…I shall wear the bottoms of my trousers rolled.” The lines are from T.S. Eliot’s poem “The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock,” a masterpiece he began writing at the ripe old age of twenty-two. It’s not uncommon for youth … Continue reading →
I forget what led me to this video. But I’m impressed by the matter-of-fact way this young woman discusses her situation (she’s a C-5 level quadriplegic as a result of an auto accident), without excessive drama but actually saying some … Continue reading →
[NOTE: This is a sequel to yesterday’s post on prayers during the tornado.] During the Moore tornado, teacher Anna Canady had a prayer [emphasis mine]: She remembered that as the tornado bore down on this school in Moore, Okla., she … Continue reading →
[NOTE: I wrote the following post last night. In it, I speculated on some of the conditions under which the three Cleveland captives had been held, and how that might have made it virtually impossible for them to escape. When … Continue reading →
…this be? Can a dog survive a month without water, just on McDonald’s scraps? And have you noticed that McDonald’s has been featured prominently in another story lately? That would be the escape of the Cleveland women, whose rescuer was … Continue reading →
We still don’t know too many of the details about yesterday’s remarkable case in which three kidnapped girls, long thought dead, returned. But one thing I do know is that the timing of their escape is excellent—Mother’s Day is coming! … Continue reading →
Brenda Heist vanished over ten years ago. Despite a huge search she was never found, and was finally presumed (and even legally declared) dead. Brenda and her husband had been on the brink of divorce, and he remarried. Her two … Continue reading →
One of the things that draws me to YouTube is its ability to collapse time. I’ve written other posts before that use this then/now format, but I don’t really tire of it. So here’s another. Petula Clark, then: And now … Continue reading →
I love these stories when they have happy endings: “I had him in my arms and still screaming over and over. Then I ran outside. I saw two boys playing across the street, and I yelled, ‘Go ask your parents … Continue reading →
[NOTE: In one of yesterday’s posts I reproduced some photos of people when young alongside the very same people considerably older. Then I offered—without any commentary—one of my favorite poems, “Spring and Fall: To a Young Child” by Gerard Manley … Continue reading →
Sometimes I don’t like to confront the fact of aging. Sometimes it’s okay with me (not that anyone’s asking). These before and after photos—a person young, the same person older, in the very same pose and similar clothing—are heartbreaking, heartwarming, … Continue reading →
My mother’s very first memory was of being frightened by booming noises—guns? cannon? fireworks?—while being held aloft above a crowd to view a New York harbor filled with ships. She wept and her parents comforted her. The year was 1918, … Continue reading →