Posted in Uncategorized on May 31, 2008 | No Comments »
Poets a challenge for you: Say aloud the title above as written. Now do the same with Beer and Donuts For Dinner. Which has the more poetic “ring?”
If you said the title as posted, my vote is there as well because the rythm seems more natural: DOnuts and BEER (for) DINner compared with BEER and [...]
Posted in Uncategorized on May 31, 2008 | No Comments »
It was a dark and stormy Friday night. To hear local TV weatherguru Gus talk about it as the big blow blew through you’d have thought the city was experiencing the onset of the apocalypse. It was a wet and windy precursor to what dawned clear blue and cool with the arrival of morning, time [...]
Posted in arts, writing on May 30, 2008 | No Comments »
I wrote the following song in the summer of 2003. Take away the refrain, and it’s a poem: magic, aye? I’ve performed it in public twice. Earlier this spring, when I arrived at Springfield High for a good day of sub teaching, I was asked to take a note to the choir teacher, and I [...]
Posted in thoughts, writing on May 30, 2008 | 1 Comment »
A sigh is still a sigh. The fundamental things apply. . . .
The past few days I’ve felt like a small monkey on a big leash, lurching in the direction of the greatest tension to lessen it, but engaging not a soul in conversation. I’ve not engaged any part of my life enthusiastically since the [...]
Posted in politics, writing on May 28, 2008 | 2 Comments »
Our gnosh pit turns its lonely eyes to you! You’ve not shared a conversation with Jim Lehrer at your website for years. Your last New York Times column posted at the NYT web site was May 28, 2007, and I understand from the talk in the hood that you’re busy writing a new book which [...]
Posted in writing on May 27, 2008 | No Comments »
I can almost hear the management meeting as WUIS public radio prepared the commercial for a coming concert . . . . “Just DON’T use the ‘B’ word, Larry. It would be so de clase and un-public-service of us if we use the ‘B’ word.”
“I know,” says Adrianna. “We’ll just use the first and middle [...]
Posted in politics, writing on May 26, 2008 | 2 Comments »
My family’s military legacy to the cause of freedom is as rich as Kermit the Frog’s. A cousin, Charles Donaldson joined the Royal Canadian Air Force before the USA became involved in the war, later transferred to the Army Air Forces and retired as a Colonel, but that’s about all I can brag about, and [...]
Posted in politics, writing on May 25, 2008 | 2 Comments »
The rare uptick in erudition demonstrated by the State Journal-Register engineered last Sunday with the presentation of “Funky Winkerbean” where “Frank and Ernest” had rained (my way of saying they SOAK) came to a thundering conclusion May 25 when F&E drifted back to their place in the Sun. funnies . . . . . sorry [...]
Posted in thoughts on May 23, 2008 | No Comments »
That’s the difference between what the fine resident upstairs paid for her rent in May and my City Water Light & Power utility bill. That’s not including my Ameren/CILCO gas bill for heat and hot water because I’ve had neither since April 1. Without substitute teaching and the heartfelt belief I can find an employer [...]
Posted in thoughts, writing on May 22, 2008 | No Comments »
I’ve been working three days a week or more for the past month or so, and that welcome action is my moral solace as real estate tax time approaches. So when my life lurched into Wednesday this week and the guiest teacher service had not called me ONE TIME, I was beginning to feel like [...]
