Answering Machine My wife’s upset because I won’t answer the phone in the middle of the night even though the phone’s on my side of the bed. And I say that’s because after all these years we both know whenever the phone rings in the middle of the night, someone we know, maybe someone we love, has […]
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Freckles They Called Him Walter Branham, a retired teacher, and his wife Victoria went to Applebee’s, the chain restaurant, for lunch one day last week. First time they had gone there. Usually they go to an ethnic restaurant but Victoria wanted a salad. Walt as always was obliging. The restaurant host was a young man who as a […]
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A Husband Falters Better take his wife to lunch after what he said yesterday. A slip of the tongue. But where to take her? The Chinese buffet? The Indian buffet? Maybe the Japanese place. She likes sushi and tempura. But when he asks about lunch she says not a chance. She has to clean the house. Cleaning lady comes today.
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A Sisyphus Moment There’s a force that makes a boulder hard to push up a hill. And there’s always a boulder and always a hill when it comes to helping the poor find something to eat, somewhere to live, a job they can go to every day. Sometimes the boulder slips and rolls back downhill and Sisyphus jumps aside. Accidents happen. […]
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A Good Customer I saw Al once a month for 30 years, maybe more, doing business together. He retired to hunt bear in Alaska, hook Tarpon in Florida, golf in Scotland. He had it all planned. Nothing would stop him. Months later I learned doctors said he had cancer of the blood. The outlook was bleak. I called Al and he said six months, […]
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At Midnight in New York It’s midnight in New York and in this tall building Herb and Molly are in bed making love. Molly is a virgin and it hurts. Olga’s upstairs in bed with cancer terminal and it hurts. Melvin’s downstairs in bed snoring. Nothing hurts because he doesn’t know yet he has multiple sclerosis. In the hallway a thief goes floor […]
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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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The Widow Next Door Every Saturday when the sun is out and it’s hotter than Hades Monica next door raises her garage door early in the morning and leaves it up long past noon as if Herm will walk out at any minute oily and greasy needing to clean up the way he used to every Saturday […]
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A tragedy happened to Willie and Millie after years of marriage. All their kids were doing well and had nice families of their own but tragedy struck one dawn before Willie had had his morning coffee. Millie was on her third cup and Willie said Millie looked at him the wrong way and Willie asked, “What’s that look all about, Millie, what did I do now?” […]
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We’re going dancing, my wife and I, to a Charity Ball high in the sky where Glenn Miller’s band has been playing since 1944, the year his plane got lost over the English Channel. No wreckage was ever found, not a single body. Glenn Miller was going to France to play for American troops during World War II. Government records say he’s still “missing in action.” Maybe so, […]
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