All Purls. No Swine.
In my Autumn garden I was fain To mourn among my scattered roses; Alas for that last rosebud which uncloses To Autumn’s languid sun and rain When all the world is on the wane! Which has not felt the sweet constraint of June, Nor heard the nightingale in tune Broad-faced asters by my garden walk,… Continue reading An October Garden
Susan Vass is a retired stand-up comedian (from the days when such people were actually funny), who writes a regular Friday humor column on PowerLine, one of my favorite websites. (It's the website that, all the way back in August of 2010, introduced me to Ricochet.) Susan's column for Friday, October 8, 2021, can be… Continue reading Happy Birthday, Ammo Grrrll!
There are days when I despair for the future of the generations that will come after me. To be clear, though, today isn't one of them. This morning, I was gifted a photograph of 98-year-old Auntie Pat, sitting with my three-month-old niece on her lap. The joy in Pat's face, and the equanimity with which… Continue reading Pee Po Belly Bum…Drawers?
Most truly honoured, and as truly dear, If worth in me or ought I do appear, Who can of right better demand the same Than may your worthy self from whom it came? The principal might yield a greater sum, Yet handled ill, amounts but to this crumb; My stock's so small I know not… Continue reading “To Her Father with Some Verses”
Otherwise known as the Brown Marmorated Stink Bug. It’s been a fact of life in these United States since September, 1998, when it was "accidentally" introduced--probably from its having stowed away in a shipping container--in Allentown PA. It’s yet another gift from our Oriental friends, along with poisonous plastic-ingredient dog-food, formaldehyde-infused mattresses (maybe they were… Continue reading Halyomorpha Halys
Oh, it's a long, long while From May to December, And the days grow short When you reach September.... Well, here we are again. Almost at the autumnal equinox (which happens this year on September 22), that time of year when the the Sun hangs directly above the equator and day and night (which have… Continue reading September Song
Can't do better, IMHO, than Aaron Copeland's Hoe Down: https://youtu.be/6ajQYANLiug
Above all, don’t lie to yourself. The man who lies to himself and listens to his own lie comes to such a pass that he cannot distinguish the truth within him, or around him, and so loses all respect for himself and for others. And having no respect he ceases to love, and in order… Continue reading On Self-Deception
LOL. It's been my karma, for a couple of years, that a few members of the perpetually aggrieved, incessantly self-absorbed, navel-gazing victim-class should think that some of my posts and comments which have nothing to do with them, are actually about them. Trust me, I don't do "subtle." Until I do. In any event, y'all,… Continue reading Are You A Catnapper?
It’s been almost fourteen years since my mother-in-law passed away, and perhaps it’s time to tell a bit of her story. Geraldine Virginia was born on May 13, 1918. She’d have been 103 this year, had she lived. And she might have. Although, as some of you already know, my birth family is generally long-lived,… Continue reading A Mother-In-Law For the Ages