Tonight we sleep peacefully thanks to the ardor of the brave.

If you are reading this now, then you are likely to head to bed soon for the night, safely.

If you are like many today, then you might have said a prayer, or a few words of thanks, for the soldiers, the police, the firemen, and the emergency professionals who have made such safety possible.

You and I will retire to sleep tonight without event.  We will awaken in a free state tomorrow.  These are rarer things than we often realize, in a frequently ugly world, where despots threaten and madmen make red pageantry in our skylines and in our saddest inner moments.  But tonight we sleep peacefully thanks to the ardor of the brave.

Indeed, we WILL never forget.

To all of the especially good men and women whose job it is to keep us safe, often at the highest risk to themselves:

Good luck, Godspeed, and thank you for your service.

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Longwood Alum Jeannie Powers to star in “The Waiting Room” at the Bare Bones Theater.

Hey Longwood High School folks!  Our distinguished alum, Jeannie Powers, will appear this month in Lisa Loomer’s “The Waiting Room” at the Bare Bones Theater in Northport!  See the announcement in today’s Newsday for the details!

Congrats, Jeannie!!

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“Things You Don’t Write About 9/11/2001,” by Stanley Anne Zane Latham

A dear friend authored this deeply personal and quite beautiful poem.  I am honored to be able to feature it here.

“Things You Don’t Write About 9/11/2001”

by Stanley Anne Zane Latham

It was an ordinary train ride
You, me, Leita, and Dan
We didn’t mean to get separated.

We didn’t mean anything
in those days. We were
in college. It seemed

like we were rebels. Our parents
ate cabbage; our parents. Gosh,
we thought, what happened to them?

We simply got on a train. We didn’t
tell them. We were skipping school,
old enough to be our own.

I have to tell them, you loved me.
Dan loved Leita. I loved you.
We all kind of loved.

It was supposed to be
a simple day in New York.
It was supposed to be

A simple day in New York.

You don’t want me to bring
our life after this back
to this. Moment. There

is nothing like an almost.
In the aftermath, when the train
stopped, when no one was

ever the same again; i mean
the conductor said – Do you remember
what the conductor said?

i remember : it was a morning train
i remember : the birds flying at the windows
i remember : You shrouding me across

the platform.

i had you. You had me.
Dan had Leita, Leita had Dan.
We were never the same.

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Photo credit: “F coming into Smith-9th,” by Error46146 at en.wikipedia. Licensed under CC BY 3.0 via Wikimedia Commons.

“The Binch,” by Rob Suggs

“The Binch,” by Rob Suggs

Every U down in Uville liked the U.S. a lot,
But the Binch, who lived Far East of Uville, did not.
The Binch hated U.S! The whole U.S. way!
Now don’t ask me why, for nobody can say,
It could be his turban was screwed on too tight.
Or the sun from the desert had beaten too bright
But I think that the most likely reason of all
May have been that his heart was two sizes too small.

But, Whatever the reason, his heart or his turban,
He stood facing Uville, the part that was urban.
“They’re doing their business,” he snarled from his perch.
“They’re raising their families! They’re going to church!
They’re leading the world, and their empire is thriving,
I MUST keep the S’s and U’s from surviving!”
Tomorrow, he knew, all the U’s and the S’s,
Would put on their pants and their shirts and their dresses,
They’d go to their offices, playgrounds and schools,
And abide by their U and S values and rules.

And then they’d do something he liked least of all,
Every U down in Uville, the tall and the small,
Would stand all united, each U and each S,
And they’d sing Uville’s anthem, “God bless us! God bless!”
All around their Twin Towers of Uville, they’d stand,
and their voices would drown every sound in the land.

“I must stop that singing,” Binch said with a smirk,
And he had an idea–an idea that might work!
The Binch stole some U airplanes in U morning hours,
And crashed them right into the Uville Twin Towers.
“They’ll wake to disaster!” he snickered, so sour,
“And how can they sing when they can’t find a tower?”

The Binch cocked his ear as they woke from their sleeping,
All set to enjoy their U-wailing and weeping,
Instead he heard something that started quite low,
And it built up quite slow, but it started to grow —
And the Binch heard the most unpredictable thing . . .
And he couldn’t believe it–they started to sing!

He stared down at U-ville, not trusting his eyes,
What he saw was a shocking, disgusting surprise!
Every U down in U-ville, the tall and the small,
Was singing! Without any towers at all!

He HADN’T stopped U-Ville from singing! It sung!
For down deep in the hearts of the old and the young,
Those Twin Towers were standing, called Hope and called Pride,
And you can’t smash the towers we hold deep inside.

So we circle the sites where our heroes did fall,
With a hand in each hand of the tall and the small,
And we mourn for our losses while knowing we’ll cope,
For we still have inside that U-Pride and U-Hope.

