Author Archive
Think About It. Christmas Memories. Slightly over fifty years ago it was my good fortune to meet Arthur Franklin Mapes. With ten children it was necessary to have gainful employment, as in a factory building windmills. No Quixotic tilting for him, his thoughts turned to visions of how he saw his surroundings . Perhaps the…
Think About It. Syntactic Ambiguity. In the recent fall tribute to Pilgrims and Indians I added a post script borrowed from bold headline of a major paper, TURKEY SHOOTS DOWN RUSSIAN PLANE. The popular journalism name for this is “crash blossom”, named by Danny Bloom (no kidding) for The Testy Copy Editors. It joins the…
Think About it. Bright Idea. Tonight once again we will Light up the Town to commemorate the fact that Wabash was the first. Mary and I had recently returned from the City of Lights where the Louvre was first brightened by Compagnie Générale d’Électriqué in 1778. Not long after, we heard that someone was writing…
Think About It. Global Warming? Some of you will remember the early ’70s when it was Global Cooling caused in part by aerosols (hair spray). Yes, I know it’s now called Climate Change. The real question is, “Is it my fault?”. Mea culpa. At one time I smoked a pipe, drove a large gasoline guzzling car…
Think About It. Thoughts on Thought. After one hundred of these expressions of my views of the world, and as we begin anew, perhaps you’ve wondered why your friendly Sage always asks you to think about the content of these humble offerings. I suppose it’s presumptuous to expect others to spend much time in thought…
Think About It. Gray-bar-Hotel. You may recall Dorothy Mengering abruptly and happily leaping into our consciousness while providing reports from the 1994 Winter Olympics. Her charming insights and interviews provided smiles for a world of viewers from as near the top of the world as I ever desire to be, Lillehammer, Norway. Capitalizing on this new-found fame, she promptly began to write about more…
Think About It. No foolin’. Was it you that said you wished they’d stop those silly April Fools jokes? If so you must be in the minority if the long and labored history of the day and it’s sometimes dubious fun is any indication. Chaucer in his Canterbury tales (circa 1390) tells a tale you…
Think About It. Dunces, An eternal optimist, I’ve always believed “There’s gotta be a pony in here someplace”. The recent exercise of choosing a President for our United States has led me to believe there is surely a genius in there someplace. Here we are in March of 2017 and some of us still hope….
Think About It. Gracefully. Even if you saw The Music Man you may have missed a line in the rapid fire recitative performed by Robert Preston. Speaking about the youth of the community he sang… They’re tryin’ out Bevo, tryin’ out cubebs, Tryin’ out Tailor Mades like Cigarette Feends! And braggin’ all about How…