THERE ARE DAYS WHICH OPEN into unglimpsed circles that inspire and uplift. And there are days which close the heart like a fist. There are days when the angels sing within range of human ear And days when all you…
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.
“What A Time We Might Have Had”
THE TITLE IS TAKEN FROM a line in Mark Twain’s Roughing It, and it always comes to mind when I hear someone (or myself) voice a semiserious regret. I don’t carry many of these — not out of “holiness;” it…
Pithyism #24
A GOOD DAY IS ONE in which the artist heaves a stone and the ripples wash up smiles and murmurs. (Or, put another way, “Blessed be the One who makes the makers.” I don’t know that one needs to “believe”…
Introductions
SOMETHING HOLY/TENDER/FRAGILE/GIDDY THERE IS ABOUT someone introducing a member of one world to a member of another: as, one’s relatives to one’s colleagues, one’s colleagues to one’s friends, one’s friends to one’s relatives. It’s more than just a person-to-person connection.…
Instant Everywhere
FOR MY NEXT TRICK, I shall unite the Universe. Ready? It is Now as I write this; it is Now as you read it. (Thank you, ladies and gentlemen. We’ll be here all week.)
5 Thoughts: The Solstice Eclipse
1. A CORRECT USE OF FACEBOOK is evidenced by all the pictures my friends took of last night’s eclipse. (Also nice: Chanukah’s virtual latke banquet.) 2. The overhead wonder was no less wondrous for being swathed in translucifying cloud at…
Pithyism #6-7/8
EVERYBODY IS A BIT LOONY, until you understand their reasons.
Fezzini for Foreign Policist
“HA HA! YOU FOOL! YOU fell victim to one of the classic blunders – The most famous of which is ‘Never get involved in a land war in Asia!‘ But only slightly less well-known is this: “Never go against a…
Viral Into Life
WE’VE ALL SEEN THOSE VIDEOS of people semi-spontaneously bursting into song in public places, to the bemusement, amusement, and eventual participation of the earshot citizenry. Let’s take it offline, folks. Bust into song. Right now. Wherever you are and with…
Fear of Fear Ourselves
WE ARE FROZEN INTO SOCIETAL uselessness through fear of liability: who’s responsible, what are the ramifications, an obsessive-compulsive moral handwash. Perhaps that’s one reason scapegoating is so popular: release of tension. Everything flows when the ice is cracked with a…
More Than A Game, Less Than A War
THERE ARE SPORTS WHICH CALL forth the most primal emotions in order to exorcise them for the good of the community — sports which make lesser men wonder and cringe, and old women pick up a frying pan — sports…
What Do You Say To A Partly Naked Woman?
SHE WAS WALKING UP THE hill toward us through the sea of sprawled bodies surrounding the stage at Laguna Seca Speedway, where some friends and I were enjoying three days of the Grateful Dead and Los Lobos in the summer…