Ezra's Essays

Category: Focus — Single Person

  • I’D BE ASHAMED

    This piece is being written largely at the request or demand of Miss Chicka. She makes editorial suggestions and tries to correct my grammar. And she does all the typing. So as you can see, I pay attention to her. After I wrote “Lillie,” the piece about my mother and my enlistment, Miss Chicka suggested…

  • EZREE

    The World War II Memories Project caused me to write “Lillie,” an essay about my mother. So now I thought I’d say something about my father. He and I share our names. His parents, an immigrant Irish couple named William Meredith Carr and Susan Dent Carr gave my father a Hebrew name (Ezra) and an…

  • LILLIE

    This little recollection has to do with World War II. Both incidents have to do with my mother, Lillie. I write these thoughts down so that her grandchildren and great grandchildren may know a little more about her. Lillie was born in Pope County, Illinois. She doesn’t have a home town in Pope County because…

  • THE BRENTWOOD, MO. HISTORICAL SOCIETY’S CONTRIBUTIONS

    In the Midwest we are plain speakers. For example, turn to Carl Schroth’s letter to support my application to join the Army in wartime. (The Right Way; The Wrong Way; The Army Way”) He listed his Mobil Gas station as being at the corner of Clayton Road and North and South Road. Clayton Road was…

  • BEN GIVENS’ NEWSPEAK

    When, in an earlier discussion at Kessler, the subject of the former President Herbert Hoover came up. Mrs. Morganstein said that it was not unusual for Aphasia patents to mangle his name, i.e., Hoobert Heever. I gather that Spoonerisms are a commonplace and would involve other names beyond Herbert Hoover. During much of the last…

  • ONAN AND THE GENTLEMAN FROM CHRISTOPHER STREET, NYC

    Larry Craig, the simply superb and sweet-smelling Senior Senator from the great state of Idaho, has been in the news recently and has caused me to rethink my thoughts about homosexuals. As many of you know, I did not attend an Ivy League college. In point of fact, I didn’t attend any college. I spent…

  • SCORN NOT THEIR GAYNESS

    Readers of the Carr essays know that the author maintains no religious affiliation. He is not a Catholic, a Jew, a Muslim, a Buddhist, or a Hindu. And certainly he is not the Protestant that his World War II dog tags proclaim him to be. And finally, his Irish ancestry bars him from membership in…

  • HUNG AROUND TOO LONG

    At the end of time when historians finally record all of the philosophical thoughts produced by American scholars, it is likely that the contribution of Miss Kay McCormick will be excluded. It may be that her thoughts are excluded simply because she is a woman. On the other hand, it may be that her thoughts…

  • DEBORAH JEAN’S ACE IN THE HOLE

    The United States government has its hands full in dealing with the war in Iraq. There is also the problem of rebuilding New Orleans after Hurricane Katrina, gasoline prices going through the ceiling, the bust in real estate prices, and the failure of the Attorney General and his chief assistant to answer questions put to…

  • ALBERTO’S FORGETTERY

    On April 19th, the Attorney General of the United States appeared before the Senate Judiciary Committee to answer questions about the firing of eight prosecutors. In five hours of testimony, the Attorney General, Alberto Gonzalez, was not very helpful in that he said on more than 70 occasions, “I can’t recall.” Two weeks earlier, his…