Category: The Time Syndrome

“Happy birthday to you! Happy birthday to you!” Holding high a big Black Forest cake ablaze with sparklers, Marie strode to the table with superb dignity while we sang in honor of Michael Coventree’s felicitously prolonged life. “Happy birthday, dear Michael! Happy birthday to you!” And a happy occasion it…

Our tree-lined street borders a deep woods. In the autumn the supply of dead leaves seems inexhaustible. When yesterday’s litter has been carted off, tomorrow’s wind will inevitably scatter a new swatch of leaves over our lawn. When it rains, some of them will inevitably manage to smear themselves tightly…

Somehow we are always surprised when we have our first snow in mid-December, as if we had never seen the cold white stuff so early before. The snowfall last night was unusually heavy – 27 centimeters. It was still snowing at nine this morning. Jack, our neighbor, has a 4×4…

This Saturday afternoon in December was a dismal and windy one. Sitting with Kay in front of the fireplace for a while, just watching the flames flickering, was pure contentment. Nothing much had to be done and, as we sipped our hot chocolate, nothing much had to be said. I…

Snow was sifting down in the afternoon twilight as I made my way home from the university library. So far I haven’t been able to find a single serious and extensive inquiry into the possible discreteness of time. Writers who bring up the idea at all barely mention it. As…

When I gently shook one of my Christmas presents, its contents clickety-clacked a little, with a heavier rolling undertone. Some kind of game-pieces perhaps? Hmmm. The top of the box portrayed an open, four-level structure of horizontal girders supported by vertical columns. In big letters it informed me: “Here is…

In Wonderland, young Alice met up with the now-famous grinning Cheshire cat. After giving Alice advice, this enigmatic creature disappeared by almost imperceptible gradations until nothing was left but its grin. A most extraordinary phenomenon! The bodiless grin of Alice’s feline adviser raises searching theoretical questions which are much more…

Today as usual Kay and I went to the Y for exercise. She swims, but it’s the weight room for me. Having finished my workout, I went to the pool and found that Kay was still swimming lengths. When she spied me standing outside the viewing window, she waved with…

This morning we had a telephone call from Joan in Detroit. Many years ago Joan unexpectedly became an important figure in our lives. When I started my second year at university, war had just been declared and was beginning to have an impact on us students. On Saturday afternoons, however,…

It was a cold, blustery morning. Kay and I were enjoying that cozy feeling that comes over people who have a brisk fire in their fireplace while snow sifts down off the roof and blows in swift streams down the street. We sipped our coffee leisurely and congratulated ourselves on…