Monthly Archives: June 2012

Nothing in Particular and Everything Good: The Art of Conversation

“Conversation should touch everything, but should concentrate itself on nothing.” Oscar Wilde, The Critic As Artist “After the exercises which the health of the body requires, and which have themselves a natural tendency to actuate and invigorate the mind, the … Continue reading

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A Sense of Loss

This has been a bad week from the standpoint of losing friends. Two friends of roughly similar age have died from heart related illnesses, one from my high school years and one whom I met as a fully grown adult. … Continue reading

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Repartee, Badinage, Persiflage, Raillery and Guff

In the 1920s, Dorothy Parker was establishing a reputation as a witty woman with a sharp tongue (the actress Mrs. Patrick Campbell called her, “My pretty, pretty cobra”). At the same time, Clare Booth Luce was becoming a respected journalist … Continue reading

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My Morning Coffee Experience

I, like most of us, am a creature of habit and when those habits are disturbed I find myself unsettled.  The latest example of this is an unprecedented interruption in that most holy of personal activities – securing my morning … Continue reading

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