Footnotes and Commentary Rolland G. Smith

I was cutting he lawn the other day and as blades of grass and early flowers were cut in their prime, I wondered how often that happens to young people who are cut off by the blade of parents opinion, by teachers not seeing a potential, by group mores who inhibit rather then encourage, by restricting social conditions and condemnations before individuality can flower into full creative potential. Authorities, both secular and religious; customs, both political and social often inhibit, if not restrict, the young from…

He was born Bartholomew Masterson on a farm in Quebec, Canada. He was also known as William Barclay. He was a respected journalist and a leading authority on boxing. At one time in his life he was a deputy US Marshall for the southern district of New York, appointed by Teddy Roosevelt. In other times he had other careers. He was a buffalo hunter, an army scout, a saloon owner, and a professional gambler. Bartholomew or William Barclay went by the nickname of “Bat.” Bat…

In many ways, the re-thinking of Brexit amplifies the observations I have been writing about in this blog for a number of years. To wit: People don’t do enough research on their own to make an educated choice on just about anything. Once the vote in the UK was tallied and, markets plunged, volatility reigned, and people said to themselves, “what did I do?” And now there are second thoughts. We must remember that it was only a referendum, not an absolute. We’ll see. Choices,…

How things have changed. When I was a teenager to make a telephone call, you would pick up the phone and in a second or two an operator would say, “number please.” You’d give the number usually three or four digits, and sometimes say, “ring two” if it were a party line. Now, sixty years after my early teens, I’m sitting in a comfortable chair in my home in the Hudson Valley of New York State. My smart cell phone rings. It indicates a face-time…