Month: July 2023

What is it about cameras and human vanity? I’m not talking about our selfie obsessed youth culture but a phenomenon already established long before the digital age. I watch a wide range of documentaries about historic subjects. Something common to many of those that were able to be filmed is the number of participants in…… Continue reading SAY CHEESE

I sometimes shop at a nearby church affiliated thrift store because they sell collections of household and personal items on a name your price basis. It’s provided me with such useful things as a perfectly good vacuum cleaner, lamps and kitchen utensils for a fraction of their retail price. Ordinarily, I won’t do anything to…… Continue reading The Portrait

I was in one of the area metaphysical shops yesterday. The kind of place that always smells great because of the scented candles and incense. New Age music hummed from somewhere above the displays of Native American dream catchers, pentangle wind chimes and other talismans that spun or shone, offering to bring safety and communication…… Continue reading What caliber is your crystal?

I’m finally about to disembark from the subject of that doomed pleasure liner. Please indulge me one last time. There was a touring exhibit of artifacts from the Titanic criss- crossing the nation in the early 2000’s. When it opened in Tampa, I took my dad. I had some misgivings about the ethics of supporting…… Continue reading Adieu RMS Titanic

Was it disrespectful of me seeming to compare the unfortunate failure of my first public reading to a maritime disaster? Probably so., but seriously, get over it. I was actually only likening my experience to that of the unfortunate Captain but face it, he had no choice. Had he left the boat and returned to…… Continue reading RMS Titanic Redux

On the night of April 15, 1912 Captain Edward Smith stood on the bridge of the RMS Titanic. He was dressed in his expertly tailored uniform, his white beard neatly trimmed and military posture erect. He stared into the icy darkness, watching the star specked black water sloshing around the hull of his doomed ship,…… Continue reading Remember, the Titanic sank too!

Le fecundity c’est finis! The ‘ fever to fruit ‘so abundantly demonstrated by my two huge mango trees, has finally broken. Yesterday there was far fewer fallen mangoes to pick up. and virtually none of the reduced to slime overly ripe variety needing immediate disposal. I had to resort to using a long pole to…… Continue reading Mangocity To the Max

It was late in the afternoon as I sat on my back porch reviewing the day. Making a note not to clear the fallen mangoes off of my yard when the heat index tops 109, at least not again. My clothes were as matted as if I had just emerged from a pool, a luxury…… Continue reading Survival

That was the question I asked of my twenty something year old offspring. It was an acronym never before encountered in my, long literate life. I was expecting it to be a term of great complexity and importance that had migrated into common usage from the technical domain. Perhaps it was a more advanced form…… Continue reading “Whatsa NPC”?

With apologies to the writer Paul Laverty for paraphrasing the title of his screenplay. A quiet night writing on my back porch. One small light glows, a soundtrack of ocean waves playing at low volume nearby, a glass of Greek wine in hand. The screen barrier protecting me is fuzzed with mosquitos and ‘no see…… Continue reading The wind that shakes the mangoes