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A FEW FURTHER THOUGHTS ON LANGUAGE
The author of this essay was born in the United States of America. Accordingly, that makes his native tongue the tongue of English. Perhaps that should read the American version of the English language. Nonetheless, the author of this essay has an abiding interest in the twists and turns that the language has taken as…
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ETERNAL LIFE
The title of this essay might lead some people to assume that in my later years I have succumbed to the teachings and the blathering of Christian preachers. That clearly is not the case. It is my intention in this instance to review what might take place if a few or many of us were…
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A SORRY TALE OF TWO EGREGIOUS PISSANTS
This is the second case in which I have occasion to refer to pissants. For those who did not see my earlier description of pissants, it should be remembered that pissants are living creatures. They exist primarily in rural areas of this country. They have no eyesight but their hearing apparatus seems to be in…
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A LITTLE THISA AND A LITTLE THATA
Those of you with prodigious memories may recall that in 2009 there were three essays appearing in this space. All of them had to do with Ben Bernie, the orchestra leader of the 1930s, 1940s and ‘50s. When Ben Bernie led his orchestra through a medley of songs, he would often introduce it as “a…
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FORBIDDEN WORDS
As an essayist, I welcome all words that will fit appropriately in my essays. There are several million people who write better essays than I do, including Christopher Hitchens. Hitchens is in love with the words he writes and the longer and more obscure terms suit him greatly. My essays are less esoteric and deal…
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POLK SALAD (SALET)
This essay has to do with a vegetable or a weed that appears in the springtime and is uncultivated. It grows along hedge rows and along the highways and when it reaches maturity, it is quite poisonous. Also this essay is an exercise in nostalgia. It has to do with my mother, who departed this…
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RANDOM THOUGHTS: BOTH BAD AND GOOD
In these days of the winter, I find that my mind produces some random thoughts. They don’t go together. Rather they are individual thoughts that strike me from time to time. As the title of this essay suggests, there are some bad thoughts, and quite separately, there are good thoughts. One of the least praiseworthy…
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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…
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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…
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SAVERS OF STRING
I have given this essay the title which may recall some distant memories of the Bible by calling it “Savers of String” instead of “String Savers”. Now having settled that question, I would like to dedicate it to Thelma Dupont. This essay is so dedicated to Thelma because she comes from a family larger than…