Month: October 2014

  • DON'T LAUGH AT ME

    Sometimes essays write themselves. That was the case recently in an essay having to do with an exchange of correspondence between Matthew Pepe and myself involving deflectors which he installed to keep me on course as I negotiate the driveway with the garbage containers. Here is another essay that has written itself. This essay is…

  • ON GOLF, CIVIL WAR, AND VIRGINS

    -Three Disparate Thoughts Growing up during the great American Depression, it was my view that golf was an elitist sport. There were a few driving ranges around, but public golf courses were few and far between. Jobs also were few and far between and money was a problem at every step of the way. Golf…

  • AIN’T GONNA STUDY WAR NO MORE

    A good many of us music lovers are attracted to an art form called the spirituals. In former days, that art form was called Negro spirituals. But somehow, Negro fell into disfavor and it became awkward to call them colored spirituals, black spirituals, or Afro-American spirituals. So the compromise in the music world has now…

  • A NICKEL’S WORTH OF ADVICE FROM THE OLD GEEZER

    My search for a high-paying job with bonuses and stock options is not a magnificent success story. Last year, I thought I had the New York Mets’ manager’s job sewn up, but they gave it to Willie Randolph largely because he is younger and he is a Brooklyn native. When the New York Knickerbockers demoted…

  • MISTAKEN IDENTITY TIMES TWO

    During the late 1980s and the earlier part of the 1990s, my wife Judith and I rode on mountain bikes all over northern New Jersey. Our objective was to reach at least 100 miles per week. On most weeks, we met that objective. From time to time, we would stop to rest, usually in preparation…

  • NEVER SEND TO KNOW FOR WHOM THE BELL TOLLS

    “NEVER SEND TO KNOW FOR WHOM THE BELL TOLLS; IT TOLLS FOR THEE” John Donne 1572 – 1631 These lines are being dictated on a gloomy Friday afternoon at the end of December, 2006. Ordinarily my outlook on life is less than exuberant during the period between Christmas and New Year’s. Today’s news has sent…