I first published this in December 2022 and thought it would be fun to revisit it. This story is attributed to appellate Judge David Bazelon. A Chinese father calls his children to a family meeting and tells them that somebody has pushed the family outhouse into the Yangtse River and asks somebody to confess; nobody
A question to ponder after we’ve just finished adjusting our clocks to accommodate Daylight Savings Time: Have you wondered why we always say O’clock with the time? I found an interesting explanation in “Why Do We Use ‘O’Clock’ When Telling Time?” by Caroline Bologna on the Huffpost website. According to the article, “O’clock” is a
Having done many different things in a long life, my mind can make some unusual connections. For example, upon waking up this morning to the news of a major attack on Iran by the U.S. and Israel, my thoughts turned to a fabled story in ancient history. Croesus was the very wealthy and ambitious king of Lydia,
Do you suffer from Triskaidekaphobia? If so, this is going to be a difficult year for you. Triskaidekaphobia is basically fear of the number 13, including fear of Friday the 13th. And this year’s calendar features three of these dates: February 13, March 13, and November 13 are all Fridays. What are the odds? This
Today it’s Elon Musk, Warren Buffet, Bill Gates, and Mark Zuckerberg. But in an earlier time it was Henry Ford, John D. Rockefeller, JP Morgan, and Andrew Carnegie. I became interested in this “earlier time” when I assisted with a social-studies class in the high school that was exploring this era. So I decided to
I admit it — I’m a lousy proofreader. This was especially embarrassing when I worked in the publishing business, editing a magazine on Disney collectibles. It seemed every issue had something misspelled or misquoted. But I’ve found some comfort in a recent article on the Dictionary;Scoop website. Entitled “The 10 Funniest Mistakes, Typos, And Misprints
Since this is Super Bowl Week, I’m revisiting my thoughts on professional football. I have been a fan all my life; during my formative years, the Cleveland Browns were the only Ohio team and star running back Jim Brown was in his prime. That’s what got me hooked. Since then, as I’ve aged and entered
In recognition of “Snowmageddon,” I thought it appropriate to repost my poem about winter. It’s from my book Some Poems About Life, available here and on Amazon.com. Perspective The son stood in the doorway,Behold a beautiful sight!As far as he could see,nothing but fluffy white! Today would be a timeof laughter and play begun.And most important of
Can you imagine being arrested for possessing a copy of the most popular novel of the age? Samuel Green was a free Black man living in Dorchester County in eastern Maryland in the mid-19th century. Manyland’s location was unique: it was a slave state bordering free states. Consequently, it was relatively simple for slaves to sneak
This is one of my favorite short stories. It was originally published at BewilderingStories.com in Issue 612, and was an Editors’ Choice in the 2015 First Quarterly Review. It’s also included in my book Stories Short and Strange, available on this website and Amazon.com in both paperback and Kindle versions (https://www.amazon.com/s?k=%22stories+short+and+strange%22&i=stripbooks&crid=3NM0S4R47KU87&sprefix=stories+short+and+strange+%2Cstripbooks%2C145&ref=nb_sb_noss). By the way, one of these segments actually