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UPON BEING AWESOME
I have no trouble with neologisms, clever sayings that make their way into the Anglo-Saxon language. But I do have trouble with an affectation which is widely spread among all age groups who speak the American version of the English language. The most recent such word is “awesome.” I have always thought that our exploration…
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ENHANCED VULGARITIES AND/OR DO AMERICANS REALLY TALK LIKE THIS?
In an effort to be as straight forward as possible, I will admit at the beginning of this essay that the George Bush administration made it known to all Americans that enhancement had taken on a more sinister meaning. When the Bushies talked about enhanced interrogation, they were really talking about torture. This essay has…
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TALL GRASS
When I was a child, my friends Charlie Aldridge and Billy Seyfried liked to play baseball. There were plenty of empty lots which we often converted into ball fields. There was a problem because the weeds and grass had to be cut down before the ball game could start. But the only means of cutting…
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THE GIs
In the summer of 1942, I enlisted in the American Army. When I took the oath to become a soldier, automatically I became a GI. The term GI means Government Issue. The uniforms that we wore, for example, were Government Issue. There was no such thing as buying a fancy uniform to serve. The covers…
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ARGUENDO
The title for this essay is Arguendo. It is a Latin phrase. It means for the sake of argument. This is not an essay about Latin phrases but rather it is an essay about music. Arguendo, I would contend that the best poetry is written by the lyricists who write the words to the music…
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THE SCHWA
Late in 1945, the American Army very reluctantly agreed to my obtaining an honorable discharge. I was a simple Buck Sergeant which means that I had no place at the table with Generals and Admirals. But the war was over and American women loudly proclaimed that they wanted their sons, husbands, their boyfriends, and their…
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STUDS AND SERVICING
I do not pretend to be an expert in the horse race industry in this country. As I have reported before, I have only been to two horse races in my life and they were, more than anything else, boring. Perhaps if I were a bettor, I would be a bit more interested. But I…
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ANOTHER ROUND WITH A POLYGAMY OF ESSAYETTES
You will recall that these are individual subjects that have absolutely no relationship to each other. With that forewarning, we will begin a new venture into the world of polygamy which I am determined to rescue from the Mormon Church. First there is the bladder scanner. This subject is considered by some to be…
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FURTHER THOUGHTS ABOUT THE LANGUAGE OF THE ANGLO-SAXONS
In recent weeks I have been listening to television and radio reports about something “going viral.” I was having a hard time trying to realize what the phrase “going viral” meant. My wife, who pampers me, explained that “going viral” simply meant that the report had gained a tremendous amount of circulation. I could have…
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AGAIN, THE LANGUAGE OF THE AMERICANS
As most of you know, I am an astute observer of the language that was inherited by our ancestors, which had its origination first in the Saxon people and then in the English. Perhaps this essay should be classified as an essayette. But that is a concern for another day. There are three entries in…