I don’t know the identity of the wag, curmudgeon, or comedian who thought to compare opinions with a certain orifice, but I suspect she or he did so in response to being either amused or annoyed by what was viewed as an idiotic idea. I suppose it might be better had we been given a loftier, more poetic comparison, but we are nonetheless left with one that works. So, yes. An opinion is like an asshole in the sense that everyone has one. We all opine.

What you have found here over the years comes from my opining, which I used to force myself to do — in writing — once a month starting in 2012. It served as a sort of pressure valve for me so that, rather than become a reality, my screaming into the wind remained a metaphor. You’ve noticed it’s been a whatever-comes-up-comes-out type of thing, though what comes up has tended to be about history, politics, religion, race, gender, culture, and literature; sometimes, a few of these subjects make their way into one piece.

You’ve noticed, also, that there is no profundity to be found here. If anything, you might have found that you felt either amused or annoyed, affronted or affirmed, bewildered or bored shitless. You might even have found that you felt the writer to be an asshole. If you felt anything, my work was done.