A monument dedicated to Paddy Chayefsky could rightfully be placed at the entrance of every media establishment. A solid image of the playwright author of Network would serve as a reminder, a talisman, the same as the Roman slave in the chariot standing behind an emperor waving to a cheering populace. The lowly man held […]

Substitute teacher duty is a contrary exercise: terror signaling celebration. The entrance of the “sub” into the classroom signals Mardi Gras. A remarkable pageant to behold, an ordinary ritalin riddled middle school class alchemically converted into a celebration of puberty in its most lovable form. Everything upside down for the day while the Prince of […]

She could have been with the IRA. “The troubles” in Ireland were stoutly brewing at the time. But it was hard to imagine Celia fusing bombs. She was too fun-loving for that. An infectious laugh from the look of a 50s movie star like Audrey Hepburn, she was Northern Irish with an English accent. No, […]

“Town air maketh the man free” was an expression circulating in the late Middle Ages as cities became full-blown, expanding in number and greater importance. That sentiment obviously purposed to comfort city dwellers, and with good reason. The town offered a security the hinterland lacked. Villages were prey to every brand of marauder, from Mongolian […]

☞ Halloween is past, but the mood lingers on. Perhaps it’s because every day seems like Halloween, and all saints day is far away. ☞ In a season of vampires, we’re going out on a limb here at 3T and declare Bela Lugosi the best Dracula yet. Gary Oldham runs honorable second, being expert at […]

Boy, it’s no wonder Mimi had to oust Sigmund Freud out of the Umma… ☞ Okay, let’s not go off half-cocked without defining terms. Most folks have an idea who Sigmund Freud was, but Mimi? Such is simply a name for that group of humble martyrs cleaving to their collective Umma. Those whose personal is […]

Sadly, people, unthinking people, often refer to pigs and pork in negative tones. Worse yet, they malign basically intelligent animals by comparing them to a species not much higher on the evolutionary scale: to wit, political animals. ☞ When it comes to their own kind, pigs— and peccaries in particular— are most tender in their […]

Another insufferable time change accompanied by collective pain felt in the ying yang over yet another leftover folly of modernism: daylight savings time. Most annoying is that jerking the clock back and forth started as a gift from Nazi Germany and human engineering at its finest, stretching daylight hours for getting more work out of […]

Sweet as Bible stories can be to passionate youth is the bitterness felt by the cruel remarks when callow playmates mock that passion. Both bitter and sweet, then, would be the tales told of Miriam and Saul and Ruth. The more to press upon friends and associates a sincere glory in David and Abraham, the […]

We, who seven years ago Talked of honour and of truth, Shriek with pleasure if we show The weasel’s twist, the weasel’s tooth. W.B. Yeats The bulk of mankind do not pass through boyhood. Thomas Jefferson Boyman barges into the station to get a gander… oh, excuse me, you don’t say that anymore. Let’s start […]