If you can take the song out and it doesn’t leave a hole, then the song’s not necessary.”
— Stephen Sondheim, a”h
Author: Neal Ross Attinson
Neal Ross Attinson is one of those text-compulsives who feels naked without a keyboard, or at least a a pad and pen. He is unafraid of adverbs, loves astronomy and gastronomy with equally unabashed passion, and lives with/in an eclectic library in Sonoma, California.
Why (A Prosatio Silban Amuse-Bouche)
“WHY DO YOU DO WHAT you do?” asked the young woman sitting at one of Prosatio Silban’s tables-and-chairs. “Aside from earning a wage, I mean.” “Why does a painter paint, or a musician compose, or a sculptor bring to life…
Pithyism #Now
NEVER BEFORE, AND NEVER AGAIN: Out of all the aeons, this moment is unique, both to you and to its circumstances. Grok the hell out of it.
Prosatio Silban and the Final Refection
THE “PURE CITY,” SO SAY the Sacreants, is the eternal home reserved for the souls of pious Uulians, where their earned rewards are consonant with their earthly deeds. Capital criminals, on the other hand, are a different matter.
Prosatio Silban and the Harnessless Dray-Beast
GIVEN SOMETHING AS ESSENTIAL AND ubiquitous as fatberry-oil, it was perhaps unsurprising how little thought people gave to its source and acquisition. Anyone in need of stove- and/or lamp-fuel could obtain it for themselves with little effort by mashing the…
Words To Bring Back: “Kratocracy”
– Definition: n. A government established by seizure, utilizing force or deceit, with rule maintained by strength. – Used in a sentence: One side effect of social-media-as-lie-amplifiers is that they can more easily enable a kratocracy. – Why: Please, God*…
Prosatio Silban and the Idol Cook
IT IS THE HARDEST THING in the world – any world – to escape a cage of one’s own making. And yet … Prosatio Silban strode through the swinging doors of Pelvhi’s Chopping-House and made straight for the long bar…
Tree of Life’s members will do everything for the 11 dead except show up in their place.”
– Pittsburgh rabbi to Mark Oppenheimer, from the latter’s “The Tree of Life Synagogue Shooting and the Soul of a Neighborhood”
Prosatio Silban and the Sobering Desolation
(A sequel to the preceding story.) SOMETIMES, NOTHING CAN MAKE ONE feel younger than a good quest. “It is called the Wellspring of Lost Years,” said the Siddis with a characteristic smirk. “And one sip from its dancing waters will…
Prosatio Silban and the Sentinel’s Game
(First of two parts.) SKIRTING THE AZURE VOID IS not for the timid, and while Prosatio Silban did not possess that trait in great measure he did on occasion come close to experiencing it. “Easy, Onward,” he clucked to his…
Unfinished Business (Introduction to The Cook For Any Price Volume II: More Commonwell Tales)
(The first of so-far-more-than-twenty new stories for a planned sequel anthology, beginning thus …) PROSATIO SILBAN LEANED FORWARD IN his folding chair, placed his elbows on the drop-down dining counter, put his head in his hands, closed his eyes, and…
When we stand in awe, our lips do not demand speech, knowing that if we spoke, we would deprave ourselves. In such moments talk is an abomination. All we want is to pause, to be still, that the moment may last. … The meaning of the things we revere is overwhelming, and beyond the grasp of our understanding.”
— Rabbi Abraham Joshua Heschel