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The Holiday Card
[What follows is pure fiction. It is a short story that I hope you will enjoy. It’s not funny, but it’s what I wanted to write. Please don’t read anything into this post.] It was during a brief April thaw, when a chance breeze blew the snow and a few minutes of sunlight melted the…
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Far North Gift Distribution In Doubt As Trumps Imposes Tariffs On S. Clause LLC
[A US Army drone photo of the CEO of S.Clause,LLC in action. Source: Google search, Golden Hill Studio.] Washington, DC A traditional world-wide gift distribution (known legally as S. Clause LLC) is in danger of being shut down on the evening of December 24 after President Trump declared it would hurt major American private business,…
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Coal For Christmas
[Watercolor sketch by Paul Egan. Date unknown.] [Note to my readers: If you think you’ve read this blog before, don’t think you’re getting senile. It’s perhaps the fourth or fifth time I’ve posted it. It’s my version of a pure Christmas Story. I’ve tweaked the story several times to try to make the narrative better, clearer and more truthful. As…
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For Me? It Was a Hard Days Night
[Source: Google search.] There were no classes scheduled for that Monday. It was parent/teacher conference day at Ridgefield High School in Connecticut. I was assigned to meet the parents of my students in an office close to the front entrance. I sat at the head of a large conference table made of a dark wood.…
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Like Living in a Holiday Greeting Card
[Photo is mine.] Let it snow. Let it snow. Let it snow. –Lyrics by Sammy Cahn I’ve never lived inside a greeting card before. You’d have to be really really thin, like Wiley C. Cayote after being flattened by a road paver. Never fear. My readers know that and that the title of this post…
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Bob Takes A Bow
[Source: Google search.] “I’ve got nothing more to live up to.” –Dylan This is not going to be the usual Bob Dylan fan blog. I’ve something special to relate. More on that later. I’m sitting in what is usually the warmest room in our home, the dining room. It must be the two sets of…
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Trying To See Orting Through The Eyes Of Elias
[Elias and Erin nap. Erin has a cold.] Behind my back, twenty-three miles east south-east, sits Mount Rainier. The second day we were here, the sun set into the Pacific Ocean and bathed Rainier in the most spectacular alpen-glow I’ve seen in years. We had a few days of clear weather. Today, it is rainy…
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Autumn And Gravestones
[Sitting and thinking at Forest Cemetery, St. Regis Falls, NY.] Now that there is six inches of fresh snow on the ground and the trees are bare and the world outside our picture window is monochromatic, I can admit that I miss the late summer, the coolness of autumn days and the color of the…
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My Halloween Guest Blogger
[Source: Google search.] Pleased to meet you, I’m a man of wealth and taste. –Mick Jagger, Sympathy for the Devil. It’s my favorite time of year. It’s Halloween. And to help me celebrate, I have invited a “guest blogger” to take this space and make it her own. Erin Egan lives with her husband, son, and…
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My Son’s Beard
I saw him being born. Later on, I saw peach fuzz on his adolescent chin. A few years later, when he moved in with us, in New York City, I think he borrowed my razor. Yesterday, I stood next to him at The Beacon Bar. I sipped a beer, he had something I never…