Larry's blog

Ron Stander left his office near midtown at 5 PM on a sunny, pleasant Wednesday afternoon. As an executive in the music industry, his interest in R & B and the delta blues belied his conservative, button down looks. People often assumed he was a WASP, but his ancestry also included an Afro-Caribbean mix on his mother’s side, though he looked like the English/Welsh descendants on his father’s side. A man in his mid 40’s, he often wore horn rimmed glasses and was partial to three-piece suits. Though he lived in Manhattan for over twenty years, his musical tastes were influenced by his childhood in northwestern Mississippi, and he still retained a trace of a southern accent as evidence of his origin. He turned the corner on West 59th Street and took the N train downtown. His destination station at Times Square often featured street musicians hustling a few bucks on the platforms. He sometimes tipped them on his way out the station, but rarely stopped to listen. The music almos...

George Martin finished his miserable shift at the usual time and took the same bus that made 23 excruciating stops until it reached his station in the Gravesend section of Brooklyn. Then there was the 14-block walk in the blistering July heat until he reached the humble, bungalow style house he had inherited from his mother a few years before. The house was aging and crumbling much the way he was at 57-years old. He looked and felt a lot older than his years. Forty years of manual labor will do that to a man, as his craggy, weather-beaten face will attest to. After forty years, he didn't have much to show for it, staying as the same job he started as a teenager. The kind of job usually done by immigrants from Latin America and the Caribbean who were generally, much younger, faster and stronger than him. It was only a short matter of time when he couldn't do it anymore. Then he would have really nothing left, no family, friends, or money to live his few remaining years i...

Gary drove down the familiar twisted dirt roadways that snaked through the back woods of North Carolina. It reminded him of when his dad Rick first taught him to drive when he was 16. It felt so far away now in both years and location. A half century ago he thought, and a totally different world from the frenetic life he has long lived in LA. He regretted not coming back sooner, but there was always something preventing the trip and relations with his father cooled in recent years. The phone calls had become less frequent and they always seemed to end in a fight. Rick had become even more stubborn and set in his ways as he became an old man, with his old-fashioned views becoming even more out of step with the times. Gary always intended to come back, to have this big reconciliation, but he ran out of time. He got the horrible news that dad died of a sudden and massive heart attack the day before and that was that. There had been no warning. Sure, dad was 86, but he seemed so...

Liz checked the rear view in the full-length mirror while she adjusted her skintight, blue, spandex dress. “Do you think this dress is too short?” she asked. Zoe glanced at Liz and replied, “Honey, that dress is so short I can see your IUD.” “Not if I keep my legs together, Liz replied. “Honey, you haven’t kept your legs together since you were twelve. Why start now?” Zoe shot back. Liz scrunched her nose and asked, “Why are you being so mean to me?” “You’re not on the streets anymore. Agencies like higher caliber, classy women,” said Zoe, a veteran of the agency that Liz recently joined. “So? I can do that,” replied Liz. Liz’s cell phone rang and she picked it up after glancing at the caller ID. “Hello Steve” “Liz, I have a job for you this weekend. We have a wealthy client coming in town tonight. He’s the CEO of a multibillion-dollar company. All our classy high-end types are booked for this weekend. We do not want to lose this client and there are a lot of othe...

The cabin looked very sparse. That was fine thought Shane Sheldrake. After all, he had come to the Himalayas for a weeklong silent meditation retreat and there should be as few distractions as possible. No cell phones, radios, TVs, or any other creature comforts from home. The point was to spend the week in solitude and meditate. He would speak only in an emergency and eat as little as possible and drink only tea. He stretched out on the hard bed and looked out the tiny window to the left. The scenery was dominated by a picturesque, snowcapped mountain in the foreground. He was immediately taken by the thought of climbing it and meditating at the top. He would have a beautiful view of the valley below now lush with grass in the midst of Spring. The next morning, at the crack of dawn, Shane set out with only a light jacket, a bottle of water, and two power bars. It was a mild day and he would be back in time for dinner he figured. No need to be burdened down with anything ...

The usual group of students congregated in the front of the classroom. Professor Martinez’s philosophy class always ended with a spirited discussion after the formal end of class at 2 pm on Tuesdays and Thursdays. Ted decided to go back to college in his 50’s just for such intellectual nourishment. He didn’t have to worry about picking a practical major to earn a living like most students on campus. He was particularly drawn to subjects like philosophy that explored the big ideas of life. Professor Martinez stood at the blackboard, chalk in hand. “I can best illustrate three theological positions with a series of circles,” she said as she drew two circles on the blackboard. “In this traditional Judeo-Christian view man and God are separate beings. The pantheistic view can be represented this way,” she continued as she drew a single circle. “Man, nature, and God are all part of the same thing. Next comes the view known as panentheism which can be represented this way,” sh...

