MOST DEVOTEES OF HOPMON, GOD of the Ever-Filling Purse, were honest souls. However, woe betide any who encountered their seeming opposites. Prosatio Silban was sweaty, thirsty, and famished. The dust of the ostensibly endless road filled every visible wrinkle and…
Author: Neal Ross Attinson
Neal Ross Attinson is one of those writing-compulsives who feels naked without a keyboard, or at least a a pad and pencil. He is unafraid of adverbs, and lives with an animal companion and eclectic library in Sonoma, California.
5 Thoughts: One Size Doesn’t Fit All
1. IT IS EXTREMELY LAME TO apologize to people electronically en masse. But I’m going to do it anyway.
Prosatio Silban and the Leg Up
THE NAME “EVERFAIRE” DESCRIBED THE village perfectly. It was a centuried and perpetual trading-center on the border dividing the lands and villages of epicurean Pormaris from those administered by cosmopolitan Soharis, and its shops, inns, and taverns never closed. Some…
L’Shana Tovah!
THE JEWISH LUNAR/SOLAR CALENDAR begins the New Year 5782 tonight at sundown. The classic understanding of that number reflects the years since the world’s creation, but many of us find that explanation somewhat problematic. On the other hand, humanity’s recorded…
Prosatio Silban and the Curious Artifact
MISTAKEN IDENTITY AND MISTAKEN IDENTIFICATION are two entirely different things – but both have the potential to spark unintended consequents. Prosatio Silban was driving his galleywagon along one of the Uulian Commonwell’s little-known and lesser-used roads, though not far from…
365 Names: “Ain Sof”
AIN SOF is the Name given by Jewish mystics to G?d’s most transcendent (read: non-immediate) aspect. Meaning, literally, “without end,” it falls short of describing the Indescribable by admitting with honesty that it can’t be done. “There is no way…
Prosatio Silban and the Great Wasting
SENSITIVE SOULS BEWARE: ALTHOUGH MOST of Prosatio Silban’s adventures are whimsically lighthearted, this is not one of them. We find the once-beefy cook in his galleywagon at the side of a lately untraveled road, stirring the rather malodorous contents of…
Our Meaningful Century
THIS PAST WEEK SAW A couple of personal milestones: the completion of my 100th Prosatio Silban story, and my e-book‘s first review. (Pop the confetti and cue the corks.) To celebrate, here are synopses for all the Cook For Any…
Prosatio Silban and the Wavering Line
ACCORDING TO THE WISE, REPUTATION is everything. But that’s not always a good thing. “I would like for us to enter into a commercial arrangement,” said Idino Tarz to Prosatio Silban. “You have a solid standing throughout the Three Cities…
Word to Bring Back (Okay, Forward): “Fabtastic”
– Definition: adj. portmanteau of “fabulous” and “fantastic” – Used in a sentence: You have fabtastic style, my dear. – Why: I generally dislike modern portmanteaus, but this one leaped onto the screen when I tried to type “fantastic” and…
Prosatio Silban and the Divine Gaze
(THIS TALE IS FOR THOSE who have wondered about Those Who watch over, and occasionally interfere with, the residents of the Uulian Commonwell. Read it in good humor.) Prosatio Silban finished his evening meditations, stood up on his ornate braided…
… Cervantes compared translation to the other side of a tapestry. At best we see a rough outline of the pattern we know exists on the other side, but it lacks definition and is full of loose threads.”
— Rabbi Jonathan Sacks, z”tl