"Call me Ishmael" is the simple beginning of Melville's Moby Dick. And so unfolds a classic drama of man against outer but mostly inner demons. At one point Ishmael asks, "Who ain't a slave?" The great question is, "Is anyone really free?" Are we not...
It left earth this past March 9 at 10:49 P.M. EST. Last week April 7 it ejected its dust cover and the lens was exposed to space. The Kepler Space Telescope is not in orbit around earth but is in orbit around the sun trailing...
In New England there is a furniture store that must spend kazillions of dollars a year on advertising because they are ever present. Surely there is not a living soul over twelve months of age in Massachusetts and surrounding states that doesn't know these people's...
We had sliced onions on sandwiches this evening. We didn't eat all of them and we left them on a plate on the counter. When I returned from walking the dog tonight I opened the door and was almost overwhelmed with the power of those...
This afternoon while standing in the produce section of our supermarket I watched an old man--old? late eighties, I think--shuffle in the front door, past me and on to the fish section. He pulled a sheet of newspaper out of his pocket and wrapped it...
I have noticed an interesting pattern of human behavior that I have not yet totally comprehended. If people are paying to attend a production like Lion King they will spend large sums of money to get front row seats, but when attending a local production...
This afternoon I sat in a circle with twenty-four nine-year-olds and listened to them read their freshly written accounts of one of their dreams. If they couldn't remember one, they could make one up. I think most were made up. I heard dreams about mountains...
We have a marvelous old mansion on our campus. The music department claims it as its own. I think they laid claim to it because it has some very nice rooms for recitals. This morning we held our winter graduation in its nicest room. When...
Occasionally when I walk into my classroom I discover little by little it has become a wastebasket. When people rip paper out of a spiral notebook small remnants of paper float to the floor like dandruff on a blue suit. Some pigs leave leftover bags...
While slowing inching along in a line of cars up to the drive thru window of a fast food restaurant, I amused myself by watching a seagull walking about with a florescent orange sticker adhering to his right wing. In big black letters it read,...