Kevin Fisher-Paulson •
How We Keep Spinning •

The Bedlam Blue Bungalow in San Francisco’s outer, outer, outer, outer Excelsior district, around the corner from the Roof Cow, is probably not like anywhere you’ve visited before. You might notice a distinct pong in the air when two teenagers are competing to see who can go the longest without a shower. You could show up on a night when Snacky Dinner takes the place of a nutritious, well-balanced evening meal. On New Year’s Day you may be in time to witness the annual Talling of the Boys, when Zane’s and Aidan’s heights are marked on a doorframe.

Kevin Paulson, a sheriff’s deputy, married professional dancer Brian Fisher, “fulfilling the Western stereotype of the deputy and the dance hall girl.” The couple adopted two sons, one Black and one of mixed race, both exposed to drugs while in the womb. Together they make up the Fisher-Paulson clan . . . and dress as superheroes for Halloween. Unless they’re hedgehogs.

Kevin’s warmth, playfulness, and devotion to family shine in these 65 essays on topics from the cultural implications of the Flintstones (“Have a gay old time”) to the passing of rescue dog Krypto. “There are lessons even in sorrow. Aidan, the boy who the doctors told me suffered from compassion deficit, sat in his chair sobbing. And Zane, the boy who three different psychiatrists have given up on, was teaching the rest of us the meaning of family.”

When diagnosed with kidney cancer in 2023, Kevin named his kidneys Rocky and Bullwinkle, fighting valiantly until the disease overpowered him. His final newspaper column, published posthumously, ended with “Be kind.”

But since it falls unto my lot
That I should rise and you should not
I’ll gently rise and softly call
Good night and joy be to you all
                          —The Parting Glass