Author Archives: Jesse

About Jesse

My name is Jesse Blatt. My first name is actually “Ramon,” but I haven’t used that name, except for official purposes, since 1970. I have a high school diploma and a PhD…nothing in between. I’ll get around to explaining that in a post sometime. From time to time I will be posting true stories from my past, though not in any special order. I’ve been fortunate to have had a dozen or so different careers, most of them very satisfying, some fairly frustrating, and none that I wish had never happened. In my many former lives, I have been a mail clerk, radio and TV engineer, radio announcer, electronics engineer, college instructor, psychologist, research consultant, Federal employee, supervisor of research professionals, computer programmer, web designer, instructional designer, construction site handyman, and carpenter, not necessarily in that order.

Ice

I feel very strongly about ice.  Not the ice with which winter sometimes glazes our streets and sidewalks, but the ice we use to chill our drinks.  I don’t like ice made in the freezer section of modern refrigerators.  I … Continue reading

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Ken the Collector

I do not understand what motivates a collector.  The thought of acquiring large quantities of items that have no intrinsic value except to others of similar bent is totally foreign to me.  Paintings, stamps, coins, vinyl records, comic books, baseball … Continue reading

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REAL ID

A few months ago, the Virginia Department of Motor Vehicles notified me that my driver’s license was set to expire at my next birthday and informed me that I could renew it by mail or I could make an appointment … Continue reading

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The Entertainment Miracle

Sometimes, inanimate objects just gather in ways that defy the imagination. Items lying about the house in different rooms for different purposes just seem to gravitate together to create a uniquely transformational union. ‘The Entertainment Miracle’ started in 1991 with … Continue reading

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Maury’s Bookstore

My real education began in Maury’s Book Store during the summer of 1958.  I had always been an avid reader…I read Homer’s Iliad and Odyssey in high school.  But mostly it was science fiction or Sherlock Holmes.  It is to … Continue reading

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Am I my Brother’s Keeper?

One of the most significant, and probably the most misunderstood, tenets of Christian mythology is the notion that every living person is a child of God.  I think this misunderstanding is most apparent in the allegorical story of Cain, the … Continue reading

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The Chosen People

Although my family’s surname is “Blatt,” I am not Jewish, even though every other Blatt that I have ever met has been.   I strongly suspect that my not-too-distant ancestors (perhaps as close as my great-great-grandfather) were, but converted when they … Continue reading

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A Conversation With Louie Armstrong

It is easier to say what Studs Terkel was not, rather than what he was. He was not a Maury Povich or a Jerry Springer. He was not a Johnny Carson or a Jack Paar, and certainly not a Stephen … Continue reading

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Jeep Dreams

Although World War Two ended in Europe in May 1945, it took a while to bring home the 3 million soldiers stationed there.  Almost 2 million got back to US soil within the next 12 months.  I met one of … Continue reading

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My Final Farewell Concert Tour

I played my final concert in December 1963 at Chicago’s Masonic Hospital School of Nursing Annual Holiday Party.  Not coincidentally, it was also my first concert.   I hadn’t intended to perform at the party…I was there as a guest … Continue reading

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