Ezra's Essays

Month: February 2017

  • CATS – AS′ – STROPHE

    In a recent essay, you were introduced to Shamrock, a wayward cat who came to live with us. In the first day or so, Shamrock designated certain chairs as his exclusive property. His domain included the porch, the basement and the garage. With all of his kingly attributes, it was inevitable that he would be…

  • FRITZ, JAEGER, MENCKEN AND HERSH

    If someone were to ask me who ranks first among all American journalists and authors since we gained our independence 229 years ago, my answer would be prompt and unequivocal. Clearly, it is Henry Louis Mencken who edited the Baltimore Sunpapers as well as “The Smart Set” and “The American Mercury” magazines. For 60 years,…

  • DUBIOUS AND DECEITFUL THOUGHTS THAT PASS AS TRUTH

    Stretching the truth may well be a common failing among run-of-the-mill mortals as most of us are. When an auto salesman goes to work on a prospect, he says the engine moves the car from zero to sixty in record time while it burns almost no fuel at all. He may say that when there…

  • IT’S NO BIG DEAL

    For better or worse, it is my belief, or conviction, that in times past, folk singers were the essayists of the day. There was a time when universal literacy was only a dream among educators. For example, when my ancestors left Ireland during the Famine which started in 1845, they were farmers who did not…

  • P’ING AND M’ING | Meditations – Chapter Five, Verses 1 to Obadiah

    The readers of these essays are known to be upstanding, honest, far-sighted, and are generally free from all sin, original or otherwise. There may be one or two who have sin-sick-souls, but they have other offsetting characteristics such as being kind to animals and being gracious to grandparents to make up for all other deficiencies.…

  • CLEAR THINKING

    The Commander in Chief/Chief Executive of these United States claims that he has discerned that Social Security is proceeding to a state he calls “flat bust.” If he were talking about female physiognomy, that would be one thing. But Mr. Chief of Everything is saying that the Social Security Trust Fund will be bankrupt in…

  • PLAYOFF GREED

    In recent weeks, the sporting scene has been dominated by the National Football League Playoffs. Under the present system, playoffs are the most important part of the long NFL schedule. The regular schedule is largely incidental. Teams play a 16-game schedule starting late in August. Each team is given a bye week when no game…

  • MAYBE BEING POOR AIN’T ALL BAD

    This essay offers the thought that being poor financially, may have its merits. Obviously, its drawbacks are well known. The conventional wisdom these days runs against being poor, but being one step away from financial disaster is in communion with the philosophy of a country woman who claimed Lusk, Illinois as her birth place. Country…

  • IS SATAN BEING UNFAIRLY MALIGNED?

    Judging from the numbers of recent aggressive articles and angry letters to the editors of newspapers, it is my probably biased judgment that old Satan is getting a bum rap. Fair play is fair play. He is being accused of such dis-similar events as the spread of AIDS, purse snatchings, fixing the football playoffs, and…

  • CUT OUR LOSSES NOW

    One of the many delights about working in the Federal City, Washington, D.C., was to read William Raspberry in the Washington Post in the morning and then to read a column by Mary McGrory in the afternoon Washington Star. Mary died last year and we miss her. But Brother Raspberry is still at it. On…