dailyprompt
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What’s a song that changed your life? View all responses I can’t point to one song and say, “Hearing that changed my life.” But one piece of music made me feel the boundaries of musical expression stretching as I listened. I was thirty when I first heard Dmitri Shostakovich’s Violin Concerto. The first movement drew…
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What’s the most underrated life skill? An angry throng en masse; the phenomenon of a sound shadow; and whatever became of Marc Anthony? When does something that isn’t a skill rise to the standard of a skill? When everyone stops doing it! Now there went a can of worms that just exploded. And what might…
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What’s the best way to explore a new city? View all responses I’m from Philly. So, in some way, that could make me as obnoxious as the title of this post. In case you’re unfamiliar with Philly people, we aren’t necessarily the politest lot you’ll run into, but we are kind. In other words, we…
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“Who is John Galt?” That was the repeatedly asked question in Ayn Rand’s epic, Atlas Shrugged. Rand wrote Atlas Shrugged to resolve some of the lingering issues raised in The Fountainhead. Were Ms. Rand alive to write the epic novel today, she might have opted for the title Atlas Sagged, or Slumpled, or perhaps Shit…
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I’ve noticed a new theme afoot in Philadelphia. Littering! Although it’s not novel. Instead, it feels like a reprise of an old nationwide epidemic in the late 1960s and early 1970s. Back then, America was in the throes of her Vietnam initiative, and sinking national pride had become a contagion. When people don’t take pride…
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When, as a much younger man—I was still in high school—I was watching Firing Line, hosted by Willian F. Buckley. The show was a venue for debate and discussion. It was years before the internet and decades before podcasts, venues that provide plenty of room for pseudo-intellectuals. If you were a guest on Firing Line,…
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I played the guitar as a young man. I had reached a point where I could pick and strum like someone capable of mastering the instrument. By age ten, my teacher, Vito Spioto, had me playing Paganini Caprices, although they were abridged versions. Anyway, I had discovered a fondness for classical music, and when I…
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I don’t know what I could add to the banter, but I’d wanna be there to hear it. On second thought, I could explain why I’d be an asset to the Enterprise and end up an interstellar traveler. Notice Mr. Spock isn’t holding a mug of beer. Perhaps he doesn’t see any logic in consuming…
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Often, I would hear an oldster issue the complaint, “When I was growing up, we only had seven channels to watch: ABC, CBS, NBC, three UHF stations, and one public television channel.” Yeah, yeah, yeah, you poor dinosaur, playing with your rabbit ears and antenna; life was so hard. How’d you ever manage? I am…
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Everyone is curious. Some more than others. If you are a curious type, you’re a “lifelong learner” by default. Except for the cat. Curiosity did a real number on that poor bastard. Trust me, the cat’s not learning too much nowadays; his lesson was what you call a real one-and-done session. I, too, had my…
