Ezra's Essays

Category: December

  • HERMAN’S STUD FARM

    According to the Julian calendar, which I keep in my hip pocket at all times, today is Friday, December 2, 2011.  The latest news about Herman Cain, the Republican aspirant to the Presidency, is that he is going home tonight to keep a “date night” with his wife.  I expect that Herman will have a…

  • A FURTHER THOUGHT ABOUT THE LANGUAGE OF THE ANGLO-SAXONS

    You may recall from a reading of Ezra’s Essays that my eighth grade teacher was a buxom woman named Miss Maxwell.  She was the one who wore high-buttoned shoes and liked to read English poetry to us, much to the chagrin of all the boys of the class.  Miss Maxwell was very intent on teaching…

  • HAVE I STAYED TOO LONG AT THE FAIR

    You may be excused if you do not recall exactly what you do were doing on the evening of August 4, 1959.  It was a Tuesday, but otherwise it was unremarkable.  I do not recall what I was doing that evening but I assume that I was working for the great AT&T organization and I…

  • THE POWER OF PRAYER TWO

    You may recall that a few months ago an essay was dictated at this desk that had to do with Bishop Eddie Long who was pastor of the New Birth mega-church in Atlanta.  It seems as though Bishop Long had thousands of followers and they clung to every word that he uttered.  Not to tell…

  • AUNT MARY CHICKA, REST IN PEACE

    Two deaths took place yesterday, December 18.  Because the Earth turns from east to west, the first death took place in North Korea.  The dictator there, Kim Jong-il, aged 69, died.  The civilized world was not impressed by the passing of the North Korean dictator.  As might be expected, the North Koreans have required public…

  • ABJECT HATRED AND/OR THE GASEOUS ELEPHANT IN THE ROOM

    My parents had eight children, five of whom grew to maturity.  Only one of them was troubled by vindictiveness to a degree of unpleasant hatred.  If a major league hitter knocked out four balls out of five, it would be considered a phenomenon. Now consider this: I was in the American Army for a few…

  • THE PHILANDERER’S CUP RACE

    A few weeks back when Herman Cain was still in the race for the Presidential nomination, Newt Gingrich and Herman Cain sat down for what was laughingly called a debate among themselves.  Actually it was not a debate at all but a mutual admiration society. Given the facts of the matter about their past philandering,…

  • FORBIDDEN WORDS

    As an essayist, I welcome all words that will fit appropriately in my essays.  There are several million people who write better essays than I do, including Christopher Hitchens.   Hitchens is in love with the words he writes and the longer and more obscure terms suit him greatly.  My essays are less esoteric and deal…

  • POLK SALAD (SALET)

    This essay has to do with a vegetable or a weed that appears in the springtime and is uncultivated.  It grows along hedge rows and along the highways and when it reaches maturity, it is quite poisonous. Also this essay is an exercise in nostalgia.  It has to do with my mother, who departed this…

  • RANDOM THOUGHTS: BOTH BAD AND GOOD

    In these days of the winter, I find that my mind produces some random thoughts.  They don’t go together.  Rather they are individual thoughts that strike me from time to time.  As the title of this essay suggests, there are some bad thoughts, and quite separately, there are good thoughts. One of the least praiseworthy…