Jackal-heads and the holidays

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It’s been my fate and fortune to live next to a university campus.  Bar-closing time poses problems, especially when it’s warm enough for open windows to air the noise and other fluid substances that drunk undergrads discharge on their way to somebody’s bed. My dog Bella has marked the campus turf as her own. Her hungry sniffer is always on high alert for rich rotten smells, and she’s something of a celebrity, the Big Dog on Campus who can attract a small crowd with a few wags of her tail. Continue Reading

The Angel’s Dictionary of Oxymoronic Terms

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I’m ordinary enough to be confused most of the time by words that don’t make sense.  Usually I suck it up and let silence do my talking for me, hoping it will picture me as a strong silent type with leadership potential.  But now and then I can’t resist the urge toward words, especially since I’ve wholly surrendered to my addiction for crossword puzzles.  Those puzzles often stic Continue Reading

Downstream

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Emilio DeGrazia has authored four books of fiction, including Seventeen Grams of Soul, winner of a Minnesota Book Award, and Enemy Country, winner of a Writer’s Choice Award. Continue Reading

Rock-paper-scissors and whalehead therapy

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Whenever I play Rock-Paper-Scissors I have an urge to change the rules of the game.  If my hand could command Water rather than any of the other three, I’d never lose.  Scissors rust as water easily slices through them, and paper dissolves, and as rocks erode they’re washed away as sand.  I’m like everyone else:  I don’t like to lose. Continue Reading

Changing seasons: Rooting for yellowness

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by Emilio DeGrazia | September 19, 2009 • The philosopher Albert Camus, sensitive to society’s desire to enjoy a moral lifestyle, made no secret of this essential belief:  “All that I know most surely about morality and obligations, I owe to football.”  Since “football” meant “soccer” to him he understandably skirted the lessons to be learned from American football field generals simu Continue Reading