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THE RHODE ISLAND RED ROOSTER
From the beginning to the end, this essay embraces about 85 years of the life of the author. On the other hand, this essay embraces perhaps 40 years of the life of the red rooster that is the title of this piece. During the last half of the 1920s, my father was employed by the…
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REFLECTIONS ON THE WAHHABI
At the outset, it might be well for the author of this essay to explain the title. In round numbers, the Prophet Mohammed lived about 1500 years ago. The Prophet took several wives and they produced several children. But if my understanding is nearly correct, two of his grandsons founded competing brands of the Muslim…
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Tom Scandlyn Response: Country Speak
[Note from Kevin — Tom, a 92-year-old friend of Pop’s for many years, wrote this after reading “Black Speak” but his response primarily concerns essays about “Country Speak,” of which I published an example very recently. Alternatively, view all of Pop’s essays on language here.] In math sigma means the sum of. The limits…
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LICKING
I believe that it is time for us to have another adventure in country speak. Country speak is a variation of the English language. It is a language unto itself. The subject for today’s lesson in country speak is “lick.” That word is hardly ever conjugated because to do so would lead you astray. If…
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DON’T FORGET YOUR CHANGE
In Missouri where I come from, we don’t like fanciful titles or road signs. The main highway leading from St. Louis to Clayton, Missouri, my home town, is called Clayton Road. It is so called because it goes to Clayton. Similarly, in the suburbs of St. Louis there was a road called North and South. …
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BOA CONSTRICTORS REDUX
[A quite note from Kevin — This is now the third essay in this, er, saga. Check out parts one and two first. Part one was about both dicks and snakes, part two was mainly about dicks, and now part three concerns primarily snakes.] ~~~ The word redux is a fancy one and it simply…
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JOHN EAMONN THE EIGHTH
This week there is a ground-breaking aspect to this essay in that it is being dictated before breakfast. Of the nearly 700 essays that I have written, this is the first one to be dictated without anything in my stomach. More than anything else, this essay is to commemorate the birthday party that was given…
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MITT AND WILLIE
The principal characters in this essay are Mitt Romney, the Republican aspirant to the presidency of the United States, and a fellow called Willie Nelson, who is a singer of folk songs. My memory is that Willie Nelson is perilously close to being 80 years of age. The knock on Mitt Romney is that he…
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RETIRING RETROACTIVELY
The network news broadcasts and the politicians are attempting to determine what was meant by Mitt Romney’s saying that he had retired retroactively. I fancy myself a wordsmith but I am thoroughly baffled by the use of the term “retired retroactively.” The case in point involves Mr. Romney filing papers with the Securities and Exchange…