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DECEMBER 8, 1997
Back in 1943, I was in a terrible slump. A slump is a bad day at bat; it is a bad day on the basketball court when the ball never goes in. It is when your battery doesn’t turn the engine over and when you have a flat tire. I had such a year –…
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WHY NOT?
There are some times when the New Jersey winters just won’t let up. There are gray days and there are many sunless days. In the midst of one of those endless periods without seeing the sun, Walt Fennessey walked into my office. Walter had responsibility for business and correspondent relations with several African countries, including…
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ON FEAR AND DUTY
When it comes to fear, this might be the first essay you will ever read which does not make an allusion to Franklin Roosevelt’s thought that we have “nothing to fear but fear itself.” In this essay, I propose to comment on three kinds of fear that are prevalent today. Under ordinary circumstances, I avoid…
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TRUE CONFESSION OF A MARRIED MAN
Preachers of all sorts generally contend that confession is good for the soul. I have never paid much attention to those preachers on confessions or on any other subject. On the other hand, the Commander-in-Chief and the Chief Decider of the United States seems to pay considerable attention to what preachers have to say. The…
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LONELY TOWNS
Donald E. Wass was a fellow that you should not have known. Mr. Wass was humorless in the extreme. He was a low-level supervisor in AT&T’s Engineering Department in St. Louis. His responsibility caused him to have frequent conversations with other engineers in New York. Those conversations were so loud that work in the rest…
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FLAGS AND ANTHEMS
Haggis is a meal consumed by Scots on ceremonial occasions. I use the word “consumed” advisedly because it is impossible to imagine that anyone would actually enjoy eating haggis. To prepare haggis, it is necessary to have a sheep’s stomach into which are poured quantities of oatmeal as well as the sheep’s kidneys, heart, lungs,…
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STAR SPANGLED PONDERINGS
In this 232nd year of American independence, as I sit here on Independence Day 2008, I often wonder why we have given so little credit to the French for our freedom from the English. The French cheered George Washington’s efforts against George III, and in the final battles their fleet was anchored off the Virginia…
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FLIVVER
Henry Ford, the auto magnate, was also a peace activist. Prior to the hostilities that marked the First World War, Mr. Ford chartered a ship on which he loaded several important American personages to go to the capitals of Europe to ask them to avoid the coming war. To the American press, this was known…
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Grub
I have been writing these essays for the last 16 years. It all started with an injury to my brain which impaired my speech as a result of a stroke in 1997. I started writing these essays and somehow after 764 such essays, I have still continued. As a matter of fact, I seem at…
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PLAISIR D’AMOUR
Today is a cold winter’s Sunday which happens also to be Valentine’s Day. On occasions such as this, men and women declare their love for each other and, if things work out, the course may be set for their eventual marriage. Of course, this could be men and men or women and women. In my…