Month: May 2013

  • “AIN’T NOTHIN’ YOU CAN DO” — GUY CLARK, SONGWRITER

    For the past three weeks, a drought has descended upon my being which renders me largely incompetent to write essays.  I trust that the drought is not a permanent condition but is a transient affair.  In the long time that I have been writing essays, droughts have appeared from time to time.  The title of…

  • OBSCENITIES NATURALLY

    As I was growing up, there was one article of faith that had to be observed by my mother and by myself.  It had to do with the St. Louis Post Dispatch.  The Post Dispatch was an afternoon paper, of which there are very few left.  When one of the older children appeared after work…

  • POSOLE

    I am writing this essay in the hopes that it will prove to Tom Scandlyn, Howard Davis and Jim Reese that this old country boy’s tastes have gone to new heights.  As a public service, I will try to save you a trip to your dictionary because the word “posole” is another upscale word for…

  • PATTING ONE’S BACKS

    From time to time there comes a moment when we can make someone else’s life a little bit more enjoyable.  Two Costa Rican immigrants have made several appearances in these essays.  They are Jenny M and Ronald H.  They are married, but in conformance with Costa Rican custom, Jenny retains her maiden name.There are three…

  • PLAISIR D’AMOUR

    Today is a cold winter’s Sunday which happens also to be Valentine’s Day.  On occasions such as this, men and women declare their love for each other and, if things work out, the course may be set for their eventual marriage.  Of course, this could be men and men or women and women.  In my…

  • GRUBER’S LAW

    I suspect that by this time every American must have an idea of the enormity of the oil spill that is taking place in the Gulf of Mexico.  The spill is of such proportions that we should consider it before long a cataclysmic event. All of which brings me to “Gruber’s Law” that I would…

  • THE ONE-HOLER JUBILEE

    In the summer of 1969, I was working as a lobbyist for the AT&T Corporation in Washington.  Ordinarily such work is limited to three years and I had been there on the order of three and a half years.  So I was not surprised when the instructions from New York were that I should return…

  • ON LANGUAGE: DON’T TOUCH MY JUNK

    I hope that it is apparent to all that language is an important part of the human condition.  We use it to reason with one another and we use it to praise each other.  We use language to denounce each other as evidenced by the recent political campaigns.  We use language to persuade each other. …

  • LITTLE PEOPLE

    I deplore the name “little people,” but it was bequeathed to us by Leona Helmsley, the wealthy woman who, at the end of her life, controlled the predominant interest in the Helmsley hotel chain and real estate.  Throughout her life, Leona made other people as uncomfortable as possible.  Upon her death, rather than giving money…

  • IT’S ALL BECAUSE OF JESUS

    In the fall of 1997, Shirley Morganstein was the Director of Speech Therapy at the Kessler Rehabilitation Institute in West Orange, New Jersey.  In November of that year, I had a stroke that had spared my limbs but had left me with a galloping case of aphasia, which is why I consulted Shirley Morganstein. Thirteen…