Pauses and Moments

Rumblings from the lane next to the off-ramp.

by Joseph Cooper

A Mother’s Presence

Would Dr. Fernand Lamaze’s obstetrical thinking and techniques have voyaged all the way to the Lying-In floor of Pennsylvania Hospital (Philadelphia), in 1947? Would an epidural anesthesia have been administered? Was he plucked out by virtue of scalpels and surgical incisions? Read More

A March Madness – and a Final Four – of His Own

For him, "the road to the final four" signifies the four years of tuition payments he will have to make if his son does not get an athletic scholarship. Neither one a slam dunk.

With academic scholarships and grants, his daughter is on her way to lab laurels and maybe even a ticket to the "big dance" - a prestigious grad school fellowship. Read More

Stirrings, Rated PG-13

"Oh God. Oh God."

Were there many women who had responded to him with such an on-high tribute?

There was the futon back in .... There was the night and the morning on the fold-out in .... The four-poster in the bed-and-breakfast ....The starboard upper bunk aboard the .... Read More

From Embarrassment to Endearment

At an off-campus drip-brew (pre-barista) coffee shop, he met the woman who would retrieve him.

At the time, he was sitting across from another woman, a young woman; a very young woman whose distractions and peeves were multiplying into increasingly small and disparate decimal points. Read More

What Would Clooney Wear?

It's red-carpet time in LA. Read More

Bed-Sheet Bliss?

In the shower, at four in the morning, he soaped himself and re-soaped himself - with an especially fragrant (yet manly scented) bar of soap that he had been saving for an especially intimate occasion. He wonders if he will ever again be up to bringing about bed-sheet bliss. Read More

A Tebow Time Miracle?

He has a huddle with himself:

"Maybe they're gone. Maybe they got disconnected and were swept out in an unprecedented Yuletide tsunami of urine. Maybe they were flushed down the toilet as I braced myself to deliver a three-in-morning attempt at voiding." Read More

Words of Warning and Worry

The three most dreaded words in the English language?

"Internal Revenue Service"

That's how a "tax-resolution" firm opens its radio advertisements, pitching to non-filers, delinquent payers; those facing wage garnishment; those threatened with the loss of a business and a home. Pretty scary stuff. Read More

Bravery in an Interior Battle

He has no proof—no documentary evidence. But he does have a suspicion. Yes, for sure, the Pilgrims left England to escape constraints on their faith; they sailed to the new world where they would enjoy religious freedom. Read More

The Jobsian Choice, Musing on Fears

The choice is not Mac versus PC.The choice seems to be needles and knives, versus nettles; surgery versus sterols. He doesn't want his body "opened up."Well, not again anyway.That's what he has in common with Steve Jobs - sadly, the late Steve Jobs. He doesn't want to be - how did Jobs put it? Read More