English is a HARD language for Furriners to learn
My readers should know by now that I was an anthropologist. I think I enjoyed Linguistics more than anything in that field of study. I was also a student of Russian back then, and recently made the acquaintance of a new friend born in Moscow. It has set me on the path of recovering my […]
Why I don’t use plastic bags at the grocery store
I had a business trip to Nevada. It was in Las Vegas. To make the trip bearable, I needed to take advantage of seeing the natural wonders of Nevada for the first time while there. I would not have gone otherwise! We rented a car to go to the Valley of Fire State Park. It […]
Chuck Mitchell
I knew a lot of folk singers in the 60s and 70s. I was friends with many of them. I regret as much as anything having lost touch with so many people over the years. I have spoken of publishing The PaPeR, an underground newspaper in Miami in the late 60s. Many friends gave me […]
I Was Santa Claus for Winn Dixie
When in college I drove a yellow and white 1953 Packard, complete with the swan hood ornament (Ask the man who owns one!). It had the flat straight-8 engine. Like so many cars I owned and loved in those years, I could not afford its last fatal repair. I had bought it from a kid […]
Why Do You Think They Called them Heavenly Blue and Pearly Gates?
My friends and I in the ’60’s never went “on to” (marijuana is a gateway drug, my ass!) cocaine, heroin or so called “hard” stuff, but anything psychedelic was fair game. A high school friend, Craig, and I read that morning glory seeds could get you high. They were probably poisonous as well. That did […]
The Europeans
Our family lost pretty much everyone in Europe during the Holocaust. A couple of folks had made it to Israel. Three people survived in the camps and returned to Prague. Emil Spitzer, his wife, and his nephew Karl Unger. Karl has appeared in some histories of the Holocaust. I have an original letter after the […]
Thrill Hill
“We’re going to have Fun, Fun, Fun Till our Daddy takes the T-bird away!!!” I HAD a T-bird when I was young. There was a road in Coconut Grove in Miami so steep that if you drove on it very fast, when it dropped off, your car would literally leave the ground and come crashing […]
Gatlinburg – The Tourist Trap of the Great Smoky Mountains and an Exciting Botanical discovery
A friend was telling me about taking her son to Gatlinburg for a vacation when he was twelve. In the summer of 1973, I hitched north to Boston to rent my apartment for graduate school. A friend from FSU anthropology was a ranger in the Great Smoky Mountains that summer. I hitched up I-75 and […]
Doctor Who
I have been a fan of Doctor Who since the 1970s, practically from the beginning. Just like Star Trek, it is stunning how much more sophisticated the production values became over the years. They say that your first doctor is always your favorite. Not quite in my case. My favorite was Tom Baker. My first […]
One of the Greatest Evils of Modern Chemistry
Expanded polystyrene (EPS), commonly known as styrofoam, doesn’t degrade or break down over time. This post has been prompted by something that just happened in my doctor’s office while getting a diagnostic test (I’m OK, in fact I’m in great shape and relieved by the test results. The screening test is a good idea. I’ll […]