Posted on by Patrick

Word Wonderment

When we were in sixth and seventh grade we were an unruly lot. We waged psychological warfare, a kind of teacher vs. student battle of wits, with the nunnery at Our Lady of Perpetual Help Elementary. And though our wits were dim and their wits were heavenly, we were almost every day victorious, sending the older nuns into fits of red-faced rage and reducing the younger ones to tearful basket cases in hooded black capes. We were in fact sinners on the highway to hell, shameful little heathens we were called, deserving of God’s full wrath according to scripture. More often than not, that wrath came in the form of a dictionary.

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Posted on by Patrick

Four Damn-Good Books, A Holiday Gift

Maybe you’re looking for a good book, maybe someone on you’re shopping list would appreciate swell words on interesting topics? So here’s a bunch of good ones. I have no idea why I’ve grouped them in multiples of four, but these are all five-star books, that you’ll remember four-ever. Make sure you scroll down because there are lots of categories, things like war stories and sports and rock & roll and great Americans and the Beatles and cowboys & indians … Almost all of these reviews come with free fun facts to keep you interested, and books are a great place to meet people.

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Posted on by Patrick

Words To Live By? Most Of Them Are In Books

“Go with confidence.  Prize tolerance and horse sense.  And sometime, somewhere along the way, do something for your country.”
         Commencement speech words of author David McCullough

Books are beyond words. They are a port in a storm, sea spray to the face, illuminating sunshine, clouded landscapes. They are: “That’s so true”; “I never thought of it that way”; “This scares the shit out of me”; “Who would do that?”; “That makes me sad.” They are accomplishments, riddles, something to conquer, something to surrender to, an invitation, a warning, a confession, a time, a place, a figment of your imagination, a happy ending, an extended middle finger. They are where you look for things you didn’t know before.  

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