Stone: The simple bare necessities of life

At bottom, every man knows well enough that he is a unique being, only once on this earth; and by no extraordinary chance will such a marvelously picturesque piece of diversity in unity as he is, ever be put together a second time.

Stone: Wayfaring stranger

An excellent day can disintegrate into an existential crisis with the introduction of an unpleasant idea.Just the other day, I was enjoying a really good wedge of pineapple cheesecake when my phone chirped to tell me I had an email.

Smith: Singing in the Rain

There will come soft rains and the smell of the ground, The swallows circling with their shimmering sound; And frogs in the pools singing at night, And wild plum-trees in tremulous white . . .

Stone: Say yes to onions

To live beyond the pale, to work for the pleasure of working, to grow old gracefully while retaining one’s faculties, one’s enthusiasms, one’s self-respect, one has to establish other values than those endorsed by the mob.

Stone: Great expectations

I used to know a girl, and it was a hubba hubba and ding dang ding. I said “Baby, you got everything.” A week later, it was a hubba hubba and ding ding dong; baby, it sure didn’t last too long.From Nighthawks at the Diner, Tom WaitsI won’t linger on the internet romance I told you about last week.

Stone: Poked, pinched and punctured

Courage is being scared to death but saddling up anyway.-- John WayneSo, you’re having Irish oatmeal and pistachios for breakfast when your phone rings.You don’t want to answer because you are deep in thought. One of the pistachios seems to be telling you a story.

Stone: ‘What you gonna do in those shoes?’

I don’t know how I do it, but I’ve written about everything. I’ve written about my shoes.We’re all about shoes this week, so let’s just do it. You’ve heard about that old woman who lived in a shoe with so many young’uns; what could she do?

Stone: People will come, Ray

You can observe a lot by just watching.Yogi BerraI had reached the 681-word mark at 3 p.m. when I was struck by full-blown panic.This column is complete trash, I realized. No one wants to read about any of it.But I didn’t have time to do much about it. I was already too deep into the column.

Stone: Are you romantic about baseball?

And God said, “Let there be lights in the dome of the sky to separate the day from the night; and let them be for signs and for seasons and for days and years and let them be lights in the dome of the sky to give light upon the Earth.”Genesis 1:14-15Say, preacher!

Stone: At last, someone to eat cheese with

You’re the cream cheese to my bagel.Some schlubI don’t fool with social media all that much. Too hostile. Especially Twitter/X.Based on the deterioration of my general sense of well-being, I believe social media hostility is seeping into everyday life.