Tag Archives: rhetoric

Pride Goeth Before a Parade

Posted on June 13, 2025 by JMN

They say: A man who can’t tell shoe polish from shinola is fit to be tied by time and the tide. It’s one of those old sayings they say is never insufficient to the day thereof.  They say: A stitch … Continue reading →

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Manifest MAEGAN

Posted on June 11, 2025 by JMN

Make American English Great Again Now  — MAEGAN — is a sweet hotrod of a movement, a screaming dragster with four-barrel carburetor smoking the shithole competition wherever jalopies duke it out. The Nineteen-Fifties burn rubber in the Twenty-Twenties like there’s … Continue reading →

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I Need Some Writer’s Block

Posted on March 26, 2025 by JMN

Really, I should draw, paint and read more, write less. It’s a constant struggle to pipe down.  Poetry, for one thing, triggers me. Intending to read a bait of versifying, before I know it I’m a keyboard Roman candle ejaculating … Continue reading →

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Coda to the ‘Strawberry Roan’

Posted on February 27, 2025 by JMN

Only once before have I presumed to “write a song.” I use scare quotes because I’ve really no idea how it’s done. This latest go-round involves new lyrics for an existing tune. I posted the first version here, and have … Continue reading →

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A Bath of Warm Syrup Cooked from Stalk Cut in the ‘Family’ Canebrake

Posted on February 22, 2025 by JMN

My car radio is newly parked on my local country-western music station. It’s giving me the opportunity to hear music tangled in my ranch roots. The music partakes of both the familiar and the strange. In certain respects I’ve changed … Continue reading →

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The Coarsest of Coarse Discourse Courses Through the Corridors

Posted on February 14, 2025 by JMN

English isn’t made for rhyming compared to Spanish, French or Arabic. Alliteration was its strong suit of old. My title flaunts it with a homophone. It also goes to town on sibilants, which is icing on the cake. That’s a … Continue reading →

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Cussing with Class

Posted on February 2, 2025 by JMN

“Governor Newscum.”  Tut tut, Sir, it’s a scruffy taunt. My granddad put reverse English on his curses with statements such as: The blessèd cinch strap on this saddle is busted! And my uncle by marriage had the same name as … Continue reading →

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How Disparate Writings Intertwine

Posted on January 27, 2025 by JMN

“Over the past eight years, I have been tested and challenged more than any president in our 250-year history.” (Donald Trump, from Second Inaugural Address) Mr. Trump dictates revelation for his irrupting dispensation. There are impromptu connections one makes in … Continue reading →

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My Gawd! There Was Out-Bespoken Garb Galore at the Glitzy Gala

Posted on January 21, 2025 by JMN

Finally, the rich are going to get a fair shake in this country. Hail, lord of hosts! From somewhere near the Gulf of America, wishing you a nice day. Yours in freezing… PS: There are some rivers in Texas that … Continue reading →

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Pour Me a Draft of Heartsick with a Shot of Hope

Posted on November 5, 2024 by JMN

“For every Karen we lose, there’s a Julio and a Jamal ready to sign up for the MAGA movement.”  (Representative Matt Gaetz of Florida) I knew an English professor who remarked during the season of final exams that it was … Continue reading →

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