Tag: arm’s length

Because the word “community” is over-used.

We’re All Americans, Dammit

I’VE SAID THIS BEFORE, BUT it’s more important now than ever: “I pledge allegiance to the Constitution Of the United States of America And to the ideal on which it stands: One nation of individuals Indivisibly intertwined With liberty, justice,…

Welcome to The Metaphorager!

THERE ARE TWO WAYS YOU may enjoy this pleasant mix of rusty recollections, offbeat observations, friendly particularism, tasty recipes, unpretentious poetry, and wry spirituality: The first is to browse at your leisure either the preceding links, the categories below the…

Audiomobile

“COGITATE COGITATE COGITATE COGITATE COGITATE…” So ran one of the many “found sounds” (today called “samples”) on the pass-around tape collages that were a fringe benefit of membership in the Neo-Pagan Society of Diablo Valley College in the early-to-mid-1980s. (Accent…

The Zine Scene

A LONG TIME AGO, IN a post office far, far away, our mailbox was fraught with wonder and excitement. In those cultural Dark Ages of pre-public Internet access, creative folk could communicate through the medium of “zines” – homegrown/amateur magazines,…

A Short Course in Flabbergastery

IN HIS EPIC, THREE-VOLUME Burnham’s Celestial Handbook, the astronomer Robert Burnham, Jr., proposes the following metric: Let one astronomical unit (the mean Earth-Sun distance) equal one inch. On that same scale, one light-year, or 63,360 astronomical units, equals one mile;…

Come Dance With Me

A QUICK AND HUMBLE ASK: If you enjoy The Metaphorager, please consider subscribing to its newly revised, very occasional, and 100% FREE mix of rusty recollections, offbeat observations, friendly particularism, tasty recipes, unpretentious poetry, wry spirituality, and short stories —…

Why Am I Still Here?

BARRING ANY UNFORESEEN CIRCUMSTANCES, I will celebrate my 62nd birthday tomorrow. Leading me to ask: “How did THAT happen?” As a child of the 1970s and very early ’80s, my gentle nihilism is understandable. It was a period marked by…

Sales Experience Necessary

IT HAS LONG BEEN PROPOSED in some circles that, in order to build a better class of citizens, we need some sort of national-service program along the lines of an in-house Peace Corps or revamped Works Progress Administration. “Give people…