Month: April 2016

  • BITS AND PIECES | AUTOMOBILES AND MEN’S SHOES

    During my formative years, it was necessary to work. This was in the Great Depression which lasted from 1929 until war broke out in December, 1941. During that time, the place where one went to buy gas or to have a car lubricated was called a filling station. Later when wordsmiths took a leading role…

  • BITS AND PIECES MORE ABOUT SOME OLD CARS

    My father bought a new 1914 or 1915 Mitchell touring sedan. The Mitchell had just come out. Pictures say it was a beautiful automobile, but my memory has no recollection of it at all. (see attachment) In my time, he drove straight six cylinder Studebakers. For a time, he drove a straight eight Packard. The…

  • OUR PAL – SHANNON P. CATT

    Writing essays is often hard work mentally for me. But all things taken together, it is pleasant work, particularly when the essays are completed. In recent months, I have been writing essays about politicians. That is sordid business. So now I am going to give myself a treat by writing about people I like, including…

  • THE ELDERLY GENTLEMAN ON LONG HILL DRIVE | STROKES AND THEIR AFTER EFFECTS

    In December, 1987 it was necessary to perform a coronary artery bypass graft involving four vessels on the author of this essay. The surgery was performed at New York Presbyterian Hospital and was accomplished by a mixed Jewish and Irish team followed by recovery where I was attended to by some of New York’s finest…

  • OIL – FROM CRAWFORD, TEXAS AND BROOKLYN?

    Bush and Cheney loudly proclaim that they are oilmen. How could they in one week alienate the Arabs and Venezuela, our third largest supplier of oil? George W. Bush, The Israelis and the Venezuelans As I write this in mid-April, 2002, the crisis in the Mid-East has been going on for some time. Until April…

  • THREE INTERESTING WOMEN

    On Friday, after the big Christmas 2002 snowstorm had passed, the people at the opticians called to say my new eye glasses were ready to be picked up. Standing across the busy street waiting for the light to change, a man came up behind me and said, “How about the weather?” As I turned around…

  • DUTY | THE VETERAN’S HISTORY PROJECT

    In the spring and summer of 2001, the former AT&T Long Lines Headquarters building at 32 Sixth Avenue in New York City was sold to the Rudin Corporation. I had a vested interest in the lobby of that building because that is where a plaque commemorating the memory of those serving in World War II…

  • GET IT IN WRITING

    You may find it hard to believe, but late in 1977, a bill was being prepared to be offered to the Assembly of the New Jersey Legislature, that would require men dating women to declare their intentions, in writing, early on in the romantic process. So if a young man saw a nice looking young…

  • ASHCROFT ENDORSES CRISCO, LILLIE CARR AND JACOB’S LADDER

    No essay on Bush would be complete unless it included a thought or two about the Assemblies of God follower in Bush’s cabinet, John Ashcroft. He believes that God’s hand is on his shoulder in every move he makes. Ashcroft – The Ultimate Embarrassment John Ashcroft, Bush’s selection for the United States Attorney General, comes…

  • YASSER’S LOVE LIFE

    Preamble I offer you this three part preamble to set the record straight and to prepare you for my thoughts on Yasser Arafat’s love life. Writing about this subject comes naturally. My first name is Ezra who is generally described as the scribe of Jerusalem in what the Christians call the Old Testament. (See the…