For America means a bit more than tall towers,
It means more than wealth or political powers,
It’s more than our enemies ever could guess,
So may God bless America! Bless us! God bless!

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“I believe in an America where the separation of church and state is absolute …”

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“Saint Gerolamo,” by Michelangelo Merisi da Caravaggio, Circa 1600

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Photo credit:  “Michelangelo Caravaggio 057” by Caravaggio – The Yorck Project: 10.000 Meisterwerke der Malerei. DVD-ROM, 2002. ISBN 3936122202. Distributed by DIRECTMEDIA Publishing GmbH. Licensed under Public Domain via Wikimedia Commons.

Throwback Thursday: the First Edition Dungeons & Dragons “Monster Manual.”

I was too young to play Dungeons & Dragons when it was in its heyday; by the time I reached high school, its ardent niche popularity had faded.  (I’ve read that tabletop role-playing games owed their decline in the 1980’s to the arrival of videogames.)

I do remember poring over my older brother’s “Monster Manual” without his knowledge, though.  (We shared a room; I wasn’t supposed to be touching his stuff.)

Dragons doubtlessly captured the imaginations of most kids who perused that book.  Older boys would probably have been fascinated by the succubus.  At the age of 9 or 10, I myself was most partial to “green slime,” the teleporting “blink dogs” and the basilisk.

I smiled when the below image of the “Monster Manual” cover began making the rounds among a group of my Facebook friends.  Believe it or not, there are still a few adults who get together to play D&D.

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Literally a sweet deal!

I bought TWO GIANT boxes of Cinnamon Toast Crunch at Walmart yesterday for just $5!!  Nailed it!!  I swing deals like Donald Trump!!

And hey!! I would probably make a better fucking president!!!

So … y’k’now.  I hereby announce my candidacy for the Office of the President of the United States.

[Thanks to Campaign Manager Pete Harrison for the slogan and poster below.  Share these with your friends and neighbors!]

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“The Lady Clare,” by John William Waterhouse, 1900

Based on the poem “The Lady Clare” by Alfred Lord Tennyson.

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A comic book tip conundrum: “Daredevil: Fall From Grace” (Chichester, McDaniel, Colazzo, 1993)

I was all set to plug my favorite Daredevil storyline following the success of Marvel’s show on Netflix; now I hesitate.  I absolutely loved 1993’s “Daredevil: Fall From Grace,” written by D. G. Chichester and illustrated by Scott McDaniel and Hector Collazo.  But a simple google search reveals that this is yet another thing that I loved and everyone else apparently hates.  So we can file it right alongside certain 90’s artifacts like “Alien 3” (1992), “Knightfall” (1993), and “Wyatt Earp” (1994).

Man, the reaction to this was poor, despite its high sales upon release.  I actually do understand the criticisms.  It’s a complicated story, into which various unrelated characters from the Marvel universe are shoehorned.  (A “virus” bioengineered by the Defense Department can “remake what it infects” into anything at all, granting the infected with whatever superpowers they wish.  Various Marvel villains and anti-heroes arrive in New York to compete for its discovery, after its loss decades ago in the subway system is made known.)

People hated “Fall From Grace,” describing it as convoluted and difficult to follow.  They said Chichester’s writing was incomprehensible and too wordy.  The experimental new art style by Scott McDaniel was described as “murky” and equally hard to follow.  Today, people wonder why the widely panned story was ever even collected into trade paperback.  (It’s pricey, by the way.)

Maybe I’m just nuts, but … this is one of my favorite comic book storylines of all time.  I absolutely would not recommend it to a reader new to Daredevil, as I recommended Frank Miller and John Romita Jr.’s “Daredevil: The Man Without Fear” on Monday.  In fact, it might only really be enjoyed by someone with at least a bit of familiarity with the Marvel universe.

Yes, Chichester’s writing was lengthy and verbose.  But I loved his sometimes poetic and always mood-setting exposition, and his dialogue occasionally really shined.  I forgave the story for inserting characters with whom I was unfamiliar.  “Hellspawn” (and his Jamaican accent?) was entirely new to me, but damn if that monster didn’t make a unique and frightening enemy for Daredevil.  (He’s the demonic looking, tiger-like “doppleganger” you see pictured in the first cover below.)

And look at that art.  Certainly, it wasn’t to everybody’s taste.  It was abstract, minimalist, dark, and it often lacked detail. It was almost … impressionistic?  But I loved it.  The radically altered style was perfectly suited to this new, much darker tone and story.  (There was a hell of a lot of pathos in this storyline, including torture and assassination at the hands of the government.)  It was full of shadow and dark color, served the story’s mood perfectly, and it was nothing like I’d seen in a comic book before.

I couldn’t honestly recommend buying this in trade paperback, given the fact the entire world except me seemed unhappy with it.  But, hey …  if you can borrow it from a friend or the library, then check it out.  Maybe you’ll find some of the magic in it that I did.

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