It’s a long way from Phoenix to Providence and the man next to me decided he had to talk. We talked but a few minutes when we discovered we had a mutual friend. One of his closest colleagues had gone to college with...
I was driving across Nebraska when I was passed by a bright red pickup truck from Colorado. As I looked to my left to see who was speeding by I was a bit startled and amused to see a large white poodle sitting behind...
The man in front of me at the post office told the clerk his letter had to be delivered the very next day. The clerk guaranteed him it would arrive the next day. After the man left and it was my turn I...
I have a wonderful old leather bound book published in 1924 entitled “One Hundred and One Famous Poems.” Sitting down last evening to enjoy this collection of classics I came upon one called, “Gradatim” by Josiah Gilbert Holland. The very first verse caught...
There are some words that are fun to use but the opportunities to use them are rare. “Arcane” is such a word. It is a descriptor meaning something is mysterious and understood only by a few. There are arcane organizations. These...
I know a teacher who made the mistake of circling a word on a student’s essay and declaring that there was no such word. The student soon appeared with a dictionary showing the teacher the word. However, even if the word had not...
I spotted the head of a nail in the tread of one of my tires. I am fearful to pull it out lest I also let out all the air. If it has penetrated the tire it has sealed around it. But...
On my way to school this evening I suddenly realized I had not eaten yet today and knowing I had to teach for four hours I figured I best put something inside. Swinging into a fast food restaurant I sat down a table away...
In the midst of a very important project that required my undivided attention and concentration my dog plopped an old smelly stuffed Santa toy on my lap. She had decided it was time to play. It was not. The project had to...
I saw the strangest thing this evening. Three teenage boys were running back and forth across a busy highway in between rapidly moving cars. I am not sure what kind of male ritual this was. Were they trying to prove to each...