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ROBERT E DUNN

forensic accountant

6/20/2025

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New York
Hochul, Hochul, and James
I asked a forensic linguist for help with the short story, "Letters".
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The Enormous Radio

6/16/2025

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Title: "The Enormous Radio"
​Author: John Cheever 1912-1982
Publisher: The New Yorker
Genre: magical realism
Date: 5/17/1947


randomness
prime numbers 47 and 89
from r/numbertheory Reddit "The Truth About Prime Numbers"

They're a joke. They're proof that once you plunge a system into chaos, there's no coming back. Why is there only 1 instance of +1 in the gap between prime numbers? [2 and 3] It is to turn a positive into a negative. And from there chaos is unleashed. Literal hell on Earth. And from it the most beautiful genius that we have seen in some peoples' eyes. ​This horrible joke creates so much beauty, as it drives us mad. One of God's greatest jokes on Mathematicians. I love it. Truly random.
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Shakespeare and Jews

6/14/2025

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Venice & fictional Belmont (beautiful mountain)

Antonio, a Venetian merchant, secures a loan from Shylock, a Jewish moneylender, to help his friend Bassanio woo Portia. The loan agreement stipulates that if Antonio defaults, Shylock can claim a pound of his flesh. When Antonio's ships are lost at sea, he cannot repay the debt, and Shylock demands his pound of flesh. Portia, disguised as a lawyer, cleverly saves Antonio by pointing out a loophole in the contract: Shylock can take the flesh but not a drop of blood. Shylock converts and forfeits his wealth.


The quality of mercy is not strain'd.
It droppeth as the gentle rain from heaven
Upon the place beneath. It is twice blest:
It blesseth him that gives and him that takes.
'Tis mightiest in the mightiest; it becomes
The thronèd monarch better than his crown.
His sceptre shows the force of temporal power,
The attribute to awe and majesty
Wherein doth sit the dread and fear of kings;
But mercy is above this sceptered sway.
It is enthronèd in the hearts of kings;
It is an attribute to God Himself;
And earthly power doth then show likest God's
When mercy seasons justice. Therefore, Jew,
Though justice be thy plea, consider this:
That in the course of justice none of us
Should see salvation. We do pray for mercy,
And that same prayer doth teach us all to render
The deeds of mercy. I have spoke thus much
To mitigate the justice of thy plea,
Which, if thou follow, this strict court of Venice
Must needs give sentence 'gainst the merchant there.

Portia, Act 4, Scene 1
The Merchant of Venice
William Shakespeare
Catholic-in-secret


A modernist Jesuit would wish I had never read the play, at 14.
St. Ignatius HS is where I first learned grammar systematically.

Gerald Smith SJ could not have imagined this thing, "internet".
He required that we memorize and recite Portia's soliloquy.
The school has no teaching Jesuits now, hence not Jesuit.
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Sonnet 73

6/1/2025

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That time of year thou mayst in me behold
When yellow leaves, or none, or few, do hang
Upon those boughs which shake against the cold,
Bare ruin'd choirs, where late the sweet birds sang.
In me thou see'st the twilight of such day
As after sunset fadeth in the west,
Which by and by black night doth take away,
Death's second self, that seals up all in rest.
In me thou see'st the glowing of such fire
That on the ashes of his youth doth lie,
As the death-bed whereon it must expire,
Consum'd with that which it was nourish'd by.
This thou perceiv'st, which makes thy love more strong,
To love that well which thou must leave ere long.

William Shakespeare
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Chuck Amuck

5/30/2025

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Picture
autobiography of Chuck Jones, a gift from Joey
"Why do animated cartoonists use animals?" For the same reason that Aesop, La Fontaine, Kipling, Beatrix Potter, and Kenneth Grahame did: it is easier and more believable to humanize animals than it is to humanize humans."
Copyright 1989 by Chuck Jones Enterprises, Inc.
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The Velveteen Rabbit

5/30/2025

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recommended by Joan, my sister

Download the free pdf version (13 pages): Florida Center for Instructional Technology.


