The multi-media promotion machine tells us it’s that time of year when we wallow in yet another reliving of 9-11-01, the other day from the last eighty years that will live in infamy.
9-11 re-re-revisited
Gerry Dionne is a writer, musician and coffee table philosopher who moved to our area when he was 18. He's in his 70s now, so y'all give him a break.
Clouds gather in the western sky. You can tell it’s coming even though we’re still bathed in sunlight. See that? The birds are beginning to ge…
I’ve heard it said that conflict is intrinsic to human history. It seems to overtake us in waves; war being an obvious example. I’m not persua…
The parking lot of my Dad’s restaurant was dry, but the air was laden with moisture. I woke to the raw calling of crows as they remonstrated w…
Rainy weather certainly brings out the worst in our dog, Bay. She’s a 13-pound Rat terrier. Rat terriers are notorious for being difficult to …
On February 20th of 1942, senior Nazi government officials and key members of Waffen SS (Protection Squadron - Military Wing) met for one day …
My parents weren’t rich, but their white table cloth restaurant with an attached motel did well during the 1950s. My Dad, Rollie Dionne, liked…
During the few hundred years from 800 to about 200 BCE, a remarkably uniform intellectual transformation across the several most important cu…
When my cancer was diagnosed seven years ago, no one would predict how long I might live. The prognosis had too many negatives for comfort. Th…
"You are NOT going to be a poor musician." My mother was adamant, but not very good at foretelling the future. For the first fifteen years of …
If your take on the world is heavily influenced by television newscasts, it may come as a surprise that the level of violence in the world is …
At least once per week I find myself on the interstate - I-485 to be specific - going to Belmont for a weekly meeting with old friends. We do …
At the end of World War II the United States became the steward of what remained of the Empire of Japan. We were something more than merely in…
Now that President 45 has floated the idea of arming teachers in our public schools, I thought I would take the idea to its logical end zone. …
There is an ugly, malignant cancer in the Republican Party. It’s led and is given voice by the guy at the top. President 45. The cancer can’t …
“Bronze by gold heard the hoofirons, Steelyringing. Imperthnthn thnthnthn. Chips, picking chips off rocky thumbnail, chips. And gold flushed m…
“You can get more done with a smile and a gun than with just a smile.”
Americans are what Eric Hoffer called “True Believers” - participants in mass movements. The ideas behind such movements can be nationalistic,…
We homo sapiens seem to reside at the top of the food chain because of our superior intellect. We're just smarter than the other animals. But,…
Just one year ago, Vice President Joe Biden delivered an address touting the progress achieved during the Obama years to reduce the salience a…
You stay here and I’ll go look for help. We’re stuck here on this back road. The tire’s flat. The flashlight’s batteries are almost dead. I ca…
I’ve learned a thing or five in my three score and ten years on this small planet:
What’s the difference between a Christmas carol and a Christmas song (I heard someone in the crowd ask)? Well, in the broadest sense, carols c…
The Puritan English government of of 1644 banned Christmas celebration; no dancing, no singing of carols, no seasonal plays, no general merry-…
Roy Moore, Bill Clinton, Harvey Weinstein, Kevin Spacey, Charlie Rose, Tiger Woods, Henry Hyde, Al Franken, Martin Luther King Jr., John Kenne…
There are a number of ways our current President, President 45 (if you count Grover Cleveland twice), resembles a third-world autocrat.
