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Non Sequiturs + Other Quasi-Funny Stuff #15

January 2026 The NFL’s Tampa Bay Buccaneers went 0-14 in their debut 1976 season. During the campaign, a reporter asked Tampa Bay head coach John McKay about his team’s execution — in reply, he delivered this quick-witted quip: “I’m in favor of it.” Safe to say, the reporter was asking how the Bucs were executing the coach’s strategy. Instead, McKay answered based on another meaning of the term…

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FAST Sonnets in Cyberspace #1​​9

Is God solely to blame for evil and human suffering — or do we mere humans share the blame? And given the questions that our pain and tragedies raise, who has the answer — better yet, who IS the answer? Perhaps Allen Iverson​ aka AI ... or perhaps another MVP — this poem explores these profound yet simple questions.

February 2025 You know it’s so that You Are the answer — despite what Allen Iverson’s tattoo declares — if what the heavens say is true: Still, do you have an answer, oh Chancer, for every human question? Why cancer? Why AIDS? Why bubonic plague? Why bird flu? Why 9/11? And why World War II? You know how whys multiply, Cross-Dancer — yet whys also simplify and reduce: For if we so-called wise…

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February 2024 A Super Bowl Poem • Haiku Trio #1 So who said: “Winning isn’t everything, it’s the only thing” — always, till today, brimming with Super-football-frenzy- -LVIII-Sunday, I believed grinning legendary Lombardi coined the famed catchphrase • • Haiku Trio #2 Google search says yes, he voiced this, but different coach spoke the saying first — so since, as we guess, it’s too easy to…

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All-Name Teams #32

​January 2024Featuring names from across the world of sports • “What good is the warmth of summer, without the cold of winter to give it sweetness” ― John Steinbeck • “If we had no winter, the spring would not be so pleasant: If we did not sometimes taste of adversity, prosperity would not be so welcome” — Anne Bradstreet • “Summer friends will melt away like summer snows, but winter friends are…

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FAST Sonnets in Cyberspace #1​​8 

Have you ever tried to catch lightning — how about fireflies?

• ​November 2023 ​+++ Fireflies light mind-and-heart reminiscence,​ ​nightlife aglow with wonder at Grammy​ ​and Pop-Pop’s countryside abode — condense​ ​dazzling amazement in solitary​ ​sonnet? Impossible — yet let’s still tr​y: Chasing the lightning in one-acre yard,​ ​catching the bright mites by crook as they fly —​ ​place brilliant critters in punctured Ball jar​ ​to be luminous sentries…

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All-Name Teams #31

Featuring names from across the world of sports • In the name of love — what more in the name of love? —Pride: In The Name Of Love — song by U2 • Deny thy father and refuse thy name … ’Tis but thy name that is my enemy … O, be some other name … What’s in a name? That which we call a rose by any other word would smell as sweet. … doff thy name and, for thy name, which is no part of thee, take all…

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FAST Sonnets in Cyberspace #1​7

Can a Trip to the Bathroom Inspire a Poem?

CAN A TRIP TO THE BATHROOM inspire a poem — and is poetry intended only for English classes and so-called boring textbooks? To find out, you’re invited to read this newest post from A Slow Life in the FAST Lane: • Let’s get this clear — the best poetry isn’t meant for English-major types and literary elites, but rather for everyone — after all, I believe every human being is a living story and…

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FAST Fiction: Fall Classic Dream State #13

What happens to a dream deferred? — Langston Hughes Somewhere out there someone’s saying a prayer That we’ll find one another in that big somewhere out there … Somewhere out there, if love can see us through Then we’ll be together somewhere out there Out where dreams come true — Linda Ronstadt & James Ingram — Somewhere Out There Synchronized with the rising moon Even with the evening star They…

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FAST Fiction: Fall Classic Dream State #12

“I still have a dream … I have a dream today.” — Martin Luther King Jr. Missing message in a hollow tree, Hidden deep inside a memory — And the memory seems like dreams, Hundreds of hopes in the past, Nevertheless it was never the last, Hold on strong or you fade out fast — And only one, only one —James Taylor song — Only One So come lose your life for a carpenter’s son, For a madman who died for…

