By Eric Le Roy
“The world is a comedy for those who think, and a tragedy for those who feel” – Horace Walpole
“Only the Lonely” was the signature song of a guy named Roy Orbison, a star in the early rock’ n’ roll era. Orbison died in 1988 of a heart attack at the age of 52. Songs are full of lonely guys; they were back … Read the rest
By Eric Le Roy
Content 18+ As we study history together, I often show documentary films to my students. When these films are about the distant past, there is a voice (or person-moderator) who walks us through the information, using whatever illustrations can be mustered. But as we get nearer to modern times the documentaries come to life: actual human action in black and white. From the late 19th … Read the rest
By Eric Le Roy
Content 18+ I remember working in a pub in Crawley, near Gatwick airport in London. Many years ago. I was by then probably in my early 30s. Yet, as they say, ‘everybody gets old, but you can stay immature forever.’ That would have been me back then.
I had lived in Bath during the 1970s, returned to the US to do a Master’s degree … Read the rest
By Eric Le Roy
Content 18+ The gray days turn now to early darkness – light-swallowing afternoons that have me leaving the apartment with my dogs when it is still daylight and returning 30 minutes later to sudden winds and the pitch black of precocious night. These afternoons end quicker than friendships when talking about places like Russia and Ukraine, Israel and Palestine. Believe me, I know.
In the morning, … Read the rest
Content 18+
Once upon a time, I was a little boy who lived with his grandparents in Charleston, West Virginia. It was long ago. I used to imagine, fearfully, that the dinosaurs were still around, and at night they would come slithering over to our house at the end of the hilly street. They would reach my upstairs bedroom window with their long necks and poke their rough lizard tongues … Read the rest
