Fragments

I saw my first drone today (December 19, 2015). While out for an afternoon walk I noticed a strange sound, like a mosquito. Then I looked up and there was a tiny object high in the sky, possibly as high as the Sikorski helicopters that fly around here. But this thing was just hovering stock still in the air ... like a helicopter, but clearly not a helicopter. I could not make out much detail except for a shape, which was 4-sided and probably with whizzing propellers on all sides.     After a while it suddenly zipped to another location ... similar to how a hawk might rise on the air currents (tho this was, as I say, stock still) and then suddenly shoot off in some direction ... and then again came to a complete halt. Then it kept repeating this, relocating itself over land and then later over the Sound.     It instills all sorts of feelings. Am I being watched? Could it fall on somebody's head or through the roof? Could it crash into the cockpit of a plane or th...

by Joel Marks December 17, 2015 It came to me in a flash how extraordinarily limited is our hold on consciousness and hence that which most distinguishes us from inert matter. In the shower I used to invariably find myself in a quandary about whether I had already soaped up my body. This would happen when I had rinsed off and was considering whether to turn off the spigot; I would suddenly wonder, “Did I just wipe off the lather, or did I not put it on my body in the first place?” Sounds like senility, doesn’t it? But I am not senile. I have various other self-checks on my memory to assure me that my memory remains as healthy as anybody’s my age (of 66, though this has been going on for years). So one day I thought of a tactic. I would make a sign on the moisture misted glass shower door when I was about to lather up. I rather dramatically chose the sign of the Z, after my childhood memories of Zorro. (You see? My memory is intact!) Then when I am wondering whether to turn off...

Dear Editor: I've figured it out. Donald Trump's campaign is a joke! I mean, we've always known it was a joke, but now I think it may have been intended as a joke all along. We've seen this before. There was Borat, that is, Sacha Baron Cohen, who traveled America to interact with the natives in all their (our) wackiness. He fed on gullibility, exactly as Trump is doing, getting people to reveal not only their silliness but their darker sides. Then there was Guy Grand, the protagonist of Terry Southern's wickedly funny novel,  The Magic Christian.  Grand is wealthy beyond belief and spends his time perpetrating outrageous spoofs on the unsuspecting public. Sound familiar? Donald Trump has skyrocketed to the lead in the Republican race for the nomination for President of the United States by uttering empty policy pronouncements and vacuous assurances, making hallucinatory factual assertions, putting forward outrageous proposals, hurling insults, making faces,...

Dear Editor: Perhaps the most obscene aspect of the San Bernardino massacre was seeing the pictures of the assault rifles that were used by the perpetrators. For these, along with hundreds of rounds of ammunition, had been obtained perfectly legally.             It hardly matters to me whether the purchaser was an intended terrorist or a plain-old law-abiding citizen. Why are such weapons legally available to almost anyone in the United States? What do they have to do with hunting? What do they have to do with sport? What do they have to do with self-defense?             Do we really expect to see men and women carrying such weapons to work in case some disturbed or fanatical person invades the premises? And would they be sufficiently trained so that their efforts at defense wouldn’t wreak more collateral damage than the intended damage of the malefactor?   ...

Dr. Huibing He works "to cultivate a core of Chinese pastors in the ministry of pastoral care and Christian arts." An Asian Christian Art Association member, she studied painting, drawing, and art theory in Guangzhou and Nanjing, China, and taught applied church art and Christian art history at Nanjing Theological Seminary (1985–92). After moving to the United States, Dr. He became pastor of First Chinese United Methodist Church, Duluth, Georgia. Since 2000 she has been pastor of First United Methodist Church, Port Jefferson, New York. An accomplished artist, she has had her work exhibited in China, Hong Kong, Austria, and the United States as well as published in more than a dozen books and magazines. Click here to see her Website . The Sacrifice of Isaac