Hugh Ryan

Freelance writer

Up In Smoke

Published in the New York Press, 11/14/2007. Read the original (w/comments) here.
I spent all week anxiously watching the news. On Sunday it was nothing—a blip on my scan of the morning papers. By Monday, the coverage had blown up like the fires themselves, moving fast and seemingly everywhere. I’m not well-versed in California geography, so [...]

A Yearning Sensation

Published in the New York Press, 7/2/2008. Read the original (w/comments) here.
I was somewhere in the middle of Tennessee when the burning started again. It wasn’t quite a burning, really. More of an itching. Like a caterpillar was crawling inside the shaft of my penis. It would stop for a little while, perhaps to explore [...]

A Pot Farm Grows in Brooklyn

Published in the New York Press, 9/29/2007. Read the original (w/comments) here.
The problem with going to Puppy’s house was that I left smelling like a burned-out hippie who just stumbled off the last plane from Goa. It was a peculiar combination of pot, dirt, sweat, patchouli and God-knows-what else. It was a miasma that inhabited [...]