1881-1944
Margaret was brought up in a conventional English Christian family. When the family moved to the United States, Margery was a student at the Convent School in Sharon Hill, PA, but it was not her upbringing per se that created the mystic in her. It was adversity and poetry. Her father died when she was seven. Margery’s principal voluntary inspiration came from the works of the poet she called her "spiritual mentor", Walter de la Mare. For more about the convent school she attended...

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Holy_Child_Academy_(Sharon_Hill,_Pennsylvania)​

1809-1879​
Then take a look, time-permitting, at the life of Venerable Cornelia Connelly, the school's foundress, whose own adversity was unbelievable.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cornelia_Connelly​
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The Giving Tree

5/26/2025

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recommended by Josh
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summer reading

5/20/2025

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United States
Google trends

Top searched children's/YA literature

Past month, 1) Harry Potter; 2) Hunger Games; 3) Twilight; 4) The Summer I Turned Pretty; 5) Diary of a Wimpy Kid

Top trending autobiographies
Past month, 1) Pope Francis (Hope); 2) Martha Stewart (Being Martha); 3) Paramahansa Yogananda (Autobiography of a Yogi); 4) Maya Angelou (I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings); 5) Ozzy Osbourne (I Am Ozzy)

No to all except Diary of a Wimpy Kid.

Look over my Reading List.
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ثلاثة لصوص وحمار

5/15/2025

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“Three Thieves and a Donkey” - morality tale with a twist
deceived (sp.)
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The Trap

5/10/2025

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Curtis 1917-2002
  • The story appeared in Galaxy Science Fiction, August 1953 ed.
  • She gladly signed up with the Society for Creative Anachronism.
  • Barbara means "foreigner, stranger", "not Greek", "barbarian".
How many times did my investigative instincts tell me to stick a foot between the door and door jamb? No Ring doorbell and camera then.

Where are they? Black case, bells, eyes, walls, doors, hands, thermals, ad orientem, face grime, tissue cleanser, silence, ladderback, clapper, gold, silver...to God Who giveth joy to my youth. If you are not a Latin Mass Catholic, unlikely it is that you will understand the allusions, which are essential to the story.
​

I recommend this story to Catholic homeschoolers.
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morally gray?

5/8/2025

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A morally gray character in fiction is great. In real life, such a person quick-sands.
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Last Rites

5/8/2025

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Dead in the cold, a song singing thrush,
Dead at the foot of a snowberry bush-
Weave him a coffin of rush,
Dig him a grave where the soft mosses grow,
Raise him a tombstone of snow.
Christina Rossetti

Did she have James in mind?
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mother & soldier son

5/4/2025

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As Thou didst walk in Galilee,
so loving Savior, walk with him for me:
For since the years have passed and he has grown,
I cannot follow, he must walk alone.
Be Thou my feet that I have had to stay,
for Thou canst comrade him on every way.
Be Thou my voice, when sinful things allure,
pleading with him to choose those that endure.
Be Thou my hand that would keep his in mine,
all, all things that a mother must resign.
When he was little I could walk with him and guide
but now, I pray Thee, Thou be at his side.
And as Thy Blessed Mother folded Thee,
so kind and loving Savior, guard my son for me.


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The Moustache

5/3/2025

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Robert Edmund Cormier (b. 1925, d. 2000) was an American writer of Young Adult realist stories, crime fiction, and thrillers. His first story was published when, after reading one of his compositions, a college teacher encouraged him to write another, and he went home and wrote a short story that she read the next day.

Without his knowledge, the teacher sent it to a Catholic publisher, The Sign Magazine. Six weeks later, she handed Robert a check for $75 and told him that the story would be published. 
The Sign Magazine was a national publication from 1921 to 1982. The founder-editor until 1934 was Father Harold Purcell.

