Ezra's Essays

Category: Health/Medicine

  • A BUCKET OF WARM SPIT

    It is widely believed by high school English teachers and prissy editors that spit is a horrid word. Before you consider joining the cabal condemning that descriptive word, it might be well to recall that it was used most effectively by a Vice President of these United States. When he used spit in a ringing…

  • A TREATISE ON STROKES AND SEIZURES | An Informal Examination of Memory Loss vs. Aphasia

    It is not my penchant to read Lancet or the New England Journal of Medicine and similar publications from cover to cover. In those august publications, scholars, clinicians, professors of medical science and physicians explain and debate matters of interest to the medical community. Significantly, journals of that sort almost exclusively state the case for…

  • OH, DIDN’T HE RAMBLE | Meditations: Chapter 17, Verses Amu to Emu

    For good reasons, New Orleans remains in the news. Its prominence in the news may go on for years. Two events account for our attention to New Orleans these days. The first is the devastation caused by Hurricane Katrina. The second is a presumably powerful prayer released by Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, the Jordanian who claims…

  • FROM VAUDEVILLE TO MLK, JR. | Meditations 16, Anonymous Verses

    Vaudeville is now largely dead having been a victim of first radio comedians and later, the comedies appearing on television. In the Catskill Mountain of New York, where many of its patrons are Jewish, there still are “tummlers” who tell Yiddish jokes and who good naturedly insult guests. My recollection of vaudeville goes back to…

  • FURTHER PROFOUND MEDITATIONS | Chapter Nine: Verses Leviticus to Haggai

    The last Meditation seemed to exhaust the ready reserve supply. So it was my thought to put the Meditation series aside and go on to other projects unless there was a celestial sign that further work on this series would be met with ecclesiastical acclaim. In the middle of the seventh inning at Yankee Stadium,…

  • THOSE GOLDEN YEARS | Meditations – Chapter Four

    There are many Americans who are cliché driven. When a person sneezes, they say “God bless you.” Tardiness is treated as “Better late than never.” Young daughters are told as they meet their dates, “Get home early” or “Don’t do anything I wouldn’t do.” Women are involved in monstrous untruths when they say, “Oh, I…

  • MUSINGS – Volume I

    To put it bluntly, the eyesight of this old essayist is not as sharp as it was when soldering was my occupation. So after 67 years of driving cars and trucks and airplanes, my head prevailed over my heart and my retirement from driving cars has now occurred. If there is an emergency, of course,…

  • BITS & PIECES: GROWING OLDER IS OFTEN NOT MUCH FUN

    A couple of weeks ago, my car was heading westward on a cold, bleak December afternoon when the sun was low in the sky. There was almost no way to block out the sun and still see to drive. The thought occurred to me that driving like this is no fun. And growing older is…

  • AN IRISH EYE MAY POSSIBLY SMILE AGAIN

    Last April 25, an essay was produced here called, “Fading to Gray.” It had to do with the possibility of approaching blindness which is not an inspirational subject by any means. In the interest of full disclosure, there may be a development which accounts for the title of this little story. So far, so good.…

  • CRAIG JORDAN – A CONSUMMATE PROFESSIONAL

    Ordinarily, it is my wont to deal with financial matters promptly. This accounts for calling contractors before their bill for work at the Carr-Chicka residence has often been composed. And so my head is shaking over my failure to write an essay about Craig Jordan, a Lab Technician who works for the Summit Medical Group…