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FAST Sonnets in Cyberspace #1​6

Birth-Celebrating + Birthday Poem #2 +++ Slightly less emphatically than her bro (As ounces go) she appeared gracefully In my still-broken life with angel’s glow Befitting a daughter’s birth on hotly Contested, oh-blazing-like-sages day For the ages. From cradle, sensitive As springtime sky and summer-wild bouquet And autumn sun. Ice-like competitive Too — revealed as she grew and played on…

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FAST Sonnets in Cyberspace #1​5​

FAST Sonnets in Cyberspace #1​5​

A Birth-Celebrating + Birthday Poem +++ He entered my still-broken world one bright Winter morn — ten pounds of emphatic boy, Wrapped sure in swaddling clothes of our delight, Incarnate miracle — tidings of joy! With newborn’s cries a symphony to start A trio, I held you — and your wailing Ceased as you rested close to your Dad’s heart. But memories of a father’s failing Sail along with newfound…

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FAST Sonnets in Cyberspace #14

FAST Sonnets in Cyberspace #14

A Wedding Poem +++ “With this ring I wed thee,” we pledged that day When diamond-vow made moons before our sun Gave cause to rise — we gave our lives away, By holy stream and forest wise undone. Un-secure I felt, undone still — sunset Vision, a beauty framed in brilliant light Descends from virgin clouds — can I forget Memory’s haunting dreams of son-sad night? Oh, still my hope of home, like…

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FAST Sonnets in Cyberspace #14 • A WEDDING POEM “With this ring I wed thee,” we pledged that day When diamond-vow made moons before our sun Gave cause to rise — we gave our lives away, By holy stream and forest wise undone. Un-secure I was, undone still — sunset Vision, a beauty framed in brilliant light Descends from virgin clouds — can I forget Memory’s haunting dreams of son-sad night? Oh,…

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FAST Blast: Derek Redmond’s extraordinary Olympic story

FAST Blast: Derek Redmond’s extraordinary Olympic story

THE FOLLOWING ESSAY launched this faith-and-sports blog in August 2012, during the London Olympics. Nine years later, we’ve entered a COVID-Olympic time warp — in apparently unprecedented fashion, the Olympic Games are occurring in an odd-numbered year. Welcome to the 2020 + 2021 Tokyo Olympics — and I hope you enjoy the new version of this embryonic classic from A Slow Life in the FAST Lane ……

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FAST Blast: Reflecting on unprecedented virus

FAST Blast: Reflecting on unprecedented virus

Posted — 31 January 2021 A year ago, when 2020 began, who could have predicted that a year later facemasks would be an ongoing medical fashion accessory in response to a global pandemic? This blog post is a revised version of an essay I first published in Today Magazine, the news vehicle I produce as publisher and editor-in-chief. Today Magazine covers the heart of Connecticut’s Farmington Valley…

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FAST Sonnets in Cyberspace #13

FAST Sonnets in Cyberspace #13

A CHRISTMAS SONNET Ancient sages perceived emerging star, Sought King they knew not, souls ablaze — yearning For goal of heart’s wandering — babe from afar Found, night’s mute sky-speech lending true learning. Two thousand years, wisdom’s cry is the same: Bright starfields and warm earth-haven reveal Royal design and seal, speak sovereign name — Such a King comes calling, all wise men…

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FAST Sonnets in Cyberspace #12

A Sonnet in Honor of George Floyd + Other Victims of Racial Injustice Across American History + Police Who Grieve Such Violence and Protect and Serve Citizens of All Races

A Sonnet in Honor of George Floyd + Other Victims of Racial Injustice Across American History + Police Who Grieve Such Horrifying Violence and Serve Citizens of All Races

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Does righteous rage burn and cleanse in the hearts Of all my Afri-friends? Forebears beckoned Here, captive cargo … see how hope departs From Africa on spectral ships — reckoned Three-fifths human by court’s supreme cruelty…

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