Richard Pennington (리처드 패닝턴)

• Ah, to be wrapped in the warmth of Rashid’s billions!

  

  At some point in the 1980s, a naming frenzy began at my alma mater, the University of Texas. After the state legislature started cutting back on funding higher education, UT and other schools had little choice but to hit up the alumni even more vigorously than before. And to sweeten the pot, they might just name something after you. Streets, buildings, auditoriums, classrooms, archways—it seemed that a name was suddenly appended to everything on campus. The whole process was shameless and… read on

• My encounter with Leslie

  

  One morning in 2004, I was on my way to work at the McElroy Translation Company. First, however, I pulled into a convenience store at the intersection of 10th Street and Lamar Boulevard with one purpose in mind: to become fabulously wealthy in the blink of an eye. I bought a lottery ticket, which—like all the others—turned out to be a loser. Before I could get into my car, Leslie came up and asked for a ride.

  Leslie. It seemed that everybody in Austin knew him by his first name. His full… read on

• The most important class I ever took

  

  Aleta Fairchild, a colleague at a company where I worked in the 1980s, told me an interesting story. This woman, a native of Idaho, had been determined to avoid becoming a secretary. She thought the best way to prevent that was to not learn how to type. As long as she could not effectively put fingers to keyboard, she would be ineligible for secretarial work. Aleta was undoubtedly correct in holding such a view, but it seemed unwise. In listening to her tale, I kept thinking how foolish she… read on

• “Line-up for Yesterday”—baseball version

  

  Popular acclamation for the basketball and football versions of Ogden Nash’s poem “Line-up for Yesterday” has been enormous. OK, my parole officer liked it; and I shoot pool with a guy named Vinny who found my rhymes mildly amusing. But I take encouragement wherever it may be found. This being the case, I have decided to conclude the trilogy with the third of America’s major sports and the one of which Nash wrote—baseball.

  The deceased and retired baseball men below differ from those in his… read on

• “Line-up for Yesterday”—football version

  

  As I did in the previous entry, I wish to spoof or lampoon Ogden Nash's famous poem about baseball. The more I read it, the more it seems he composed his little ditty in an afternoon while he had something else on his mind, while he was drinking beer or maybe while he was planning his summer vacation. At any rate, I think it is silly, shallow and a poor way to honor the best of the old-time baseball players. This from a man who wrote the lyrics for several Broadway plays and was highly… read on

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