Thoughts of Dan

The other day I was opening a packet of ketchup and on one side it said "open here."  I said aloud "You're not the boss of me!" and opened the packet from the other end, which worked just fine. It is not in me to submit to authority.  I will HAPPILY put my shoulder to the wheel to help anyone do almost anything.  But if you tell me I HAVE to do something?  I'm going to at best resent it, and at worst try to make it obvious that compelling me makes us enemies.  If you try to harness me, I will spit the bit. I'm different.  I mean we're all different, but I am *different.*  I grew up playing Dungeons and Dragons.  I competed in soccer and lacrosse as a young man, not football or baseball.  I had a Bar Mitzvah.  I spent a year studying in Europe.  I can get my face slapped in several languages.   " In toto nusquam corpore menda fuit ."  I love football, action flicks, science fiction and musical theater.  I have an a...

ДО СВИДАНИЯ ЛЕТО Doh Svedanyah Lyeto (Poet's note -- to be read aloud) Charge your glasses and toast the summer 'Fifteen Gone much too quickly, as if never been. Yet hints of it linger to buoy the keen As Autumn approaches and changes the scene. I have counted days passing, while sat at the shore I have slept in the sunshine and woke wanting more I pondered the Pleiades and wondered "What for?" I will not leave summer, like the party's last boor. I secure the lee line and make everything fast The fisherman throwing the redemptive cast. And though I deny it, the truth outs at last Fewer days lie ahead than exist in my past The dripping faucet gets the plumber Behind the beat the lazy drummer The silent rock grows ever dumber A muted witness to the last of summer. Our youth is betrayed by our bodies last treason So put down your labor and come join with me son Time marches on without rhyme or reason I...