Modest Proposals

Never Again

My earliest memory of childhood TV is vividly etched in my brain. No “Bonanza,” “Leave It to Beaver,” or “Father Knows Best” for me. On Sunday evenings, at six, we, as a family, would watch the CBS show, “The Twentieth Century.” The opening salvo of an enormous rock, Prudential Insurance Company’s logo (I didn’t know until years later that the logo paid homage to the tenacity and strength of the Rock of Gibraltar); Walter Cronkite’s deep baritone; and an orchestral march excited and drew me in. The producers knew what they were doing.

By Frances Temme 11.2023

Carpe Momentum

I try to relax on my back patio on the last day of astronomical summer, but I spy a weed that has emerged between the bricks and bend over to uproot it before it takes a stronghold. A few of the dogwood leaves have gone red, the hostas are drooped and yellowed, and the wisteria that adorns my pergola has begun the slow dropping of its infinitesimal leaves, a process that will take until after Thanksgiving to complete.

By Frances Temme 10.2023