Stop, now, what’s that sound? — Nature is said to abhor a vacuum. The human ear and brain abhor silence. If auditory stimulation from the outside world is diminished, the brain and the ear will make up for it, creating phantom sounds that are usually labeled tinnitus. Though it’s often used interchangeably with “ringing in the…

A playful ditty about getting back down to the real nitty gritty First, a big shout out to fellow Medium contributor Scott Vatour. …

Someone, please explain this Medium . . . to me — The more I read and explore on Medium, the more I feel as though, like Alice, I’ve fallen down a rabbit hole or stepped through the looking glass. And not just because I’ve already encountered the equivalents of the Mad Hatter, the Tweedles, the Cheshire Cat, and the Red Queen. …

A poem about life, death, tomatoes, product placement, and rebirth — Sacrament I want to be a sacrament When I die Mix my ashes with garden soil, Miracle Gro Put us in the plot I tilled and tended every spring Plant tomatoes — Beefsteaks, Better Boys and Brandywines Water well And when we ripen Slice us thick and lay us out good white bread slathered with mayonnaise Preferably Hellman’s, though Duke’s or Blue Pate will do

An excerpt from As I Die Laughing about the peripatetic pup My mother loved the movies. Not just the movie stars. Everything about the movies. She was the first person I knew who paid attention to the credits to see who played whom, who designed the costumes, and who composed…

A quirky little garden in north Georgia beckons us to contemplate and pray There are many, many famous gardens in history and mythology, starting with, if you believe the Bible, the Garden of Eden, where humanity originated and originally sinned. Any list would include the Hanging Gardens of Babylon, Kew…

Netflix is really letting movie lovers down — End of this month, Netflix is discontinuing its foundational DVD service. No more bright red envelopes in the mailbox, no more shiny discs. For serious streamers who long ago abandoned discs, not to mention the United States Postal Service, the reaction almost certainly is a big yawn. But for some…

Him? Her? It? What? The Perfect Plural If God is Alpha and Omega One with every thing We ought rethink the nature of The pronouns that we sing What should we call this Aggregate In all our prayers and hymns? It only stands to reason The plurals, They and Them © Noel Holston, 2023

A funny story, excerpted from As I Die Laughing: Snapshots from a Southern Childhood, newly published and #1 on Amazon in Southern U.S. Biographies, #2 in Regional Humor Everybody called C.H. Crossley “Preacher,” but the nickname was a joke. He was the son of a preacher but he, himself, was…