Themes in 
the coming-of-age story?


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Green Cloud

5/1/2025

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Download "A Green Cloud Came" nine minutes in length
ia600702.us.archive.org/28/items/shortsciencefictioncollection102_2412_librivox/shortsciencefictioncollection102_03_various_64kb.mp3

​Author: American Robert A. W. Lowndes (
September 4, 1916 - July 14, 1998); Genre: science fiction; Setting: post-apocalyptic world; Plot: a toxic green cloud is overtaking Earth...


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Saint-Saëns animals

4/28/2025

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France & Algeria
French composer, pianist, organist
b. Paris October 9, 1835; d. Algiers, Algeria, December 16, 1921
Carnival of the Animals: intro; lions; hens and cocks; wild jackass; turtles; elephants; the kangaroo; the aquarium; mules; the cuckoo in the woods; birds; pianists; fossils; the swan; grand finale; and French military march! Listen to poetry, correct accents, music, and humor.
https://www.sing-prayer.org/carnival-of-the-animals​
​
I've so many sources without which I could not do what I do.
This one is from Bill, St. Stephen Sacramento parishioner.
​
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Devil & Tom Walker

4/21/2025

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United States
Washington Irving April 3, 1783 - November 28, 1859 (76)
(Ash Wednesday alluded to)
In 
1876​ Longfellow wrote this poem to commemorate the grave:
How sweet a life was his; how sweet a death!
Living, to wing with mirth the weary hours,
Or with romantic tales the heart to cheer;
Dying, to leave a memory like the breath
Of summers full of sunshine and of showers,
A grief and gladness in the atmosphere.​
Picture
Picture
https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:John_Quidor_-_Headless_Horseman_Pursuing_Ichabod_Crane_-_Smithsonian.jpg
​
Title: The Headless Horseman Pursuing Ichabod Crane
Artist: John Quidor (1801–1881)
Genre: landscape painting
Date: 
1858
Medium: oil on canvas
Dimensions: height: 26.8 in; width: 33.8 in
Collection: Smithsonian American Art Museum
Accession number: 1994.120
Credit line: Smithsonian American Art Museum, purchase made possible in part by the Catherine Walden Myer Endowment, the Julia D. Strong Endowment, and the Director's Discretionary Fund

​
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PCM audiobook

4/8/2025

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Pretty City Murder is on Audible audiobook. An Amazon purchase is inexpensive. An AI voice with a male American accent narrates, and it sounds excellent.

The crime fiction novel, published in 2018 and edited by multiple people, was the first attempt at creative writing. A writing career began in my mid-30s and was interrupted several times, but I'm still at it.

Reading and writing students gave me as much help as I have ever given them, and one is left, Alexander, my treacherous collaborator. He once told me that he wanted to be a spy.


www.amazon.com/Pretty-City-Murder-Robert-Dunn-ebook/dp/B07CZ3H5LG/ref=sr_1_1?crid=1LAC1RFF46VE5&dib=eyJ2IjoiMSJ9.CwORh8qw5jIt8AlOaHvc8A.wQwunTZre_7gjMrjkLqalPnrKae9G3gm_jBcn-zqutU&dib_tag=se&keywords=pretty+city+murder+robert+e+dunn&qid=1744212158&sprefix=pretty+city+murder+robert+e+dunn%2Caps%2C142&sr=8-1

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Revelation

4/8/2025

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Thank you, Bill. I overlooked this story.
Flannery was born in Georgia and died in Georgia.
At 39, she received extreme unction in hospital and died three weeks later.


