For John Daniel

For John “You gotta accen-tuate the positive, E-liminate the negative. And latch on To the affirmative- Don’t mess with Mister In-Between! You gotta spread joy up to the maximum, Bring gloom down to the minimum, And have faith, or pandemonium’s Liable to walk upon the scene. -Johnny Mercer It was one of my dear friend

First Footers

First Footing In Scotland, tradition has it that the first person to cross your threshold on Hogmanay (New Year’s Day) is a harbinger of good fortune for the rest to the year. He or she should be welcomed in, given a good nip of whiskey, some shortbread, and a lump of coal to represent a

The Journey Of The Magi

The Journey Of The Magi A cold coming we had of it. Just the worst time of the year For a journey, and such a long journey: The ways deep and the weather sharp. The very dead of winter. And the camels galled, sorefooted, refractory, Lying down in the melting snow. There were times we

A Fable

A FABLE Three old hens lived in the yard of a tender-hearted farmer named Nelly. The hens were at the end of their egg-laying days, but Nelly hated slaughtering her chickens even when they had outlived their usefulness, and the three hens had been with her for a long time. She’d grown rather fond of

Snow

Yes, the newspapers were right: snow was general all over Ireland. It was falling softly upon the Bog of Allen and, further westwards, softly falling into the dark mutinous Shannon waves. It was falling too upon every part of the lonely churchyard where Michael Furey lay buried. It lay thickly drifted on the crooked crosses

Coaching Session

Coaching Session A good many years ago I was a member of a television comedy troupe called The Henway Company (what’s a Henway? About four pounds. Cue rim shot, da dum bah!) It was the brain-child of a witty guy named Ray Edelstein, and it was openly based on the sketch comedy of NBC’s “Saturday