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HOW I BECAME A PROTESTANT
It would be a great source of regret it any reader were to conclude from the title of this essay, that this is a religious piece. Banish the thought. Quite to the contrary, this vignette is an Army story. When we reach the latter stages of this inquiry, there will be a denouement that will…
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FROM THE CROSSROADS OF THE WEST
It is not a general rule of mine to tout a Mormon radio program. It may have been a product of the Great Depression that influenced all American citizens from 1929 until 1941. There were not a lot of things to tout. Nearly all of my similarly aged colleagues agree that the two major influences…
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NEW YORK, NEW YORK PART 8 – GEORGE FEYER – ONE OF THE GREAT ONES
In the international telephone business in the 1970’s and 1980’s, it was a delight to visit correspondents in Montreal, London, Paris, Rome and even Johannesburg. Those were the easy ones with good airline connections, good hotels and food to please any palate. Among the tough ones were countries in Africa and the eastern European states…
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NEW YORK, NEW YORK PART 7 – “A PICTURE ON THE WALL AND MUSIC IN THE HOUSE”
When I was in New York City for union bargaining in 1949, 1950, and 1951, I found myself being drawn to Greenwich Village. In many cases, food and drinks were cheaper there than in midtown. The place had a small town feel to it. If you ate at a restaurant two of three times, chances…
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BITS AND PIECES — I’M EVERYBODY, AND MUSIC – AS BAD AS…
Perhaps it is fair to say that every essay writer – or the writer of any commentary – will encounter items not long enough for an essay, but which are still appropriate for some recognition and some observations. Some of these left over thoughts may be a remark or it may be a slightly longer…
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EATING HEELS
This is a story about eating. Specifically, it has to do with eating in old fashioned saloons. The eating I refer to took place in St. Louis which used to offer perhaps a dozen breweries and hundreds of saloons. It has nothing to do with heels on shoes or boots, although St. Louis was also…
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AN OVER-ABUNDANCE OF DIURETICS
This short essay started out to be named Mini-Seizures, TIA’s or Other Cardiac Related Disturbances. Later in the day after the overabundance of diuretics, prescribed and applied by myself, had tended to pass, this more civilized title now applies. The burden of what I am trying to say in this essay, is that if patients…
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CHARLIE BROWN
Charlie Brown died this week. Death came Charlie’s way on November 12, 2003. He was 82 years of age. In proper terms, Charlie was Charles Lee Brown, the former Chairman of the American Telephone and Telegraph Company. Charlie worked for AT&T and its Bell System companies from 1946 until his retirement in 1986, a forty…