Letter to a friend two weeks before...
O Raphael, lead us toward those we are waiting for, those who are waiting for us: Raphael, angel of happy meeting, lead us by the hand toward those that we are looking for. May all our movements be guided by your Light and transfigured with your joy.
Angel, guide of Tobias, lay the request we now address to you at the feet of him on whose unveiled Face you are privileged to gaze. Lonely and tired, crushed by the separations and sorrows of life, we feel the need of calling you and of pleading for the protection of your wings, so that we may not be as strangers in the province of joy, all ignorant of the concerns of our country.
Remember the weak, you who are strong, you whose home lies beyond the region of thunder, in a land that is always peaceful, always serene and bright with the resplendent glory of God.

​Mrs. Turpin is a warthog from Hell, isn't she? Well, I think Flannery is saying that the Bible-thumper knows she is a sinner, like everyone else is, which is to her credit and the first revelation that leads to salvation.

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Hiawatha

4/4/2025

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By the shore of Gitche Gumee,
By the shining Big-Sea-Water,
At the doorway of his wigwam,
In the pleasant Summer morning,
Hiawatha stood and waited.
All the air was full of freshness,
All the earth was bright and joyous,
And before him, through the sunshine,
Westward toward the neighboring forest
Passed in golden swarms the Ahmo,
Passed the bees, the honey-makers,
Burning, singing In the sunshine.

        Bright above him shone the heavens,
Level spread the lake before him;
From its bosom leaped the sturgeon,
Sparkling, flashing in the sunshine;
On its margin the great forest
Stood reflected in the water,
Every tree-top had its shadow,
Motionless beneath the water.

        From the brow of Hiawatha
Gone was every trace of sorrow,
As the fog from off the water,
As the mist from off the meadow.
With a smile of joy and triumph,
With a look of exultation,
As of one who in a vision
Sees what is to be, but is not,
Stood and waited Hiawatha.

        Toward the sun his hands were lifted,
Both the palms spread out against it,
And between the parted fingers
Fell the sunshine on his features,
Flecked with light his naked shoulders,
As it falls and flecks an oak-tree
Through the rifted leaves and branches.

        O'er the water floating, flying,
Something in the hazy distance,
Something in the mists of morning,
Loomed and lifted from the water,
Now seemed floating, now seemed flying,
Coming nearer, nearer, nearer.

        Was it Shingebis the diver?
Or the pelican, the Shada?
Or the heron, the Shuh-shuh-gah?
Or the white goose, Waw-be-wawa,
With the water dripping, flashing,
From its glossy neck and feathers?

        It was neither goose nor diver,
Neither pelican nor heron,
O'er the water floating, flying,
Through the shining mist of morning,
But a birch canoe with paddles,
Rising, sinking on the water,
Dripping, flashing in the sunshine;
And within it came a people
From the distant land of Wabun,
From the farthest realms of morning
Came the Black-Robe chief, the Prophet,
He the Priest of Prayer, the Pale-face,
With his guides and his companions.

        And the noble Hiawatha,
With his hands aloft extended,
Held aloft in sign of welcome,
Waited, full of exultation,
Till the birch canoe with paddles
Grated on the shining pebbles,
Stranded on the sandy margin,
Till the Black-Robe chief, the Pale-face,
With the cross upon his bosom,
Landed on the sandy margin.

        Then the joyous Hiawatha
Cried aloud and spake in this wise:
"Beautiful is the sun, O strangers,
When you come so far to see us!
All our town in peace awaits you,
All our doors stand open for you;
You shall enter all our wigwams,
For the heart's right hand we give you.

        "Never bloomed the earth so gayly,
Never shone the sun so brightly,
As to-day they shine and blossom
When you come so far to see us!
Never was our lake so tranquil,
Nor so free from rocks, and sand-bars;
For your birch canoe in passing
Has removed both rock and sand-bar.
​

         "Never before had our tobacco
Such a sweet and pleasant flavor,
Never the broad leaves of our cornfields
Were so beautiful to look on,
As they seem to us this morning,
When you come so far to see us!"
And the Black-Robe chief made answer,
Stammered In his speech a little,
Speaking words yet unfamiliar:
"Peace be with you, Hiawatha,
Peace be with you and your people,
Peace of prayer, and peace of pardon,
Peace of Christ, and joy of Mary!"

