Change in the weather

What happens when Hurricane Schwartz gets demoted? Is he downgraded to Tropical Storm Schwartz or even worse, Drizzle Schwartz? I understand this is not very important in the pecking order of all that is meaningful but it nags at me incessantly. Listen, Schwartz seems like a decent guy and he's a Sixers fan, which is a plus, but he wears his bow ties so he has to live with them, although he might have to go to the clip-on bow if he is demoted.

war

It's easy to talk about war from afar in your living room, on a talk show, in a term paper for school but on the front line you can smell death. My father was honored for bravery in World War II. He almost never mentioned the South Pacific. I could never find his medal but I do have the letter, detailing his heroism. He was a marine, lying about his age to get in the service at 17. At 19, I was a pseudo hippie, protesting the Vietnam War on truly shoddy motives. I could espouse how despicable and immoral it was to send boys off to die in an unjustified enterprise but let's be honest, I was a coward who took a 2-S deferment to go to college instead of the service and I was protesting mainly for hippie girls and decent concerts. I have always been against wars but at the same time respect the brave souls who agree to sacrifice their lives for the rest of their countrymen. I despise those who make the decisions to wage war especially when their motives are suspect and selfish. If my father was alive he would cringe at the news detailing the marines killed in Iraq, followed by a longer report on movie star Tom Cruise's lust for a girl who could be mistaken for his daughter. It's disgusting.

Death

Death comes swiftly, chipping away at loved ones, slicing off a piece of their hearts, weakening them forever until finally they are too weak to live. Life is long only if you take time to embrace it before death, which comes swiftly, chipping away at loved ones, slicing off a piece of their hearts, weakening them forever until finally they are too weak to live.

Parts unknown

I once knew a guy who escaped from a German POW camp to later become a bowling writer for a suburban newspaper. The guy was a decent felow with a unique writing style. He once wrote that a bowler "literally exploded on the lanes." Figuratively the guy was apparently in one piece, however, since the bowling writer quoted him. The editors caught it in time but the image stuck with me forever. I wish I could make people literally explode. First in line would be weather people. As soon as they said something like "It's 98 in Podunk but with the heat index it feels like 102"...kaboom, a literal explosion right in front of my eyes. That would be worth watching the news.