-
SICK CALL
Anyone who wishes to extol the virtues of medicine as practiced by the United States Army is clearly out of his mind. This encompasses active military service as well as the Veterans Administration. My experience of a little bit more than three years in the American Army would seem to suggest very vociferously that anyone…
-
CHRISTMAS PONDERINGS
This is being dictated on Christmas of the year 2012. It is near noontime and the house where we have lived for a long time is quiet now. The children who carry the Carr surname and their husbands and children are involved in festivities in Florida and in Texas. So in these peaceful surroundings I…
-
A LECTURE ON THE ART/SCIENCE OF FALLING
It is my hope that all of you grammarians who read these essays will be aware of the fact that I really said “falling” not “falling down.” I have observed over this long life that things do not fall up. The fact is that they fall in a downward fashion. And so this lecture will…
-
THE MUTE BUTTON
When I was born in 1922, there was one radio station offering broadcasts of music and news. That was station KDKA in Pittsburgh. You may recall that at that time there was no such thing as television. That remained in the never-never land of things to be yearned for. When I was about 12 or…
-
THE LINGUA AMERICANA
I have always been moved by additions to this language we speak. It is not a static language. Rather it involves all kinds of new additions. As Sven Lernevall my friend of many years says of the English language, it is “a rich language.” And so this small essay is intended to recognize the richness…
-
SAVERS OF STRING
I have given this essay the title which may recall some distant memories of the Bible by calling it “Savers of String” instead of “String Savers”. Now having settled that question, I would like to dedicate it to Thelma Dupont. This essay is so dedicated to Thelma because she comes from a family larger than…
-
BODY AND SOUL
This is a philosophical essayette on the condition of mankind. A learned gentleman once remarked within my hearing that he would prefer to remain in control over his intellect in the final days before his body gave out. This assumes that the human condition is comprised of body and intellect. The learned gentleman to whom…
-
LIFE ON THE MISSISSIPPI
As most of you know, my birth place was in a suburb of St. Louis which was seven miles west of the Mississippi River. I am aware that from time to time, the Mississippi has overflowed its banks and has caused considerable harm to the surrounding territories. I remember a flood in 1937 which resulted…
-
IN PRAISE OF THE LOWLY DOOR KNOB
Most of us use the door knob on frequent occasions and think nothing of it. The purpose of this small essay is to give the proper praise to the door knob for the service that it has provided to humanity over the years. Simply put, if there were no door knobs, it would be difficult…
-
UPON BEING AWESOME
I have no trouble with neologisms, clever sayings that make their way into the Anglo-Saxon language. But I do have trouble with an affectation which is widely spread among all age groups who speak the American version of the English language. The most recent such word is “awesome.” I have always thought that our exploration…