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GOING INTO DAYLIGHT SAVINGS TIME
This essay should have been written a number of years ago. It records my resentment and anger at the imposition of daylight savings time. I hope that there are others who are as dismayed as I am about the imposition of daylight savings time. In my limited field of acquaintances, no one has expressed an…
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INCIVILITY AND A FEW CASES OF CIVILITY
As a general principle, when someone greets me, I not only return their greeting but may ask about how they are feeling as well. When someone writes me a letter, I feel commanded to write a letter in return if that is what is required. But as you can see from the title about incivility,…
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MORE ON THE MOTHER TONGUE
Whenever I dictate an essay about language, I specifically mean English, which always recalls the words of Sven Lernevall who observed, “The English language is a very rich one.” I will try to add three words that will increase its richness. Two of them are of modern vintage. The third one goes back to my…
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MISSING THE BLUES
It is a biological fact that as men age, the more girlfriends they acquire. Last week, I had a long conversation with just such a girlfriend where the attraction between the two of us goes back for more than 30 years. If you read Ezra’s Essays closely, you will find that the girlfriend was a…
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STOCKINGS AND GARTERS
I do not know much about the subject of stockings and garters. There are those who would say my ignorance on this vital subject is appalling. On the other hand, I would say to my detractors, of whom there are many, that the absence of expertise is no reason not to write an essay on…
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SMOKERS MUST BE WEALTHY PEOPLE
Everyone knows that I am not a man of great wealth. The fact that I worked for 43 years for AT&T will tell you that I am not a man of considerable means. But nonetheless I smoked cigarettes for 16 years, starting at age 16. Finally I quit smoking cigarettes or, as my father put…
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WHO PUT THE SUGAR INTO THE CORNBREAD?
Lillie Carr was my mother, who observed the rules of rural speech and of rural cooking. She was a good woman who has now been deceased for 50 years. She was always one of my defenders, and while I was in the Army she kept a blue star in the window of her living room. …
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THE BRAIN OF JUNIOR SEAU FINALLY REST IN PEACE
I am not an obsessive follower of professional football. The fact of the matter is that there are millions of other people who follow professional football stories with avid interest. As it turns out, there was a recent development having to do with one of the premier linebackers of recent memory. His name was Junior…
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A FEW FURTHER THOUGHTS ON LANGUAGE
The author of this essay was born in the United States of America. Accordingly, that makes his native tongue the tongue of English. Perhaps that should read the American version of the English language. Nonetheless, the author of this essay has an abiding interest in the twists and turns that the language has taken as…
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A LITTLE THISA AND A LITTLE THATA
Those of you with prodigious memories may recall that in 2009 there were three essays appearing in this space. All of them had to do with Ben Bernie, the orchestra leader of the 1930s, 1940s and ‘50s. When Ben Bernie led his orchestra through a medley of songs, he would often introduce it as “a…