Author Archives: Burt Kempner

“Over the next few generations, more and more of the Baal Shem Tov’s miracle-making ritual was forgotten, so when the fourth Hasidic leader was told a now-familiar tale of woe, he was crestfallen. ‘Alas,’ he said. ‘We are a diminished people. I don’t know the chant, I can’t build a fire, and I have no […]

  Pinhead Angel  By Burt Kempner “A frozen tableau right off the frozen food aisle: Jamie, holding out his credit card, the open-jawed clerk and Yours Truly glancing down as if my package of sun-dried tomatoes contained the answer.”—Burt Kempner GAINESVILLE Florida—(Weekly Hubris)—December 19, 2016—“I could watch you shop all day.” That was a new […]

“‘Your groceries. I’d like to pay for them.’ Check for hidden camera. None in sight. ‘But . . . why?’ ‘It’s something I do.’” —Burt Kempner Pinhead Angel By Burt Kempner  GAINESVILLE Florida—(Weekly Hubris)—12/7/2015—“I could watch you shop all day.” That was a new one. When you reach a certain age, pick-up lines mutate from, […]

“He tentatively lifted the eraser. Where to begin? What did he fear the most? Blindness. Yes, that was there on the board. He deleted it. Dying alone. Gone with a stroke. Never finding love. Vanquished and vanished. He was growing excited.” Burt Kempner Pinhead Angel By Burt Kempner  GAINESVILLE Florida—(Weekly Hubris)—4/22/2013—He was an exceptionally timid […]

“I have great respect for the scientific method, but I’ll put my faith every time in those who sing me to sleep with poems.” Burt Kempner Pinhead Angel By Burt Kempner GAINESVILLE Florida—(Weekly Hubris)—2/25/2013—Is God a Being or a State of Being? Many who have undergone Near Death Experiences (NDEs) claim it’s the latter. They […]

Pinhead Angel  By Burt Kempner “No one is about to confuse the human heart with a bowl of pasta, although both can be deeply satisfying or terribly messy, depending on how they’re handled.” Burt Kempner GAINESVILLE Florida—(Weekly Hubris)—2/11/2013—Place a large bowl of steaming spaghetti before us. Some people will attack it at once, leaving all […]

“I went to the emergency room and X-rays revealed that the sutures holding my breastbone together were coming apart. So I had a second operation and a second reminder that intense boredom and exquisite pain can coexist just fine.” Burt Kempner Pinhead Angel By Burt Kempner GAINESVILLE Florida—(Weekly Hubris)—2/4/2013—On January 20th, 2009, Barack Obama was […]

Pinhead Angel  By Burt Kempner  Getting Personal  GAINESVILLE Florida—(Weekly Hubris)—1/21/2013— “My So-Called Spiritual Path” “As my sainted Hungarian grandmother used to say, ‘There are two hundred roads to Paradise and each is correct.’”—Burt Kempner “We may doubt anything, except that we are struck with amazement . . . . Doubts may be resolved, radical amazement […]

Pinhead Angel By Burt Kempner GAINESVILLE Florida—(Weekly Hubris)—12/31/2012— “The Evil Mr. What’s-His-Name” “I am sick of being an accomplice of sorts.” Burt Kempner Note: When I wrote this back in July, I had no illusions that it would be the last word on the subject. I am making a concerted effort not to commit the name […]

“It was a quintessential slow news night. I was watching the 11:00 broadcast and was bored to death, even though I’d written the damned thing.” Burt Kempner Pinhead Angel By Burt Kempner ROFLR (Rolling on the Floor Reading)  GAINESVILLE Florida—(Weekly Hubris)—12/3/2012— “I Place Myself under House Arrest” I lived in Washington, DC, from 1980-1985, and […]