Until the era of electronic communication, getting word of happenings in other places (to say nothing of instantaneous moving pictures in color) used to be a long, slow process. News could travel on land only as fast as the fastest runner or rider. A man living in California might get a letter from his brother, […]

One of my favorite stories is about an antiques expert who, one day, while driving down a country road, stops at junky-looking store. Before going in, he notices, in the entrance-way, a cat drinking from a saucer. The cat doesn’t interest him – but what does is the saucer, which, he can tell immediately is […]

One of the songs I learned at some campfire gathering seemed to me to have profound significance – but I’m still not sure what it was. It’s about “Bill Grogan’s Goat” who, when “feeling fine, ate three red shirts, right off the line.” Bill Grogan was so outraged at this that he not only gave […]

Summer camp can be an educational experience, but not necessarily as the organizers intended. My first time was in 1943 at Camp Airy in Thurmont, Maryland. (It is still in operation today.) I was nine years old. World War II was still on. I went together with my best friend, Nathan Mensh, whose family lived […]

“Care” is an interesting and rather flexible concept. As a noun, it once had a very negative meaning, which today we would equate with “worry.” There was a song about “dull care” whose lyrics go back to the 17th century, and show how both “care” and “dull” have changed in meaning. The song starts by […]

Why do we say “OK,” and say it so often? Where does it come from? There are various origin theories, but the one I like best involves a kind of humorous misspelling which, about 200 years ago, Americans used to think was very funny. One common expression at that time was “All Correct,” which had […]

As a child growing up in wartime, I was not unfamiliar with talk of guns. But even in peacetime, especially in America, guns were always literally child’s play. I had my own fake revolver, which fired rubber suction cups, but never worked very well. This may be the only country which guarantees to its citizens, […]

One of my favorite poems is by a woman named Susan Marr Spalding. It’s called “Fate,” and is in two parts, each of nine lines. It contrasts the different ways life could have turned out for two presumably imaginary couples. In the first part, the man and woman lead lives which make it extremely unlikely […]

My life story nearly had an early ending when, at the age of 18, I was in Israel, traveling on my own and often visiting ancient ruins. One was of a Crusader castle, many of which were built during the centuries after the First Crusade, which had succeeded in capturing, or re-capturing Jerusalem from the […]

Only recently have I been introduced to a well-established genre of music, and particularly of singing, called “Country.” It seems somehow to be peculiarly American, particularly “Southern,” and “Western,” and apparently derives from what used to be called a “Hillbilly” sound. I would say it’s the opposite of sophisticated, embodying the social outlook of people […]