of me ... in a field about which I know nothing

Man, this finding-a-new-job thing is going to be easier than I thought

An Open Letter of Apology to President Barack Obama

Van Halen (or, The Band That Ate My Life)

No, really: This job-search thing is like shooting fish in a barrel

ABOUT ME

Jon Zal @ The Massachusetts State House, Boston

I was born in 1970, raised just outside of Boston, and now live near Philadelphia. As a child, I thought I was going to be…
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