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HALLEY’S COMET
It seems to this ancient essayist that it is his duty occasionally to present his readers with a new word – a neologism, if you will. There are politicians and preachers and television commentators who use the term “revert back” to refer to some event or condition that has happened before and is happening again.…
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BITS & PIECES: EUPHEMISMS ABOUT DEATH
A euphemism is a Greek word which allows for substitution of an agreeable word or inoffensive expression for one that may offer something unpleasant. Death is almost always an unpleasant subject, so it is no surprise that euphemisms will be used, in fact, they abound. For the act of dying or being dead, we may…
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BITS AND PIECES – PART 3: TONY BLAH – ED CAH – AND WAH: AN ENGLISH LANGUAGE REDUX
Being born in the American Mid-west, my native tongue is English spoken in broad, flat tones without regional accents. My English is not of the hard Boston variety, nor does it reflect the softer tones of Southern speech. Thus, the title of this essay in Mid-western speech would read, Tony Blair, Ed Carr and War,…
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AR-THUR-I-TIS
What passes for a brain in my head has not been wired for introspective examination. If introspection has to do with examining one’s own mind or its contents reflectively, I am here to tell you, that’s not how my mind works. Professors and hand wringers who write op-ed pieces in newspapers and publish articles in…
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THE ELDERLY GENTLEMAN ON LONG HILL DRIVE | STROKES AND THEIR AFTER EFFECTS
In December, 1987 it was necessary to perform a coronary artery bypass graft involving four vessels on the author of this essay. The surgery was performed at New York Presbyterian Hospital and was accomplished by a mixed Jewish and Irish team followed by recovery where I was attended to by some of New York’s finest…
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NEW YORK, NEW YORK PART 4 – IS JACK MARSH A SPHERICAL OR A MISERABLE S. O. B?
In the fall of 1942, the Army Air Corps decided that 100 soldiers should attend an Aerial Engineers School at the Embry-Riddle School of Aeronautics in Coral Gables, Florida. Two thoughts come to mind. In 1942, there was no separate air force in the U. S. military; the Army had the Air Corps and that…
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TWO UNSPEAKABLE FOOLS: JERRY FALWELL AND PAT ROBERTSON
Two days after the destruction of the World Trade Center, Jerry Falwell appeared on Pat Robertson’s Television show called “The 700 Club.” That was September 13, 2001. Laurie Goodstein of the New York Times reports that Falwell and Robertson claim “that an angry God had allowed the terrorists to succeed in their deadly mission because…
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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…