Monthly Archives: May 2011

Telegrams

Posted on May 16, 2011 by sputterpub

     There was a time when the only way to send an instantaneous message across distance was the telegram. Morse code was used, and electrical wires, and the customer so respected the cost that brevity was more than wit: it … Continue reading →

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Epithalamion

Posted on May 13, 2011 by sputterpub

Here is my favorite acrostic sonnet. I composed it the first week of 2000, and the occasion was my daughter’s marriage. The sonnet form is always a challenge. Trying to say it all in 14 lines, making every syllable count, … Continue reading →

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Serpentine

Posted on May 12, 2011 by sputterpub

     When I was around 7 years old, I had my first acquaintance with rattlesnakes. There were two boys named John in the neighborhood that extended around us, and the fat one’s dad raised snakes for venom. Mostly we played … Continue reading →

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Scuttlebutt

Posted on May 11, 2011 by sputterpub

I never thought about the word until I encountered it in the autobiography of Mark Twain. He reported on the term not from his Mississippi River days, but from his experiences in the ocean around Hawaii. He wrote that the … Continue reading →

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Bad Poetry

Posted on May 10, 2011 by sputterpub

     Be warned: what follows is a really bad poem. I am posting it partly as encouragement to any young poet: yes, your work will probably be as full of itself as this, at first. This is an example of … Continue reading →

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How to Age

Posted on May 9, 2011 by sputterpub

 I don’t have an answer for this one yet, but I’m getting some ideas. Mostly my model for it is my last dog. Shelby came into my life in 1991, when she was one and I was 41, and she … Continue reading →

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Consequences

Posted on May 6, 2011 by sputterpub

     I wonder sometimes, how much adult opinions about youth are colored by adult experience instead of youth memory. It seems like I’ve known forever that nostalgia is hogwash: remembering the angst of adolescence as “the carefree, best time in … Continue reading →

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Shelba and the Plum

Posted on May 5, 2011 by sputterpub

 I was 14 or 15 the night of that slumber party, so it was during the summer of 1964 or ‘65. I think the venue was Jill’s house (see Bad Idea, posted on April 14), which was unusual. It was … Continue reading →

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Cats

Posted on May 4, 2011 by sputterpub

Andy suggested “cattywampus” as a word o’ the week, and that brought “cattycorner” and “caterwaul” to mind. Let’s look. I’m composing this in Eugene, where I have more comforts but less books. The dictionaries I have here are electronic but … Continue reading →

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Dial Tone

Posted on May 3, 2011 by sputterpub

     When I was a teenager during the 1960s, we didn’t have cell phones. There were no personal computers. The Internet hadn’t been built. When I and the other boomers grew up we were in a culture a bit ahead … Continue reading →

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