Many creative pieces, known as master’s theses, often are doomed to remain forever in the stretch-wrap that entombed them when first placed on the library shelf.
     Some are esoteric (just like the word “esoteric”), in a language and on a subject so narrow that only devout followers in that field would conceivably enjoy reading it.
     A dozen years ago, my colleague at Highlands University, Dick Panofsky, observed that two identical VW Bugs in the parking lot of Mortimer Hall appeared to be of different heights. One seemed five inches shorter than its twin.

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    One thing that made Saturdays complete when I was a child living on Railroad Avenue was the procession of itinerant comic book exchange boys and girls.
     Two or three kids from the Pecos and Commerce street area, delegates of the 1940s version of the Bookmobile, sans books or wheels, came by regularly, their arms full of comic books for exchange. Because my siblings and I were extremely literate (okay, well, where comic books are concerned), we customarily had a pile of crime, detective, humor, war, adventure and romance comic books.

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    A couple of weeks ago, one of us at the Optic wrote an editorial applauding efforts to make more and more public places smoke free. As an ex-smoker, I am among the worst critics of the habit, but it’s not a fit of hauteur that motivates me; frankly, I hate the smell of the noxious weed that I used to inflict on others, without even asking, “Mind if I smoke?” The editorial mentioned the reality that entire families on their way to dinner at a restaurant may never even step into the restaurant because of one person near the door who’s lit up.

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    Seby Cordova is Sandia Casino’s newest millionaire, and that’s great news for all.
    A million dollars is a 1 followed by six zeroes. It’s the amount of bread few of us can expect to earn in a lifetime.
     Now for a while, let’s forget the bird-in-hand experience in which it’s better to get a cash payout on the spot than to have it meted out in monthly or yearly installments. Getting it in one chunk enables us to take care of our own investments, whereas if we get it in, say, 30 installments, we might not live that long.

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    If Las Vegas area Super Bowl fans are correct, things will be bleak for the Philadelphia Eagles Sunday, as people settle in for their yearly dose of football and meatball stew.

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    A friend with children in middle school called me recently and for an hour gave details of her kids being bullied on the playground and in her own difficulty in getting anybody to do anything about it.

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    One of the toughest challenges facing someone who wishes to express a strong opinion is in explaining how he or she came across the information to be complained about. For example, I once read an excoriation of Hustler Magazine.
     But first, let me explain that Hustler, the publication owned by Larry Flynt, is the world’s most obstreperous “adult” magazine What’s “obstreperous”? I don’t have a dictionary handy, but . . . it’s bad.

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    It’s a matter of considerable linguistic curiosity to me that the two words in the English language that properly address the influence the moon has on human (and animal) nature are “moonstruck” and “lunatic.”

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    The easiest New Year’s resolution to make and keep is one that you’ve gotten a head start on. Two of the things on my mind (and body) are money and pounds, respectively.
     A few weeks ago in this column I was happy to report that the number of credit cards in our household had dropped from something in the teens to just one. And the corresponding indebtedness is currently about one-fourth of what it was a year ago.

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    Two new year’s resolutions, made almost a year ago will expire in two days.
    One was to stop supporting credit card companies single-handedly. That resolution has come to a happy ending, our having reduced our debt to about one-fourth of what it was a year ago.
     The second resolution–made also by many of you–was to shed pounds. A little more than a year ago, a column I wrote gave details of my weight, which at the time would have made a sumo wrestler envious: 234 pounds.

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