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THOUGHTS THAT OCCUR WHILE SHAVING | Fourth Series of Thoughts
Hiraeth My friends whose native language is other than English, tell me that the language of England, which is also spoken in many other countries, is a rich and diverse language. By that, it is assumed that the English language has a term or an expression to fit almost any of mankind’s needs. While the…
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FROM THE CROSSROADS OF THE WEST
It is not a general rule of mine to tout a Mormon radio program. It may have been a product of the Great Depression that influenced all American citizens from 1929 until 1941. There were not a lot of things to tout. Nearly all of my similarly aged colleagues agree that the two major influences…
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NEW YORK, NEW YORK PART 8 – GEORGE FEYER – ONE OF THE GREAT ONES
In the international telephone business in the 1970’s and 1980’s, it was a delight to visit correspondents in Montreal, London, Paris, Rome and even Johannesburg. Those were the easy ones with good airline connections, good hotels and food to please any palate. Among the tough ones were countries in Africa and the eastern European states…
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NEW YORK, NEW YORK PART 7 – “A PICTURE ON THE WALL AND MUSIC IN THE HOUSE”
When I was in New York City for union bargaining in 1949, 1950, and 1951, I found myself being drawn to Greenwich Village. In many cases, food and drinks were cheaper there than in midtown. The place had a small town feel to it. If you ate at a restaurant two of three times, chances…
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BITS AND PIECES — I’M EVERYBODY, AND MUSIC – AS BAD AS…
Perhaps it is fair to say that every essay writer – or the writer of any commentary – will encounter items not long enough for an essay, but which are still appropriate for some recognition and some observations. Some of these left over thoughts may be a remark or it may be a slightly longer…
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NEW YORK, NEW YORK PART 6 – L’AIGLON AND VOGA E VA | TWO GREAT ITALIAN ARTISTS
In the Book of Psalms in the Old Testament, there are two biblical injunctions or commands to “make a joyful noise.” If you are skilled at reading Roman numerals, you can look them up yourself to make sure that I know what I am talking about. One comes from Psalms, Chapter LXVI, verse one and…
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NEW YORK, NEW YORK PART 3 – A MAN NAMED BEVERLY
In my long experience, I have only heard of two male Beverly’s. Where I come from, Beverly was usually a female name. The other person, aside from the subject of this essay, was a baritone who seems to have devoted his life to Billy Graham. His name is George Beverly Shea. I am not a…
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AN OPERA STORY
The choir at Central Presbyterian Church in Summit has a number of outstanding voices. One of them belongs to Bill Dembaugh, a tenor, who is a retired school teacher. As a young man, Bill seemed headed in the right direction for a career as a tenor. He studied hard and wound up in New York.…
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DON'T LAUGH AT ME
Sometimes essays write themselves. That was the case recently in an essay having to do with an exchange of correspondence between Matthew Pepe and myself involving deflectors which he installed to keep me on course as I negotiate the driveway with the garbage containers. Here is another essay that has written itself. This essay is…
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AIN’T GONNA STUDY WAR NO MORE
A good many of us music lovers are attracted to an art form called the spirituals. In former days, that art form was called Negro spirituals. But somehow, Negro fell into disfavor and it became awkward to call them colored spirituals, black spirituals, or Afro-American spirituals. So the compromise in the music world has now…