​Hiawatha’s D
eparture

Longfellow, 1855

Trochaic tetrameter
Trochaic tetrameter is a poetic meter consisting of four trochaic feet per line, each foot having a stressed syllable followed by an unstressed syllable, resulting in a "DUM-duh" rhythm. Children and adults like it.
Picture
https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Ojibwa_wigwam.jpg
Title: Ojibwa village at Sault Ste. Marie in 1846
Dimensions: height 18.5 in, width: 13.3 in
Artist: Paul Kane 1810-1871
Description: Ojibwa wigwam
Date: before 1871

Hiawatha was not the Ojibwa trickster, but rather a 16th century Iroquois leader
, renowned in his own right. Google Generative AI said that Longfellow's poem of renown overshadowed Hiawatha, who aided peace and cooperation among the Iroquois tribes, and I say the opposite: the poem immortalizes his stature as he meets the Catholic priest. Anyway, I love every word, and to hell with what others say.


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who are the cynics?

3/18/2025

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If you are looking for an appropriate description of Democrats, it would be cynical. The author/commentator is critical of, and distrustful of, the motives and sincerity of others. Even though humor might be used, a cynical tone conveys a negative attitude. Dystopian stories are cynical.
Ukrainian Foreign Minister Andrii Sybiha has said that his country can achieve a “long-lasting, just peace” under Trump's leadership.
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Pentagon speaks

3/17/2025

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Pentagon Press Secretary Sean Parnell's novel, Left for Dead
HarperCollins Publishers, date Jan. 31, 2023 - fiction - 400 pages

https://books.google.com/books/about/Left_for_Dead.html?id=9iyLzgEACAAJ&source=kp_author_description
​

At age 24, U.S. Army Ranger Sean Parnell was named commander of the legendary 10th Mountain Division—a 40-man elite infantry platoon known as the Outlaws. When tasked with rooting out Pakistan-based insurgents in Afghanistan, little did he know he’d be facing 16 months of close combat against a seasoned force of light infantry. After receiving two Bronze Stars and the Purple Heart, the Pennsylvania native retired as a captain and is currently working on his Ph.D. in clinical psychology. Parnell recounts how the fight in Afghanistan reshaped his life and the lives of his men in his text Outlaw Platoon. -redstate.com (Trump won Pennsylvania.)
https://grabien.com/profile?id=44227

Duquesne University
BA History/Psychology 2002-2004
MA Clinical Psychology 2010-2012

​
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A Little Journey

3/8/2025

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Thirkell, the Rosicrucian
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is he a poet?

2/24/2025

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Holy Father, Pope Francis, Francis, Bergoglio (Who knows?)

Pray for him? I don't know who he is. It would be like asking me to pray for a stranger in my neighborhood.
​

Is he a poet? short story writer? novelist? journalist?
Has he studied much history or his predecessors?

Does he know Greek, Latin, French, or English?
Has he written anything himself?
Has he written a letter to you?
​Is he a painter or musician?
Is he a great orator?
Is he a philosopher?
Is he a researcher?
Is he a teacher?
​
Is he a sophist?

Have h
is sycophants written anything that isn't a polemic?
​

Is he a Catholic? hound of heaven​
He said, ​"God never gives someone a gift they are not capable of receiving." That is a false, shameful statement. Our Lord's hand is extended all day and night to every person on Earth in the Eucharist. None of us are deserving, and He can overwhelm anyone's incapability, even the invincibly ignorant. Get instruction, confess, enter, and receive.

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Bible adapt

2/22/2025

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Picture
hardback 256 pages $24.95
[email protected]
order online above or call 1-800-888-9344

www.FraternityPublications.com
​

Angelus Press is the publishing arm of the SSPX, and the hymnal is used at the FSSP church in Sacramento.


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