June 22, 2023
What follows is entirely about me, Francis W. Porretto, a.k.a. the Curmudgeon Emeritus to the World Wide Web, Chief Cook and Bottle Washer here at Liberty’s Torch. It should not be taken to describe any of my worthy Co-Conspirators, nor does it necessarily reflect their opinions on anything.
I am:
- An American citizen;
- Of Irish and Italian descent;
- Catholic and serious about it;
- Politically anarcho-libertarian;
- Personally conservative but not censorious;
- A homeowner, and therefore perpetually busy;
- A lover of mathematics, music, books, chess, and dogs and cats;
- And an isolate who seldom answers the phone and never answers the door.
I was born in 1952. That makes me an old man by the standards of the Internet. That is not an achievement. As that great sage Julius Henry “Groucho” Marx has written, anyone can get old; all you have to do is live long enough. Having attained a ripe old age should not be taken to connote authority.
I’ve lived essentially my whole life in New York State, the greater part of it on Eastern Long Island. Mine is not the Long Island of F. Scott Fitzgerald’s imagination. Oh, a few rich folks still have houses in the Hamptons, but most Islanders are either middle-class working stiffs or retirees from that condition. I’m one of the latter and enjoying it immensely. But as with age, having managed to retire in comfort should not be taken to connote authority.
I do have some achievements. However, they’re all in fields that few persons are even aware of. Moreover, they’re all well past and growing more remote with each passing day. Neither those achievements nor the field in which they lie are my subjects here. Here, I write social, economic, cultural, religious, and (of course) political commentary. Achievements in one field should not be taken to connote authority in any other field.
I write fiction as well as the drivel I post here. The subjects I confront in my fiction are intellect-and-conscience-taxing matters that often differ from the ones I address here. That’s a great part of the reason my fiction readers are few in number. That doesn’t bother me: a good thing, as it will probably continue to be the case.
Therefore, what you read here are:
- The opinions of an old man of no great importance;
- Who is retired from wage labor and therefore free from its constraints;
- And claims no special knowledge of (nor unique insight into) the subjects he addresses;
- But enjoys thinking and writing about them and hopes that you, Gentle Reader, will enjoy them too.
There are no other warranties, express or implied.
So think what you like about my unconscionable impudence in discoursing sonorously about things of great portent. As a dear friend said shortly before he was run over by a truck, everybody’s got to have a thing. Writing is mine. As another dear friend – as of today, still on the sunny side of the sod – has said, if you like it, enjoy it. There’s plenty to go around. Both utterances have become words I live by.
