Fifty years ago Jane got on a plane and flew away without saying good-bye. Her parents took her, I know. She was only 14 but she could have said good-bye to me, the swain who saw her through our last three years of grammar school when she wore braces, the only girl who had them. Fifty years later at our […]
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American Innocence, Our Children Now and Then By Donal Mahoney As we know, sometimes we can see the big picture by peeking through a keyhole. And in America today perhaps we can see better the state of innocence among young children by looking at a recent incident in middle America. A retired grammar school teacher, Thomas Thacker, is surprised […]
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It was an ancient city. All the young people left as soon as they could but the old remained in their mortgaged huts surrounded by evergreens that offered a haven for cardinals and jays, robins and finches. No matter the season birds flew from tree limbs to feed on seed and suet put out by too many widows […]
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They’re usually poor people, sometimes considered the flotsam of society, always in the way at the grocery store, at the post office. They can’t find their money, if they have any. They’re never in a hurry. They have nowhere to go and you’re always in line behind them, a busy man with people to see, appointments to keep, deadlines to meet. You try to […]
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Bears Starving in the Woods Long article in the paper this morning stops Tim from gobbling his bacon and eggs. Bears are starving in the woods. Too many cubs, too little food. There’s a plan to feed them. But no plan yet to feed people in the city nearby waving signs about working for food. [su_mahoney]
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Every summer they come, a ballet over the border, without papers, a mass migration of ruby-throat hummers, beautiful birds that devour millions of flies in North America, birds we welcome because we love their beauty and their ballet. We do everything to help them, hanging and cleaning feeders of nectar to plump them up so they can feast on flies until October when they have […]
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Daily Paper on the Lawn An hour before dawn the paper is out on the lawn white in the moonlight a trumpet dozing after a long night in a jazz bar tired from playing but willing to play a last set for me not knowing I read only sports and the obits two riffs in the paper anyone can believe Author Bio: Donal Mahoney lives […]
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A Stationary Bicycle The doctor tells Phil and his wife he’s in pretty good health for a man his age but he needs to exercise. And Phil says he agrees and then goes on to explain his faith in recliner therapy. He sits in a recliner for hours, watches TV or reads the paper and wiggles his toes at least three […]
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The uncommon is common in America today. Not that there’s anything wrong with that, Seinfeld might have said to George had they seen the latest Glamour Magazine naming Caitlyn Jenner Woman of the Year. The public seems to agree. No placards hit the air. but Caitlyn has to stand and spray what other women sit to tinkle. Author […]
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Old Stag Giddy Elmer’s an old stag now shedding antlers snorting among the trees but sometimes Martha after her shower is a doe beckoning and he becomes giddy and heads for the salt lick happy in the breeze [su_mahoney]
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