I decided to have biscuits and gravy for breakfast today. I can't make biscuits from scratch any better than by using Bisquick, and that eliminates a lot of measuring and fiddling. So I got out the box of Bisquick, and read the recipe on the side panel. Bisquick recipe is: (edited for brevity) 2-1/4 C Bisquick  2/3 C milk Mix to soft ball stage and dump out.  Knead ten times.  1/4" thick  Cut into biscuits  450 oven - 8-1...

I was opening a bottle of aspirin the other day. After I peeled back the plastic seal around the lid, I had to get a jar opener to unscrew the cap. Once I had done that, I had to get a knife, to scrape off the glued-on inner seal. Only then, was I able to use a pair of tweezers to remove the inner packing cotton. During all that process, I glanced at the expiration date on the package, and began asking myself about it. Th...

Robert Frost said “fire and ice” But he was wrong. It wasn’t like that at all. Oh, there was fire, and a brilliant flame it was. Our exothermic chemistry filled the air. And the electricity filled the air with ozone of new found love and lust and wonder and fear that made the outsiders wish they were in. We answered questions in unison without stopping to think. We went out to places together smelling of sex in our minds...

I have somehow gotten myself on a schedule of Saturday grocery shopping, so tomorrow, I'll pick up a pie crust or two, and cook up the rest of the rhubarb puree in a pie. I'm just gonna get enough stuff to get me through until Wednesday or so, because I hate grocery shopping on screaming child day. They meet you at the door you know, and if you don't have one ... well, it's like this: (Cue ominous organ chord, fade out, a...

I guess I am probably of the last generation that can remember when milk, eggs, bread, butter, and other dairy products were delivered. And, because of the war, our milkman in Darby (a suburb of Philadelphia, not Darby, England) used a horse and wagon. I can't remember the horse’s name, but I can recall my mother and the milkman allowing me to feed her carrots. And I never thought about it till just now, but since I said...

I am watching the BBC Television series, “ Monarchy”, which traces the history of the English monarchy from the end of Roman rule in 410 through a series of invasions, Norse occupations, Danish occupations, and Norman invasions, to the reign of Victoria. I spent my first three years of college as an history major, but I’d be the first to admit my English history is sketchy at best, especially prior to the civil war which...

Oh, there’s naught like a poem for the holiday No matter how ponderous the tome. If you want to be happy in a special way, Find yourself a well-written holiday poem. .................................................................... Go find something by Longfellow or Whittier Or maybe a sonnet by the Bard And if that’s all too heavy for your palate, Dear Then just settle for a pretty greeting card. ........................

It was Friday afternoon in mid-June, 1962. I had just stepped out of the shower, and was feeling considerably better for having removed a layer of cement dust and sweat when the phone rang. My mother got to it first, but held it out to me, saying, "It’s Mr. Daniel’s wife. She wants to speak to you." Mr. Daniel had been my high school band director, but I had graduated several weeks before, and couldn’t imagine why his wif...

It rained that morning in Dealy Plaza But the sun was out by noon. How different things might have been Had that man not died too soon. If only the roof had still been on That car the fateful day, Things might have been so different With a car top in the way. But fate laughs at our dreams; Our plans are but for naught. And what matter who fired the bullet? What matters is that it caught. How different things might have be...

I am currently playing Reed Three (flute, clarinet, soprano and tenor saxes) in the pit orchestra for a high school production of the Wiz. It is a very old, very conservative church school, originally founded as a boy’s college preparatory school in 1849. In recent years, a companion girl’s school has been added, with shared facilities for the arts and some other elective courses.Saturday evening’s performance was really...

So I moved my computer out onto the front porch, which is enclosed, in preparation for all the kids I expected to come around begging candy. I decided against costuming myself, though I briefly considered wearing a dress or my kilt. But I can’t imitate a Scottish brogue worth a darn, and wearing a dress I reasoned, might upset some parents accompanying the wee bairns. So I demurred, and am sitting at my desk, wearing “man...

The other day, I was reading a piece on storiesspace, titled “Choices” and was struck by the thought that certainly my life choices have had far-reaching unforeseen consequences. It was June, 1972. I had pre-registered for a summer seminar on Geomorphology of the North American Continent, so I decided to do my two week active duty for training before the summer semester began. I put in for, and was assigned to the Navy Sc...

Enola Gay  And bombs away!  In Vietnam it was only napalm.(And a little agent orange, for our own troops)And if they complain  We’ll bomb them again Until they cry out,"Uncle!" (Sam - that is)As if that's not enough  We did all that stuff, And then call ourselves exceptional. We’re exceptional all right  At causing great fright  Among all those who aren’t just like us. For a country as we  With such a short history  We’ve...

I moved in the house I am renting on March 1 of this year. My furniture was all in storage, from when I lost my house two years ago, so I bought an air mattress and a sleeping bag to use until I could get my stuff moved in. This weekend being the end of August, I decided it was finally time to get my mattress. The air mattress was beginning to feel a little too impermanent, and besides, it has developed a leak, which I ca...

“Who’s that knocking at my door? Who’s that knocking at my door? Cried the fair young mai-den. “It’s only me; I’m home from the sea, Said Barnacle Bill, The Sailor. It’s only me; I’m home form the sea, Said Barnacle Bill, The Sailor.” And then the band took off into the most rollicking music I had ever heard. I closed the front door behind myself, and took off my Boy Scout neckerchief, and unbuttoned my sleeves. As I sat...