Recent Entries

• From Chubby Checker to “Maggie May”

  October 11, 2024

  (Author’s note: I am confidently composing this,  knowing only too well that no one under 40 reads these essays, and so most  of you will know what I am talking about and not consider me too ancient.) When I was in grade school we had these odd disks called 45 rpm vinyl records. (Instant recognit...

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• Milton Is the hurricane that scientists were dreading; it comes on the heels of Helene whose flooding devastated the mountainous areas of five states

  October 9, 2024

  Unless you live up in the AppalachiansMountains and foothills of five states devastated by wind and flooding from Hurricane Helene, it is almost impossible to grasp how many lives were lost, how many homes were washed away, bridges destroyed, and livelihoods lost — all covering a vast area. And n...

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• Where have childhood, youth and innocence gone? Young vloggers tackle the meaning of life

  October 4, 2024

  Is this the Pinnacle of life. No seriously. I mean look, what is your highest ambition? Is it this? No, no it’s not. You know this. It might be the highest ambition of your chemical mind, your brain your body. It’s the desires of the flesh. It’s the entertainment. It’s the pleasure. It’s the dopa...

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• A weekly ritual that saves me from the abyss of loneliness

  September 26, 2024

  Sunday is my one social outing of the week. Religiously, I head out to visit my brother and his lady friend at the beach. I’ve been doing this for three years. He is a great cook and prepares excellent meals, sometimes favorite New Orleans dishes we both enjoyed when we were growing up, such as&h...

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• The Voyage of Life

  September 17, 2024

  My life is based on a true story. Author not known Seven years into retirement, I find myself looking back on the past more and more often, thinking of my past friends, jobs and careers with increasing emotion, even pathos. I even on occasion admire people I know who are still working in their 70...

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• Memory Vault, Part 2: A lifetime of memories and artifacts can be found in a cardboard storage box

  September 9, 2024

    Part 1 https://www.opendiary.com/m/oswego/memory-vaults-what-to-do-with-the-minutia-of-our-lives-6283945/ “The Sum of Trifles,” Title of a book By Julia Ridley Smith Here in Part 2 I continue my inventory and annotation of the contents of a selected storage box, one among many personal mem...

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• Suburbia, Part 2: Thoughts about home

  September 5, 2024

  Home is the question you fnally answer. Home is the hollow you finally fill. Home is the hearth where you warm your soul when everything around you is coming to pieces. Home is the place that you’ll know when you’re there. Shirley Miller Although I never actually lived in a suburban neighborhood ...

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• Suburbia, Part 1: Where I grew up

  August 31, 2024

  Suburbia: land of middle class dreams and hopes for the “good life” fulfilled. Good schools. No crime. No gangs. Just a lot of invisible angst. Shady streets, two–car garages, neatly manicured lawns, tasteful homes and decor, swimming pools, sidewalks, hardly anyone knows anyone else. That descri...

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• Justice is sometimes sweet indeed

  August 27, 2024

  Occasionally I come across stories in the news that are so deliciously offbeat and strange, in a humorous way, of course, that I have to share them. Here’s one. You know how when you’re driving down a busy street, or in a quiet residential neighborhood, it doesn’t matter, and the car or truck pul...

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