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Archive for August, 2008

Maturity

“I have reached the age when the strangers I accidentally jostle on sidewalks say, ‘Sorry, Pop!’ instead of ‘Watch it, Buster!’ and the pretty young women I used to help across the perilous streets now snatch me from the path of ten-ton trucks, scold me as if I were their grandpa on one of his [...]

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Thank You, Norman

A scouting image from 1918, by Norman Rockwell.

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We’ll All Be Rich

My thanks to Roland Sweet for this gem.

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“We want something more than thrills in our patriotism – we want thought; we want intelligence – a new birth of the sentiment of unity in the nation. My dream of America is America represented in public office by its best men working entirely for the good of the Republic and according to the laws [...]

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Church

“Aunt Wilma had black agate eyes that moved restlessly and scrutinized everybody with bright suspicion. In church, her glance would dart around the congregation seeking out irreverent men and women whose expressions showed that they were occupied with worldly concerns, or even carnal thoughts, in the holy place. If she lighted on a culprit, her [...]

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So There

“William Olmstead, an eccentric Cass County farmer, died last week, leaving a comfortable property. His will, which has just been probated, leaves the greater part of his estate to the Barnum and Bailey Circus. Mr. Olmstead was worth in the neighborhood of $15,000, and with the exception of the homestead of forty acres, which he [...]

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Remember Me?

“I think we are well advised to keep on nodding terms with the people we used to be, whether we find them attractive company or not. Otherwise they turn up unannounced and surprise us, come hammering on the mind’s door at 4 a.m. of a bad night and demand to know who deserted them, who [...]

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“George S. Kaufman was probably closer to capturing the truth of the matter when he said that he would have preferred it if Irving Berlin’s song ‘Always’ had been instead titled ‘Thursday,’ so that its clincher line would go, ‘I’ll be loving you, Thursday.’”
– Joseph Epstein, “I Like a Gershwin Tune” in The Norton Book [...]

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Lost and Found

In the grass along Route 20, a damp 1953 Chinese 2 Fen banknote. You can’t make this stuff up.

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