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Quote of the Day
“The letter I have written today is longer than usual because I lacked the time to make it shorter.”
— Blaise Pascal (1623-1662)
Howard Daniel, Pen-for-Rent Principal
Happy WHAT?!
/0 Comments/in Family, Holidays, Humor /by Howard DanielBack in the Cretinaceous Period when I was a kid, there was a popular TV program called Father Knows Best. In today’s “woke” age when “old white males” are no longer widely imagined to have all the answers, the premise of that show — that middle-aged guys might possess a special kind of wisdom — […]
Cause for Outrage
/2 Comments/in Current Events, History, Thoughts /by Howard DanielBuilding in Israel hit by rocket from Gaza The world gives us much cause for outrage. Just this morning, I learned that the illegitimately “re-elected” president of Belarus, Alexander Lukashenko, had his air traffic controllers and his MiGs force a civilian airliner from Ireland, which was crossing Belarussian airspace en route from Greece to Lithuania, […]
Top of Mind
/0 Comments/in Thoughts, Writing & editing /by Howard DanielThis is the writer and editor behind Pen-for-Rent Two weeks ago I celebrated something very nice — my Pen-for-Rent page on LinkedIn blew past the 10,000 followers mark. Greatly adding to my gratification at reaching this milestone was discovering (in the information provided by LinkedIn) that my page’s “engagement rate” of nearly 9% was higher […]
Matzah, a Leningrad Perspective
/3 Comments/in Holidays, Recollections, Russia-USSR /by Howard DanielMatzah In the days leading up to the beginning of Passover1 last night, I’ve seen several articles on the web about matzah,2 cracker-like sheets of unleavened bread. That was all the food the Israelites (whom today we call the Jews) were able to take with them as Moses led them to freedom following generations of slavery […]
Dog Food
/0 Comments/in Brazil, Family, Humor, Places I've lived, Recollections /by Howard DanielZebee Not long ago I spotted something funny online about the attributes — from a female viewpoint — of a perfect guy. One of them was a good memory.1 I’ve forgotten the rest. OK, just kidding. But only partly. Actually, while I don’t remember them all, one of those “great guy” attributes was that he’d […]
Heroism
/0 Comments/in History, Humor, Recollections, Russia-USSR /by Howard DanielBon voyage! (Courtesy Matson Navigation Company) A few days ago I spotted a funny story on Facebook that reminded me of something a very brave man, Aba Taratuta, told me back in 1978 or thereabouts, when I was on the staff of the U.S. consulate-general in Leningrad (today again known by its original name, St. […]
The Unthinkable Happened … Now What Do We Do?
/2 Comments/in Current Events, History, Thoughts /by Howard DanielMob invades U.S. Capitol, Jan. 6, 2021 I am appalled. We should all be appalled. But regrettably, that feeling is not universal. What am I appalled at? Two big unthinkables. Unthinkable No. 1: The mob’s assault on the U.S. Capitol. Even worse — the fact that the mob’s Cheerleader-in-Chief was the guy in the White […]
2020 Hindsight
/2 Comments/in Coronavirus, Family, Recollections, Thoughts /by Howard DanielThe year still has a couple of weeks to go, so this may not be quite the most logical time to consider it in hindsight. However, if I’m to create the annual — or, in my case, “annual-if-I-ever-get-around-to-it” — holiday letter before Santa Claus squeezes down the chimney we don’t have … there’s no […]
Zooming in to a Special Celebration
/0 Comments/in Coronavirus, Recollections, Russia-USSR /by Howard DanielCoach Henry Harutunian Yesterday, at long last, about 160 alumni of Yale University’s fencing teams Zoomed together to honor my friend — our friend — Henry Harutunian, who had served as Yale’s fencing coach for nearly half a century. The celebration had originally been scheduled to take place in person in New York City on […]
Another Dad Story
/2 Comments/in Danelectro, Family, Humor, Recollections /by Howard DanielNat Daniel as a young married man, circa 1945 (years after the time of this story), with my mom, Mollie (photo taken on the boardwalk at Long Branch, N.J., where I was born) To mark my dad’s 108th birthday this week (he was born on Sept. 23, 1912), I’m retelling a funny story about him. […]