AUGUST 4, 2012 4:54AM

Break! How I Busted Three Trumpeters From a Maryland Prison

Well, it wasn’t quite like that. 

For one thing, they weren’t really trumpeters. They held the horns and blew through them, but not much came out. If those guys were trumpeters, then my name’s Joe Friday and I’m a homicide detective in the LAPD. It isn’t&/… Read full post »
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NOVEMBER 1, 2011 7:02PM

David Brooks, Fooled by Inequality

He’s at it again, being reasonable out of one side of his mouth while makin’ it up out of the other. I’m talking about David Brooks, Mr. Reasonable, the Mr. Blizzard of plausible risibility. His current column, The Wrong Inequality, is a masterpiece of rhetorical legerdemain and mis… Read full post »

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SEPTEMBER 7, 2011 4:44AM

My First Muse, and My Second

There have been no others.

That’s not what I called her. It’s not how I thought of her. And perhaps that’s not what she was, not quite. But, in retrospect, it’s a good approximation to how I needed her.

At the time, I thought I was in love. But, considered as
… Read full post »
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JULY 28, 2011 10:05AM

Frank Foster in Buffalo

I headed off to the State University of NY at Buffalo (aka UB) in the Fall of 1973. While I was going for my Ph.D. in English Literature, I was also interested in their music offerings—the school’s, not the English Department’s. I’d just gotten my trumpet out of “storage… Read full post »

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JUNE 1, 2011 3:53PM

Lawyers Using Bots to Hassle Busy Folks, a Tale of Copyright

It's all just so bleepin' INSANE.

Here's the deal. Two, no three, years ago a buddy of mine, who shall nameless so he’s not associated with this mini-quagmire, asked me to contribute a chapter to a book he's editing on a subject near and dear to me. Fine. Glad to. So,  over… Read full post »

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MAY 28, 2011 11:42AM

Where’s the Kleenex Go?

By “kleenex” I mean “generic facial tissue,” though often enough I use Kleenex brand. As for where it goes, just where, in my apartment, does it go?

The issue is a simple one: When I need a facial tissue, I want to be able to get one quickly and easily by reaching… Read full post »

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MAY 19, 2011 7:03AM

Art on the Bathroom Wall

I just hung the first piece of art in my new apartment. In the bathroom. Not the living room – well, I guess it’s the living room slash dining room slash kitchen – not the office (aka second bedroom), and not the bedroom. The bathroom.

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MAY 13, 2011 9:59PM

Explain the Wind, Will You

What would you think of the wind in a world without science? How would you experience it? How would you explain it?

You can’t see it, though you can see its effects in the motions of trees and bushes, grasses and flowers. You can see the dust it whips up. How it… Read full post »

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APRIL 29, 2011 5:52AM

America’s Psyche and The Fall Of The Evil Empire

This post is from a series of dispatches I emailed out during and after the 2000 Presidential election. I reproduce it here because it speaks to the nasty state of our current politics.
 

* * * * *


Everything is connected to everything else and the causal forces meeting in… Read full post »

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APRIL 22, 2011 11:04AM

Ghee on a Saturday Evening

From the archives, 2003.

It was Saturday evening, two days after the blackout that shut down most of the Northeastern quadrant of the country. I decided to take a walk down by the waterfront. For me, living in the Hamilton Park area of Jersey City, the waterfront means the/…

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APRIL 17, 2011 7:26PM

How Now I and Thou: In Memory of David Glenn Hays

David Hays was my teacher. This is the eulogy that I delivered at his funeral in the Summer of 1995.

 

 

In 1973 the journal Dædelus published an issue devoted to Language as a Human Problem, a topic of much interest to me. The first article I read was… Read full post »

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APRIL 16, 2011 5:10AM

Solitaire

One scene that’s etched deeply in my mind is what I saw the first time I visited my parents after my father had retired. My father was playing solitaire hour after hour, day by day. Reveal a card, look at the table, place the card on the table. Reveal a card,… Read full post »

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APRIL 14, 2011 1:25PM

Punching Cows

I’ve been thinking about my life situation, as I’m inclined to do. In particular, I’ve been thinking about my life situation in relation to a cultural trope or three. Such as the cowboy, hence punching cows.

But we’re not quite ready to go to the tropes.

Me first. I’m a si… Read full post »

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