-
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…
-
A PAIL OF HOME BREW
During the period of the 1920s, there was a resurgence of thought pioneered basically by Southerners. It resulted in the banning of the sale and use of beer. The Eighteenth Amendment to the Constitution banned the manufacture and sale of alcohol and came to be known as the Prohibition Act. Prohibition was widely flouted. It…
-
ENHANCED VULGARITIES AND/OR DO AMERICANS REALLY TALK LIKE THIS?
In an effort to be as straight forward as possible, I will admit at the beginning of this essay that the George Bush administration made it known to all Americans that enhancement had taken on a more sinister meaning. When the Bushies talked about enhanced interrogation, they were really talking about torture. This essay has…
-
TALL GRASS
When I was a child, my friends Charlie Aldridge and Billy Seyfried liked to play baseball. There were plenty of empty lots which we often converted into ball fields. There was a problem because the weeds and grass had to be cut down before the ball game could start. But the only means of cutting…
-
THE GIs
In the summer of 1942, I enlisted in the American Army. When I took the oath to become a soldier, automatically I became a GI. The term GI means Government Issue. The uniforms that we wore, for example, were Government Issue. There was no such thing as buying a fancy uniform to serve. The covers…
-
THE BLACK CAT ESCAPES FROM THE BAG
I had hoped never to have an occasion to write an essay that charges racial discrimination against a presidential contender. But the facts are clear. The Republican campaign in 2012 is aimed at vilifying Barack Obama. In spite of all of his accomplishments, Mr. Obama is vilified for no apparent reason. I have long suspected…
-
SONIA GOES HUNTING
As most Americans will recall, there are eight Associate Justices on the United States Supreme Court. One of them is Sonia Sotomayor, who originally came from the Bronx in New York City. Now it is important for readers of these essays to know that no self-respecting fox, raccoon, squirrel, or rabbit has ever inhabited the…