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MORE WAR ON TERROR
On Sunday, November 26, 2006 the United States will have been at war in Iraq for the same length of time that we were involved in World War II. As an observer of human events for the last 80 years and as a veteran of World War II, I believe that it is incumbent upon…
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IRISH EARWORMS
This essay is a love story in the Irish tradition. It has nothing to do with horny politicians trying to seduce an intern nor does it have to do with an amorous preacher trying to embed a soprano from the church choir. It has to do with the Irish use of the English language, the…
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SPIRITUALS
As I was growing up, one of the absolutely great forms of music was the so-called “Negro spiritual.” In recent years the word “Negro” has become a word that polite people refer to only infrequently. The “Negro” word has evolved into “colored,” “people of color,” “African-American” and other euphemisms. Nonetheless the music that was produced…
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RITA, MAY I INTRODUCE YOU TO ROLLAND?
…And Both of You Ought to Get to Know Frances Day A few essays back, I gritted my teeth and closed my eyes and dictated an essay about the most bitter woman I ever knew in my life. That woman was my boss’s secretary. You may recall that she is the one who told me,…
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A LETTER TO MY READERS AND FRIENDS
Last December when I wrote the essay “Sing No Sad Songs for This Old Geezer,” it was intended primarily to tell my friends about the onset of blindness. Your responses have been overwhelmingly generous and I am deeply touched. I am not that good and not that courageous. The situation now is very much like…
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Letter to Kevin 6/15/05
Kevin – Judy and I were delighted with your response to the letter and the essay about Mencken. I am not surprised by your mother withholding it from you. She may well have referred my letter to the FBI or to the Texas Holy Roller Diocese before she let you read it. Basically, from the…
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REFLECTIONS ON A LONG WORKING CAREER
One Sunday morning recently, there was a series of reports about mosque bombings in Iraq. One sect would try to bomb out the other sect. John Warner, the senior senator from Virginia and the head of the Armed Forces Committee in the Senate, got things terribly confused. Warner, who is a mature man, confused sectarian…
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A LETTER TO A FRIEND CONCERNING LIFE AFTER BLINDNESS
Word has reached these ears that you have expressed the view that life would not be worth living if blindness ever occurred to you. This letter is not meant to chastise or to criticize that point of view, because the author has had many of those same thoughts in recent years. I fully understand the…