The knife went in just below the sternum. This was lower than he intended. The idea was to sever the aorta which meant a quick death. Now Tony had to do what he hated; twist the knife. This was effective but widened the incision resulting in a blood bath and a long cleanup operation. He felt the life oozing out of his target as he fell to the floor, the blood gushing out in spurts as the heart finished its final beats. Tony pulled the cell phone out of his pocket. Hey, Johnny. Your problem is gone but it’s not as clean as I would have liked. I’m going to need a cleanup crew. I have the best. When they finish the cops won’t find a trace of blood anywhere. What is this gonna cost me? Usually 12 grand, but for you Johnny only 10. Ok, get it done. Tony hung up and put the phone back in his pocket after carefully wiping it down with the Kleenex he always kept in his back pocket. He didn’t usually think much about a job after he finished, but this time was different. May...

Liam peered over his half glasses at the menu, squinting as he struggled to read the special of the day. “I’m surprised this menu is so long”, I mused. “Restaurants are all shortening their menus in response to studies that customers are more satisfied when presented by fewer choices. People get overwhelmed with too many choices. Liam looked puzzled. “Don’t people want more choices?” “Yes, they say they do”, I agreed. “But when you ask how satisfied they are, they are happier with fewer choices. People are not good judges of what will make them happy. The older I get, the more I realize how right Sartre was when he said ‘Man is condemned to be free’. Maybe I can save you some time by recommending the pancakes, eggs, and sausages.” Liam furrowed his eyebrows and looked deep in thought. “What about scientists who say that everything is determined. Maybe we aren’t as free as we think?” “The scientists are correct about inanimate objects. You can predict the location of a...

The man in the frock with pointy shoes and bells, stood in line at the soup kitchen in the Bowery on a warm summer morning.  His flowing dark wavy hair fell to his shoulders, and he flipped his hair back as the other homeless people gaped at him.  “Can I have kippers and bangers with a side of Yorkshire pudding please,” he said to the man doling out food when he got to the head of the line.  The man looked him up and down for a moment and replied, “This isn’t the Windsor Castle here.  You’ll take what we got,” as he ladled a pile of watery porridge on to his plate.  The odd looking man sat down on the curb next to the other hungry denizens of the underworld.  The man sitting next to him greeted him and asked for his name.  “My name is Willie Spear,” he said.  “My name is Dean,” came the reply.  “Where are you from Willie?”  “Why I come from Stratford-on-Avon,” Willie said.  “Is that in Connecticut?”  Willie looked puzzled....

Control:  This universe we are creating will be exquisitely designed and fine-tuned for the existence of life. Chaos:  I don’t agree with this plan.  I think it should be chaotic and subject to the random process of probability.  The laws themselves should be chaotic and selected by the same process. Control:  Why?  We are the designers and should make it to our specifications.  Why leave anything to chance? Chaos:  Because we want any intelligent beings that we create to have free will Control:  We will give them the illusion of free will so they won’t know they don’t have it Chaos:  But why foster an illusion?  Isn’t it better for them to actually have it? Control:  No, because they may use it for evil and destroy themselves Chaos:  If that is their choice, so be it Control:  What if we compromise?  We start the universe in a highly ordered state, then through a law called entropy, we let it bec...

Professor Roger Fleming had taught this course many times before.  Philosophy 101 wasn’t his favorite.  It was an undergraduate introduction to philosophy class that seem to attract the most arrogant, snot nosed, spoiled rich kids at his sprawling urban institute for the overprivileged.  It wasn’t like the advanced graduate classes that attracted serious students that could challenge the limits of his knowledge.  As he prepared for the first day of the fall semester he thought he could go on autopilot and ignore the rude comments he sometimes got when minds would wonder during some of the more tedious lectures. “Rene Descartes is considered the father of modern philosophy,” he said at the beginning of his second lecture.  “The issues he dealt with are still being debated today.  Everything since Descartes can be considered a footnote to his works. He believed there are two types of substances:  Mental and physical.  He held that the material sub...

It was a hazy, hot day in New York.  The temperature reached 112 by 1 pm, a new record for the date.  The date was January 18, 2108.  It was an unusually warm winter people were saying.  Usually the winters in NY rarely see the temperature go over 90.  112 was more like the usual high temperatures in May.  Experts said the war against global warming was lost when a 21st century president named Donald Trump did not take strong action when there was still time to avert disaster.  Instead greenhouse warming spiraled out of control faster than anyone predicted at the time. Nadine Gordon lined up at her usual watering station according to the current schedule.  The line was two blocks long, but moved quickly.  When she reached the front the water guard filled her regulation one quart jug to the top.  Nadine then pointed to the pint container she had in her other hand.   “Do you have a ration card for that?” the guard asked.  ...