Rants and Essays

(updated 5/2/98)

What follows is a list of a few noodlings your capricious scribe has written recently. Submitted for your approval, or at least your entertainment.

Gals 'n' Guys: What's in a Name?: (5/2/98)
A longish email thread which started out with the only slightly jocular admission by yours truly (and madly and deeply) that he found the behavior of Mary Kay LeTourneau (the northwest teacher who seduced/was seduced by one of her very young students) something he had often fantasized about as a hormone-tainted high-school freshman staring at his English teacher's legs. From that opening, the thread morphs into a discussion of feminist PC-speak and thence to linguistic fascism, especially in the academic milieu.

All real names and references have (I hope) been replaced by ellipses ("..." or "*****") or pseudonyms (e.g., "Athos," "Aramis," "Art Babe") in the messages. Otherwise, they are reproduced just as they came across my email transom.
Waiting for the Martini: Five Days of Jury Duty: (2/18/98)
Mr. Morrow does his civic duty, but not without a lot of bitching, moaning, and caustic commentary: Reflections on sitting in judgment of one's fellow humans -- or -- if we're not smart enough to get out of jury duty, just whose peers are we, anyway?
À la Recherche du Soleil Perdu: (12/14/95)
Philosophical musings about the sun-kissed southwest and the rain-misted northwest and how one could find both appealing. Especially after a couple of margaritas.