Personal STORIES
Swordfight On the Lake Redux
Stories tend to grow taller as years go by. This one is no exception Told with great affection for all the characters.
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Snow Ball Fights: Passion and Peril
“The aging process has you firmly in its grasp if you never get the urge to throw a snowball.” Doug Larson In the beginning, there were snowball fights after every storm, even though they presently are illegal in eight towns in Rhode Island, including nearby Newport and Jamestown. Not illegal here in Portsmouth, however, our town has a long…
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All of Nature is God’s Art
“All of Nature is God’s Art” Attributed to Dante Alighieri. “Live in each season as it passes; breathe the air, drink the drink, taste the fruit, and resign yourself to the influence of the earth.” Henry David Thoreau, Walden A local townsperson from forty or so years ago in Mount Vernon, Maine, taught in the English Department at the…
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Background & Perspective
Perfect Storm
“The dogmas of the quiet past are inadequate to the stormy present. The occasion is piled high with difficulty, and we must rise with the occasion. As our case is new, so we must think anew and act anew.” Abraham Lincoln, 1862 Address to Congress In 1997 Sebastian Junger published his first major book.[i] In “The Perfect Storm” Junger described the final…
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Lumpenproletariat Revisited
Quite a few current readers have subscribed in the last couple of years. I thought it might be interesting to repost a couple of early ones for those new to the blog.
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Swine, Double Speak, and Bringing Home the Bacon
“It has been the political career of this man to begin with hypocrisy, proceed with arrogance, and finish with contempt.” Thomas Paine [i] Recently I read an article about a bacon crisis looming in California. [ii] Sad is the plight of the owner of a small breakfast diner who survived the pandemic restaurant crisis but may be put out of business because…
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Dueling Populisms
“What do I mean by “democratic capitalism”? I mean three systems in one: a predominantly market economy; a polity respectful of the rights of the individual to life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness; and a system of cultural institutions moved by ideals of liberty and justice for all. Michael Novak, The Spirit of Democratic Capitalism [i] We rightly have been obsessed with…
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Quo Vadis Blog 