Writing

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 can see why,” she told the communications officer. “Judging by their cities and transportation networks, they built big and dreamed bigger.”

“Indeed. They even made entertaining fictions about lives on other worlds, in other times. Some were quite remarkable.”

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Crit

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

Living

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.)

Writing

Prosatio Silban and the Avid Inspector

WE ALL HAVE THOSE DAYS when everything goes wrong – but not always do we have someone looking over our shoulder while it does.

Prosatio Silban stifled an exasperated sigh. Mustn’t show my impatience, either with her or my circumstances, he thought. After all, it’s my long-practiced livelihood being decided here.

“Why did you turn off that stove-burner?” Nira Llirb asked, arching a disapproving eyebrow. “The beans are still cooking. And what’s this in the blue-rice pot?”

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Living, Torah

Sacred Comedy

LAST WEEK AT THE GROCER’S, the guy ahead of me in line is good-naturedly chatting up the sales clerk when he catches sight of my yarmulke.

“What happened to the rest of your hat?” he asks.

Without missing a beat, I reply, “It fell off.”

His “damn! he got me!” gesture punctuates our mutual laughter. I love it when we humans play.