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IN PRAISE OF THE LOWLY DOOR KNOB
Most of us use the door knob on frequent occasions and think nothing of it. The purpose of this small essay is to give the proper praise to the door knob for the service that it has provided to humanity over the years. Simply put, if there were no door knobs, it would be difficult…
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UPON BEING AWESOME
I have no trouble with neologisms, clever sayings that make their way into the Anglo-Saxon language. But I do have trouble with an affectation which is widely spread among all age groups who speak the American version of the English language. The most recent such word is “awesome.” I have always thought that our exploration…
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REMARKS TO MRS. BRIBER’S FOURTH GRADE CLASS, GLENWOOD SCHOOL
All things considered, I was born in the year of 1922. I had nothing to do with the date that I was born. Those questions were settled by my parents. As it turns out, I was born the seventh child to a family who tended to the fortunes of the Lilac Roost Farm. It was…
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IT CAN’T MISS — A SHOVEL-READY BUSINESS OPPORTUNITY
Over the past 50 years or more, I have been involved in various business opportunities but none presented as much of a shovel-ready opportunity as this one. Because this opportunity has existed for more than 50 years, you will have to hear my story as I spin it out. About 58 years ago in Chicago,…
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NON-BREAKING NEWS FROM LONG HILL DRIVE
Three non-breaking news items have occurred in recent weeks and they constitute the essence of this essay. In the past few weeks we have been met by an invasion of breaking news from Washington as well as from itinerant politicians. All things considered, the breaking news has had its share of attention. The burden of…
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MURDER IN MISSISSIPPI
As it so happens, I finished my glorious career in the Army of the United States, not the United States Army, in the great state of Mississippi. I use that title, “the great state of Mississippi,” because it is always used by politicians. In August of 1945, I had returned to this country after 28…
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“AND HE NEVER SAID A MUMBLIN’ WORD”
Those of you who have been reading my essays over the years, know that spirituality is not a function, major or minor, in my life. But music that celebrates spirituality is something that I treasure. I treasure it for the music, not for the spirituality. I am fully aware that some people, perhaps most people,…
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MAYBE LILLIE WAS RIGHT ALL ALONG
The Lillie in the title of this essay is my mother, to whom you have been introduced before. Lillie was born in Pope County, Illinois on the banks of the Ohio River in a community called Lusk. It was not a town at all. It was simply a landing spot for the folks who traversed…
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DEFICITS DON’T MATTER – RICHARD CHENEY, FORMER VICE PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES
If I were to eat a meal at a local restaurant and leave after the dessert course was served without paying, I am certain that the owners of the restaurant would be all over me before I reached the door. If I were to say to the owners in that case, “I have been reliably…
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A PAIL OF HOME BREW
During the period of the 1920s, there was a resurgence of thought pioneered basically by Southerners. It resulted in the banning of the sale and use of beer. The Eighteenth Amendment to the Constitution banned the manufacture and sale of alcohol and came to be known as the Prohibition Act. Prohibition was widely flouted. It…