Category: March

  • GOING INTO DAYLIGHT SAVINGS TIME

    This essay should have been written a number of years ago.  It records my resentment and anger at the imposition of daylight savings time.  I hope that there are others who are as dismayed as I am about the imposition of daylight savings time. In my limited field of acquaintances, no one has expressed an…

  • IN MEMORIAM, MARGARET M. MURPHY

    It is with a heavy heart that I record the passage of Margaret Murphy from this life.  Margaret was 88 years old and lived a complete life span.  Nonetheless, I am grieved to think that there will be no more happy laughter from Margaret Murphy.  When we worked, we referred to Margaret as Three M…

  • MORE ON THE MOTHER TONGUE

    Whenever I dictate an essay about language, I specifically mean English, which always recalls the words of Sven Lernevall who observed, “The English language is a very rich one.”   I will try to add three words that will increase its richness.  Two of them are of modern vintage.  The third one goes back to my…

  • AN ESSAY PAUSE

    During the last fifteen years there have been 740 essays composed at this desk.  Actually it is not a desk.  It is a serving tray used by hospitals for holding meals for patients.  For my purposes, the tray serves eloquently.  If my estimate is fairly correct, the first 250 or 300 essays were hand-written.  That…

  • JOSEPH RATZINGER, POPE EMERITUS

    It has been about 600 years since a pope resigned.  Consequently, there is some confusion about what the former Pope should be called.  At the moment, he is simply known as the Pope Emeritus.  Whether he adopts this title as his formal title remains to be seen. Joseph Ratzinger had been the Pope of the…