The New, Improved Five O’Clock Follies

Noted epidemiologist, Vietnam War draft dodger, and President, Donald J. Trump now conducts televised daily briefings on the Federal Government’s response to the coronavirus pandemic—and whatever other random thought-substitutes may then be fluttering around, bat-like, in his belfry. We hope that scientists in the future—if there is one, and there are any—will study this phenomenon and confirm or deny the following theory, which is ours: when he gets in front of the cameras and talks, the nation’s collective IQ plummets. Collective intelligence is not exactly a commodity which we have in surplus. He should be grateful to the President’s handlers, though, for inducing him to …

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This Lent, Think of Primus

The Episcopal Diocese of New Hampshire, which has earned a reputation for relative enlightenment, decided that each day in Lent this year, beginning Feb. 14th, Ash Wednesday, they would offer a short reading to promote reflection on a person in the African American community who has shaped New Hampshire’s history. Their hope is that those reflections will help the congregation to use Lent as a time to broaden their knowledge, to say prayers in a way that assists in repentence and fosters appreciation of the contributions of those named. The Black Heritage Trail of New Hampshire invited us to write about Primus. Being deeply in …

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