The Everyman Chronicles
Peyton Manning retired this week, bringing to a close a career that will include two dozen passing records, five league MVP trophies and two Super Bowl rings. His induction into the National Football League Hall of Fame in Canton, Ohio, is as certain as gravity. But when Ken Burns and other historians wax poetic about the man, they …
A grandfather I never met lost his tiny Georgia grocery story (in which dad was born) during the Great Depression. He couldn’t bear asking customers, all neighbors and friends, for money they did not have and would not see again. Eventually, he gave away so much that he had to shutter the business. So …
One of my father’s (and therefore my) favorite cartoons was Underdog. Launched in 1964, Underdog was the secret identity of Shoeshine Boy. Though he didn’t possess any of the powers of today’s glistening, branded superheroes, what Underdog lacked in strength and speed he made up for in grit. And love. Specifically, for girlfriend Sweet Polly …
O Me! O Life! Oh me! Oh life! of the questions of these recurring, Of the endless trains of the faithless, of cities fill’d with the foolish, Of myself forever reproaching myself, (for who more foolish than I, and who more faithless?) Of eyes that vainly crave the light, of the objects mean, of the …
“You have turned for me my mourning into dancing: you have put off my sackcloth, and girded me with gladness.” — Psalms 30:11
When thrown correctly, the knuckleball is the hardest pitch to hit in baseball. Apparently, it defies most laws of motion. While every other pitch in the human arsenal — fastball, curve, slider, change up, etc. — relies on spin to give a ball movement, a knuckleball is thrown with none, allowing gravity and physics …
