Essays
BAD WESTERNS
BAD WESTERNS A couple of friends with whom I routinely exchange opinions and commentary, mostly no more serious than whimsical badinage, will occasionally stimulate a brain cell which has been tucked so far into my mental recesses as to deny access for decades. Such a random strike occurred recently while reading one such message about…
Where the Truth Lies
With all the claims of lying, fake news, fraud and worse during the latest presidential election and its contentious aftermath, I was reminded of an argument visited many years ago to the effect that truth has been historically overrated and falsehood has had an unfair press. More particularly, lying is said not to be an…
WRITING WRONGS
Some time ago, I embarked on a campaign, no, a mission, to right the wrongs done to our rich heritage of clever and colorful sayings, maxims, idioms, witticisms, adages, postulates, guiding principles and good-old-boy commentaries (collectively, “Axioms”). Whether these injuries to our language were inflicted by the passage of time, unauthorized modifications, ignorance, indifference, misunderstandings…