Category: satire
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Is My Enchiridion Indulgentiarum Account Balanced?
[Purgatory. Credit: Shown Above] Mea culpa, mea culpa, mea maxima culpa. ~~Patrick Egan Fantastical Essays v. 1 (2024) In Saranac Lake, New York, on a warm and humid day in 2017, an elderly woman crossed Church Street safely because of something Sister John James said to me in 1957. This was no small feat because…
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A Dialectical Critique of “Teenager in Love”
[Dion. Photo probably taken in the 1960’s. Source: Mancrushes.com] If you ask me, far too many words have been written about the hidden meanings and subtleties of Bertolt Brecht’s Mack the Knife or Pirate Jenny. Granted the Weimar Era in Germany (1918-1933) were pretty wacky times. But lyrics like: “You gentlemen can watch while I’m…
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420: The Key to the Secrets of the Universe
[The house where I grew up. Owego, NY.] In 1971, five students of San Rafael High School (CA) decided that they would smoke cannabis next to a statue of Louis Pasteur. They chose to wait until all the after-school activities were finished. It was 4:20 in the afternoon (PDT). The date? Why, April 20, of…
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My 600th Blog: Lat. 24 N./Long. 81 W.
[Ernest Hemingway’s typewriter. Located at the Hemingway House Museum, Key West, Florida. Photo is mine.] Today is only one day in all the days that will ever be. ~~Ernest Hemingway I am sitting in the air-conditioned Monroe Country Public Library (Key West Branch). It’s quiet, cool and has a WiFi that takes no prisoners. I…
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Friction Rubs Me The Wrong Way
fric-tion (frik’shen) n. 1.The rubbing of one surface or object against another. 2. Conflict, as between persons having dissimilar ideas or interests, clash. 3. Phys. A force that resists the relative motion or tendency to such motion of two bodies in contact. [Source: Google Search] Friction is really good for only one thing…okay, two…no three.…
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Four Impossible Things Before 11:30 am
After every dark night, there is a bright day. –Anon. [Source: Google search] The Butterfly Effect Two mornings ago I woke up with an overwhelming feeling that I was immersed up to my neck in a bad case of The Butterfly Effect. I definitely felt I had a sensitive dependence on the fact that even…
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Mr. Peanut Gets Unshelled
On a recent road trip, I was driving through Georgia and noticed that peaches were a big item in most roadside food stands. But there was also billions of peanuts: salted, unsalted, boiled, plain, shelled and unshelled to satisfy any taste. It was outside the Peanut Emporium in Lumpkin when I noticed a swanky peanut…
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The Peanut
Georgia, Georgia The whole day through (The whole day through) Just an old sweet song Keeps Georgia on my mind. —Hoagy Carmichael (1930) (Source: LyricFind) Yes, we’ve left Florida and are now trying to survive in the oppressive heat of Macon, Georgia. For the last 100 miles or so I’ve had peanuts on my mind.…
patrickjegan 