Clearly the best time to be alive is when you start out wondering and end up knowing. There is only one generation in the whole history of mankind in that position. Us.”
— Carl Sagan, June 1974
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.
For Franz Kafka
THE OLD WOMAN SAT, SOFTLY singing, on a blue wooden chair in the vast cobbled square, rippling a carpet of birds with each cast of her seedful hand. Tall jagged buildings loomed on all four sides — blocky and black-windowed,…
Act of Greed
“THANK YOU FOR CALLING Total Auto, may I help you?” “Yes, my car was swept away in the recent floods, and I would like to file a claim.” “I’m sorry sir, but flood coverage isn’t included in any of our…
I am the greatest man in the world; indeed I am so great that I can afford great generosity: I encourage all others to adopt the delusion that they are as great as I. If they truly thought that they were themselves the greatest, they too would be as generous; and then we would all be able to humor each other, in peace, for none would feel threatened by the now-harmless delusions of everyone else.”
— Dr. Philo Drummond (Now go thou and do likewise.)
A Farewell to Mars
On and for the 54th anniversary of “Tranquility Base here. The Eagle has landed.” AS HE DANGLED FROM THE upper corner of the window before my typewriter, inverted and scowling, I first saw the Man from Mars. His identity was…
By telling tales about stardust, I hope we can remind ourselves that we live in an interconnected and beautiful world, full of rare and precious elements. It is our duty to treat it, and each other, with care and respect.”
— Astrophysicist Sanjana Curtis
Prosatio Silban and The Public Discourse
IT BEGAN, AS SO MANY good tales do, at Pelvhi’s Chopping-House. But it didn’t end there. That bustling asylum for epicurean Pormaris’ vast and varied army of hospitality workers was especially busy for a night in the stormy Season of…
ENJOY YOUR TIME.”
— Preferred parting sentiment of a well-known Sonoma shopkeeper
Too Bad
“WE PASSED THROUGH SEVERAL HUNDRED media-transmission shells on our way in,” the communications officer said. “Of course, we were eager to see who had made them.” By the pale light of a flickering viewscreen, the captain’s expression was thoughtful. “I…
Words To Bring Back: “Perfervid”
– Definition: adj. intense and impassioned – Used in a sentence: The perfervid activists had trouble with their blood pressure. – Why: There is something attractive about a three-syllable word replacing a three-word phrase. (Maybe it’s the concisifier in me.)
If I feel threatened by another’s faith tradition, it only reveals how uncomfortable I am with my own.”
— the Rev. Peadar Dalton
Pithyism #O-O
TO STAY ALIVE ON A bicycle or in a crosswalk, pretend you’re invisible. (The other drivers won’t see you anyway, so you may as well own it.)