The passage from night to day is a very long one. At least it seems so to me. I don’t pass well from the one to the other. Night, very often, begins fairly well. I tend to go to sleep in a reasonable time but do not stay in that condition very long. Nighttime provides … [Continue reading ]

Recently, my wife, Jan, and I went on a ten-day trip to the Country of Austria. This is a small country, about the size of the State of Wisconsin, in central Europe shaped like a chewed and partially digested frying pan that manages to spread eight million mostly contented inhabitants over its countryside. But what … [Continue reading ]

I’ve never forgiven Maurice Ravel for having written Bolero, Or almost everything else he wrote. I think he should have been a barber or a pig farmer Or maybe a writer of those inane little verses For Hallmarque cardes (or whatever their French equivalent would be) He could have sung in a cabaret in a … [Continue reading ]

This endeavor contains a number of rather gross and repulsive offerings about which I am issuing this warning to those of a more gentle and sensitive nature. You may want to skip the next paragraph and maybe even those that follow since at the present moment I have no idea what I will include in … [Continue reading ]

Everyone I know breathes, including me. I do not know when or how I learned to breathe but it must have been when I was very young or else I would have remembered. I have truly enjoyed breathing. It can be lots of fun and is enjoyed throughout one’s entire life. Everybody does it, I … [Continue reading ]

Backyards are phenomena that exist on the properties of many homes. Often they make up much of the land that is not occupied by the house itself. A new homeowner, upon taking possession of his newly acquired acreage may well gaze upon his back yard, inflate his chest to the greatest size to which its … [Continue reading ]

Victrolas and Records An Essay by Gil French   I have a Victrola. Actually it’s not really a Victrola. I must admit that it is a record player. I even have a bunch of old records, not the seventy-eight rpm records but the thirty-three and one-third ones that, when they first came out, were called … [Continue reading ]

Snow An Essay by Gil French   Snow is one of nature’s most spectacular displays. It’s hard to believe that its breathtaking landscape of widespread virginal purity is made of tiny fragile frozen particles that can land on one’s face or hands without being felt. The haughty science textbooks inform us that each flake is … [Continue reading ]

Most people have feet attached to the very ends of their legs. I happen to belong to that portion of the population and am rather happy that nature decided to place me in the company of the majority. If the feet and face were on the same level, my face would be in constant danger … [Continue reading ]

Quiet Thoughts An Essay by Gil French   Some people can’t stand quiet. They must be surrounded at all times by some variety of noise. Much of that noise has been given the name “music” although it still sounds like noise to me. These listeners have a radio, boom box, ear plugs, television or some … [Continue reading ]