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PARADISE AND MARTYRS AND VIRGINS
I realize that talking about religion is often considered a third rail in the public discourse in this country. The following essay is a dispassionate view of the Muslim belief that martyrs, such as those blowing up dozens of their fellow citizens, both Muslims and Christians, will go directly to Paradise. I am not an…
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MISSING THE BLUES
It is a biological fact that as men age, the more girlfriends they acquire. Last week, I had a long conversation with just such a girlfriend where the attraction between the two of us goes back for more than 30 years. If you read Ezra’s Essays closely, you will find that the girlfriend was a…
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FRANCESCO’S QUESTION
Every nine weeks I visit a podiatrist associated with the Summit Medical Group. He takes care of ingrown nails and all of the other problems that afflict the feet. Francesco is a nice fellow in his early forties who laughingly mentioned that if his children remained in parochial schools, he would have to be working…
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WHO PUT THE SUGAR INTO THE CORNBREAD?
Lillie Carr was my mother, who observed the rules of rural speech and of rural cooking. She was a good woman who has now been deceased for 50 years. She was always one of my defenders, and while I was in the Army she kept a blue star in the window of her living room. …
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KATHLEEN MAVOURNEEN: AN ADVENTURE STORY
During the 1930s and 40s, and perhaps a bit longer, there was a magnificent tenor who appeared in several productions of The Metropolitan Opera as well as in concerts. He also appeared on radio and later on television programs like The Bell Telephone Hour and The Firestone Hour. I was glad to tell people that…
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GEORGIA
I am dictating these lines on the afternoon of February 14, which of course is St. Valentine’s Day. The object of this essay is to pay tribute to a lovely woman who has been my friend for perhaps 30 years. This essay has nothing to do with the state of Georgia in this country or…
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BARACK, WE HARDLY KNEW YE
Obviously, the title of this essay is taken from an ancient Irish folk song entitled, “Johnny, We Hardly Knew Ye.” I believe the title is appropriate because Barack Obama had a meteoric rise from a community organizer in Chicago all the way to the presidency of the United States. I am not an active participant…