This is the first of three SASPs to feature the utterances of the highly quotable George Bernard Shaw.
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The Short Attention Span Philosopher #210 GBS
February 8th, 2010The Real George Washington – The Loss of New York
February 6th, 2010This story takes place when the Revolutionary War was already underway. The British come in with a massive fleet and take New York. They are under the impression they are fighting a bunch of farmers and will soon prevail. Washington uses tactics that catch them off guard. He completely outmaneuvers them. They pull back upon realizing they are fighting a much more dangerous foe than they had envisioned.
This account come from “Washington and His Comrades in Arms, A Chronicle of the War of Independence” by George M. Wrong.
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The Real George Washington – The Defeat At Fort Duquesne
February 6th, 2010As a child I quickly got tired of the Washington myths trotted out for his birthday each year. Even in high school and college I didn’t feel any closer to the man. As the result of my own reading I think I got a lot closer.
This first piece is ch 16 of Washington Irvings Life of Washington. It tells of Washington, as a young man, serving as an aide to British General Braddock in the campaign to take Ft. Duquesne from the French during the French and Indian War. It’s perhaps the worst disaster suffered in the colonial period by the British. I can just imagine Washington taking notes.
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Lester and Earl Explain the Universe by Roy Trumbull
February 1st, 2010Two rural sages tackle plumbing free life, religion, abortion, eternal congressmen, and China. All this while cleaning their rifles.
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The Short Attention Span Philosopher #209 – Thomas Mann
February 1st, 2010#209 Thomas Mann
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White Feather and the Six Giants – An American Indian Story
January 29th, 2010A boy is raised in the woods by his grandfather. His family was killed by six giants. When he grows up a spirit tells him that he is to be White Feather, the hero that legend says will avenge his family. It is a story full of magic.
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White Fang by Jack London
January 23rd, 2010I took the first part of Jack London’s novel White Fang, which is a stand alone story, and broke it into three parts. The story is about two men and a dog sled transporting the corpse of an Englishman. They don’t see any game as they travel but they are being tracked by a wolf pack that gets bolder and bolder.
The Short Attention Span Philosopher – #208 John Steinback
January 23rd, 2010#208 John Steinbeck
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The Origin of the Robin – An American Indian Story
January 22nd, 2010Coming of age requires some sort of ordeal. It’s nature varies from region to region and tribe to tribe. In the Indian Old-Man stories it involved sleeping in precarious places like the top of a tree in hopes that the animal spirit that will be the young man’s “medicine” will come to him in a dream. In this story the ordeal is an extended fast undertaken so that a guiding spirit will come. The outcome is other than that hoped for by the father for his son.
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The Alphabet by Louis Ginzberg
January 20th, 2010This is the retelling of a folktale about the letters of the Hebrew alphabet making their case before Hashem that each should be the agent used to create the world. I dedicate it to all those who went through religious school and even to those who flunked out.
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