Category: Short Pieces

The George Packard Series

George Packard and the Breaking News Story at the Beach

George Packard, roving reporter for Bumbastories headed for the beach in search of a Breaking News story. As reported earlier in these pages, George had already made two attempts to bicycle out to the beach – only to be turned back, stymied by excessive bicycle and foot traffic on the usually deserted Ballona Creek bicycle path. George got on the bicycle path in Culver City … Continue reading George Packard and the Breaking News Story at the Beach

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The George Packard Series

George Packard and the Invisible

As mentioned earlier, George Packard, retired schoolteacher, needed to visualize things in order to apprehend them – a crippling limitation when trying to understand the invisible. For George Packard knew (and don’t ask how he knew, it’s a long story) that the invisible underlies the visible. After all, the law of gravitation is nothing you can see. Kant’s a priori fundamentals were just that: a … Continue reading George Packard and the Invisible

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Short Pieces, The George Packard Series

The George Packard Series

Chapter II George Packard, retired schoolteacher, had been born and raised in the American tradition, but had long since disentangled or disengaged himself from all the standard conventions that most people seemed compelled to obey. Born in Chicago to a well-to-do, but very dysfunctional/alcoholic family, he had come out to California forty years earlier. He had never married. Packard was what used to be called … Continue reading The George Packard Series

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Short Pieces, The George Packard Series

The George Packard Series again

The George Packard Series Chapter III George Packard was born in Chicago in 1946. His father, Joseph Packard, a nephew of James Ward and William Doud Packard, worked in the original Packard plant in Warren, Ohio. In 1905, Joseph relocated with the company to Detroit where, as head foreman of the assembly line, he was instrumental to the company’s success. During WW II, he supervised … Continue reading The George Packard Series again

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The George Packard Series

George Packard on Wilshire Blvd, Los Angeles

George Packard, retired schoolteacher, took a stroll down Wilshire Blvd. He’d walked this stretch of Wilshire Blvd. countless times before. They called it the Miracle Mile area, a euphemism, a PR ploy. Whatever. George Packard just knew that he liked to walk down Wilshire. It was the most city-like of all LA’s streets. George Packard prided himself on his familiarity with the streets and neighborhoods … Continue reading George Packard on Wilshire Blvd, Los Angeles

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The George Packard Series

George Packard and the Breaking News Scoop at the Beach

George Packard, roving reporter for Bumbastories, had been doing minimal reporting of late. Heck, he barely wrote anything at all for Bumbastories anymore. George had essentially abandoned his quest to be the johnny-on-the-spot reporter who comes up with a big, journalistic scoop, a headline piece, a Breaking News story. George had given the Breaking News matter some thought, and he’d decided in the end that … Continue reading George Packard and the Breaking News Scoop at the Beach

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Poems, Short Pieces

More On Paleontology: A Poem

  Oh, oh. More Paleontology I posted this little poem a few years back when I first started the blog. It’s called What a Story and it’s about about the story of life – which brings us back around to paleontology, the study of old things. Today’s lesson: The magnificence of the study of paleontology is not to be understated (at least I won’t understate … Continue reading More On Paleontology: A Poem

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