MAY THE ARBITRARY DIVISION OF Earth’s orbit into 365.25 units find you better off now than you were last time we reached this point on the circle’s rim — and not nearly as good as you will be next time.…
Tag: moments
All that we ever really have.
AMERICA IS A PLACE WHERE Jewish merchants sell Zen love beads to agnostics for Christmas.”
— John Burton Brimer
First Graf: The Timetables of History
AN AWE-INSPIRING WORK, The Timetables of History: A Horizontal Linkage of People and Events by Bernard Grun is one of those books that have to be seen, and leafed through, to believe. (My own copy, of the 591-page edition First…
No Boomer I
WELL, THAT’S NOT QUITE ACCURATE — I am, at least technically, a Boomer. But I’m also a member of one of the Lost Generations. And I’m not the only one. I was born in 1962. That makes me, according to…
Points of Honor, Literary and Otherwise
– STUFFING SENTENCES TO JUST UNDER their carrying capacity. – Never starting a blog post with “I.” – Writing exactly to required or desired length. – Being there on time. – Repeating verbatim anything someone wants said to another. –…
Life’s Little Soundtrack
ONE OF MY FAVORITE “MIX-TAPE” CDs is titled “The True and The Brave – ANTHEMS.” It’s comprised, near as I could make it so, of songs meant to make one stand up and feel counted. I like to play it…
My Chanukah With Ramana
THE TECHNIQUE IS SIMPLE: JUST lay on your back, breathing, and take a complete and negative bodily inventory: “I am not my legs; I am not my feet; I am not my arms;” “I am not my mind;” et al.…
5 Thoughts: Long-Term Partnerships
1. TO QUOTE A CHARACTER FROM the most excellent film A Mighty Wind: “It’s almost as like we have one brain that we share between us.” The simultaneous realizations, the one-word sentences, the shared expressions … It can all be…
Why I Love: Restaurants
IT’S THE ATMOSPHERE. IT’S THE background music of cutlery-clinked plates and conversation. It’s the initial pleasure of sitting down at “your” table. It’s having a skilled and knowledgeable waitron. It’s eating what I wouldn’t (or couldn’t) cook for myself. It’s…
Necessary Speech
ALTHOUGH YOU MAY BE OTHERWISE tempted, the following conversational gambits make for dodgy texts and/or tweets: “We need to talk.” “You’re fired.” “Excuse me, sir or madam. Is your name…?” “It’s over.” “You don’t need to come in for the…
The Knot’s Tale
THERE I WAS, TYING AN intricate bit of decorative knotwork in the Golden Hinde II‘s hold, and feeling more than a little proud of myself. I was then just a beginner at that sort of thing, and the glow of…
Aside
Dear Ms. Garchik,
I just overheard the following remark while sitting in my backyard adjacent to Broadway, Sonoma’s main drag: Quoth woman to dog-walking man, “I hope in my next life I can be owned by you.”
I hope in this life you can use this quote for your daily column.
Be well,
Neal
UPDATE: Ms. G. replied, “I am going to save that one for annual romantic Valentine’s Day column!” Be on the lookout.