W.D. Ehrhart

Half Full or Half Empty?

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by W.D. Ehrhart As far back as high school, and I’m now 78, I’ve always been a glass-half-empty kind of guy. Looking at the world that way means that I’m almost never disappointed. And every now and then, I get to be pleasantly surprised. One of those pleasant surprises—and a very pleasant surprise it was—came with the recent U.S. mid-term elections. Only a few weeks ago, I wrote an essay called “It’s Election Time Again” in which I warned people not to get too excited about some anticipated Big Blue Wave this time around. We’d been here before, most recently with Hillary Clinton in 2016, …

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It’s Election Time Again

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by W.D. Ehrhart So here we are just days before the midterm election, and the anticipation is almost palpable. Last weekend, my wife and I went to a No Thrones No Crowns No Kings rally in our neighborhood, and the prevailing sentiment was clearly that a Big Blue Wave is about to sweep the Democrats into control of both the House and the Senate as well as making huge gains at the state level. I can’t help remembering that the prevailing sentiment in 2016 among Democratic voters and the political pundits was that Hillary Clinton was a shoo-in. How could she lose to a clownish …

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Give Us Your $$$$$

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by W.D. Ehrhart Holy cow! I’ve just gotten a personal message from the world-famous political consultant James Carville. It says so right on the envelope: “A Personal Message from James Carville.” And not just personal, but confidential, too. Right there above my name on the envelope, it says “PERSONAL & CONFIDENTIAL.” Imagine that. But inside is a printed notice that begins “Dear William.” Nobody ever calls me “William” except for receptionists in medical offices or stuff like that. Absolutely nothing “personal” about it. The entire document has been mechanically produced, virtually untouched by human hands, James Carville’s or anyone else’s. Golly gee. Was I ever …

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All the News That’s Fit to Print?

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by W.D. Ehrhart For the past few months, I have largely avoided political events and especially contemporary goings-on involving the staggeringly comically greedy egotistical narcissistic bigoted hate-fueled criminal he-would-be-unbelievable-except-that-we’re seeing-it-daily-with-our-own-eyes excuse for a human being occupying what has become the Whitewash House. Instead, I’ve written essays that made fun of King Charles III’s impressive chest of medals and decorations, eulogized the writer Philip Caputo, mourned the passing of our 22-year-old cat, mocked the inability of politicians to keep their penises in their pants, remembered my high school graduating class of 1966, and written about my struggles with weight gain. But today I’ve decided that it’s …

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Russian Potato Dumplings

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by W.D. Ehrhart I inherited a “fat gene” from my mother. She was maybe 5’4” or 5’5”. When she got married in 1943, she weighed 103 pounds. When she died in 1990, she weighed over 300 pounds. Her younger brother was in ROTC in college, so he couldn’t have been too heavy back then, but by the time I was old enough to remember him, he was badly overweight, obese really. Others of her siblings had weight problems, too. In 9th grade, at age 14, I had a double chin and used to have to buy my clothing in what were called “husky” sizes. By …

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