If I were to sum up my personal philosophy in a single sentence, it would be this: Never try to encapsulate anything of import or complexity into a single sentence. Or perhaps: if your philosophy…
Posts tagged as “essays”
Conservative writer P.J. O'Rourke, who used to butt heads with Molly Ivins on TV, came on the Tonight show once and explained right wing logic: "If you weren't a liberal when young, you had no…
When the twin towers fell on 911, at first it was thought that as many as 10,000 people might have been inside. A national call for blood donors went out in case there were many…
I have not owned a car since 1987 for both financial and earth-wise reasons. When I need to I will rent a car. What a pleasure, once I figure out all the buttons. No gears,…
Every once in a while I decide it's time for a fast. There is some evidence that fasting is good for one's health as well as the mind. The first fast I did was on…
We recently saw a French film made in 2008, Summer Hours, written and directed by Olivier Assayas and recommended to us by Louis Bedrock, the writer and translator. A beautifully made film set in present-day France, I immediately loved the sights and sounds, but found I was not connecting emotionally with the characters.
When I completed my first prison term here in California back in 2006, I was bound and determined never to repeat the process. It wasn't my first rodeo, but in an extension of the metaphor,…
On June 23, 1941 Joe DiMaggio didn't get a hit. No, his famed fifty-six game hitting streak didn't end there, he was just past half way at the time. It was an off day between…
Anyone who does crossword puzzles regularly has probably done the New York Times crossword, which is in most daily newspapers, and considered the crème de la crème of that puzzle genre. And perhaps the more…