Odds and Ends

  • Enough is Enough!

    For decades, we in the West have undertaken the postmodern initiative of softening language. Cripples became handicapped and are now differently abled. Those who can’t hear went from deaf to hearing impaired; the blind are presently sight-challenged. The language changes but the conditions remain the same. For example, a sight-challenged chap is no less blind

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  • Albertadromeus syntarsus. Why? Not because it has a complicated and nifty sounding name that rings like one of those stars in a neighboring galaxy with a hundred times the luminants of our sun, but because its’s a plant-eater that only weighs thirty pounds and could be weaned on a diet of weeds. Imagine never having

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  • If there was ever a question that put enough meat on the bone to end world hunger, it’s how would I reshape the modern world? Sheesh! Some thought experiments are like Metamucil to a teenager who, the night before, drank a six-pack. However, I shall limit myself to two thoughts. I was a child of

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  • A Doughty Endeavor

    My favorite game represents a bitter irony. I’m passionate about the game in question, which equates to loving it, but I would prefer my car get stolen to losing at this particular game. A participant, if they fail to strategize correctly, can reach a point during the game when they realize cosmic justice is a

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  • And Another Thing…!

    Piggybacking onto Tuesday’s prompt: What bothers me and why… it’s SURVEYS!!! Is there no place left in polite society where one can have an interaction that doesn’t result in taking a survey? (That wasn’t a rhetorical question; I wouldn’t mind an answer.) Every action, transaction, interaction, proceeding, negotiation, performance, operation, movement, recapitulation, service, gradation, and

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  • Woe Are the Unaware.

    Cop-out statements: That’s what bugs me. The one sitting atop the list is one we’ve all heard to the point ad nauseum, the ever-uttered drone: I wouldn’t want to bring a kid into this world. Naturally, the person uttering this done-to-death screech of pessimism is lousy at pair-bonding and too critical for relationships. More to

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  • Happy Days!

    Death – Taxes – Gravity – Eagle fans hating the Cowboys and vise-versa – Philly fans hating Mets fans and vise-versa – Red Sox fans hating the Yankees and vise-versa – The New York Times will cause me to grind my teeth – My wife prefacing an item on her wish list by uttering the

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  • The following is assuming I can time-travel: So that no young boy would ever have to utter the despairing words, “Say it ain’t so, Joe,” I would warn my dinner guest, “Don’t do it, Joe!” Can you guess my guest?

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  • This Old Man…

    This past year, I have developed what I call, my old man sleep pattern. Doubtless, I have accumulated my share of birthdays, but not enough for the “dreaded” old man pattern. Nevertheless, wherever I happen to be come 10:00p.m., be it in front of the television watching a ballgame, curled up on the sofa reading

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  • No one would describe Pink Floyd as a band whose strength was vocal art, but their rhythmic pulses and harmonic shifts are among the deftest in classic rock literature—both are evident in the song Astronomy Domine. Led Zeppelin used a large canvas to composed numerous pocket symphonies that bridged rock and blues. With superior musicianship

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