Bob's Grabbag

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Saturday, August 4, 2012

SIGNED ON WITH ULYSSES

1. The Hitchhiker Because there were not near the numbers that had come ten years ago, I had my pick of ships and captains on the beach of Troy that day. The stink of death and fire was there; it was no place to linger longer than it took to find a way to leave it all behind at last. Impatient to be... Sign in to see full entry.

Friday, August 3, 2012

CROSS WORDS

The upper righthand corner's empty, otherwise the puzzle's done. 13-down I think I know - it ends in "s" at 21. And don't forget: this puzzle's theme is all those Tunes From Broadway Shows (Can't afford them any more, so I won't be so good at those). Hey! Is 15-down familiar?... Yessss! I bet I know... Sign in to see full entry.

Thursday, August 2, 2012

PAUSE FOR THOUGHT

"I'd rather FEEL humility than know how to define it!" cried the preacher, and his flock cried dutifully, "Amen!" Then, from third seat front pew left, less stridently was heard, "Whoever told you that you had to choose between the two?" Sign in to see full entry.

Wednesday, August 1, 2012

THE BROOKLYN BRIDGE

Gothic concept, chancel arches pointing skyward, cut in blocks of blackened stone, great cathedral of a bridge, densely webbed and cablestrung, taut-tuned to play Atlantic airs, and hum in solemn plainchant what a city and its harbor had to sing about a hundred years ago. Sign in to see full entry.

Tuesday, July 31, 2012

JAM!

Adam sweet-talks his guitar, frisking down what keyboard plays for some new and righteous groove, then steps aside to let the bassman find the dusky thump and pulse of what they all had just created. NOTE - Adam is my neighbor, a professional musician and father to Elyse, the little girl whose... Sign in to see full entry.

Monday, July 30, 2012

FASHIONISTA PHOTOGRAPHS

A retired commercial photographer, Chuck used to speak about what the trade called a "Holy Shit!" photo - that is, the photo of a lovely housewife neatly dressed holding up in amazement a white towel just come from her dryer ("Holy Shit! Look how white Tide made this towel.") A model in New Yorker... Sign in to see full entry.

Sunday, July 29, 2012

PREDATOR

Did you know the people there? - Maybe some. I'm just not sure. Did you hate them? - No, why should I? Different politics? - I have none. Feeling out of sorts that day? - Fact is, I felt pretty good. Then why'd you kill them? - Why? Why not. Sign in to see full entry.

Saturday, July 28, 2012

HOW TO HUG A RIVER

Having just posted yesterday my poem about the George Washington Bridge, I got to thinking about an experience back when I was still teaching at Tappan Zee High School. What I remember doesn't lend itself easily to poetry, so I'll settle for some workaday prose. In any event, I'm 77 going on 78 and... Sign in to see full entry.

Friday, July 27, 2012

THE GEORGE WASHINGTON BRIDGE

Classic cabled long and taut. It shows no trace of Jersey's treegrown and unpeopled scarp of Palisades, a traprock wilderness of fractured columns deep in talus. Nor does it have the gritty tang, the crosstown cancelled north and south of spiky, noisy, diesel-driven hazy sink of upstart polyglot... Sign in to see full entry.

Thursday, July 26, 2012

SLEIGHT OF HAND

"Mandrake gestures hypnotically." - frequent line from the old comic strip, Mandrake the Magician. It was always followed by some plot-useful magic. What I liked about it was that hypnotism made"real magic" unnecessary. He wiped left hand across the air above the table, flicked the veil and - voila!... Sign in to see full entry.

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