• CYNICS BEWARE

    A cynic would say that naturegave many animals a short lifespanso they would not have to sufferour presence for too long a period.Some say it was just to give usdominance over other species,but to them I have to say stopand consider that our life spanis short in the scope of thingsbut that is simply because…


  • SO TO SPEAK

    One of the obvious problemswith growing older is the tendencyto begin using phrases you always detestedwhen young: “back in the day,” and it’sequivalents maddened you in your youthand are now a common element of your vernacular. Worse still is the knowledge that the dayswhich you seem to lovingly recallweren’t all that good as you lived…


  • MARKING TIME

    Life Is of limited duration but wenever know what that duration isuntil the moment it ends, and thenwe have no reason to care.But as we age and that periodnecessarily shrinks, some pauseand wonder what’s left, wonderwhat they might have done differently,where they would be today if they had.But they don’t stop to consider thatevery moment…


  • VICTOR

    In our timeof never-ending war,punctured by the briefestlulls we now call peace,someone, someonesmore likely, will talkabout whom will bethe victor, to whomshall go the spoils.Bierce, that perpetualcynic, reminded usthat peace was a periodof cheating betweentwo periods of fighting.But no one pausesto consider thatin any war there areno true victorsonly the victimsunwillingly offered upin sacrifice to…


  • WHY NOT AN ELEVENTH?

    The internet, he said, was God’s gift to Satan, but Satan returned it within the warranty period since it didn’t bring him nearly as much business as he had hoped. That, and the broadband in Hell was iffy most of the time, something about the heat, like broadband in Florida in the summer, only worse.…


  • AND PEACE?

    Santayana said, “Only the deadhave seen the end of the war.”We have grown adept at wars,no longer global in scope, butubiquitous in frequency. Mine was fought in the ricepaddies of Vietnam, and on thecampus where we struggledvaliantly and vainly to protest,and when that failed, in the heatof Texas, marching about, goingthankfully nowhere, shippedto Niagara Falls…