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Ambrose Bierce

Ambrose Bierce’s, The Hares and the Frogs*

Posted on March 21, 2026 by John Lubans

The Members of a Legislature, being told that they were the meanest thieves in the world, resolved to commit suicide. So they bought shrouds, and laying them in a convenient place prepared to cut their throats.  While they were grinding their razors some Tramps passing that way stole the shrouds. “Let us live, my friends,”…

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Ambrose Bierce’s “The Grasshopper and the Ant”

Posted on January 30, 2026February 3, 2026 by John Lubans

One day in winter a hungry Grasshopper applied to an Ant for some of the food which they had stored. “Why,” said the Ant, “did you not store up  some food for yourself, instead of singing all the time?” “So I did,” said the Grasshopper; “so I did; but you fellows broke in and carried…

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Ade’s THE FABLE OF THE PROFESSOR WHO WANTED TO BE ALONE or How to Keep Your Head in the Clouds and Your Feet on the Ground

Posted on January 6, 2026February 7, 2026 by John Lubans

“NOW it happens that in America a man who goes up hanging to a Balloon is a Professor. One day a Professor, preparing to make a Grand Ascension, was sorely pestered by Spectators of the Yellow-Hammer Variety, who fell over the Stay-Ropes or crowded up close to the Balloon to ask Fool Questions. They wanted to…

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Ambrose Bierce’s “The Party Manager and the Gentleman”*

Posted on December 27, 2025December 27, 2025 by John Lubans

While reading Senator John Kennedy’s book, “How to Test Negative for Stupid” (2025) I harked back to Bierce’s biting commentary on American politicians. Bierce had no use for fools, so he would have been delighted to meet Mr. Kennedy, an Oxford graduate, a native of Louisiana and a top notch lawyer. Mr. Kennedy tells, in…

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Bierce’s Philosophers Three fable*

Posted on November 28, 2025November 29, 2025 by John Lubans

  A Bear, a Fox, and an Opossum were attacked by an inundation. “Death loves a coward,” said the Bear, and went forward to fight the flood. “What a fool!” said the Fox.  “I know a trick worth two of that.”  And he slipped into a hollow stump. “There are malevolent forces,” said the Opossum,…

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Caption: Illustration by Milo Winter for the "Aesop for Children", 1919.

Ambrose Bierce’s, The Wolf and the Feeding Goat*

Posted on October 31, 2025November 6, 2025 by John Lubans

A Wolf saw a Goat feeding at the summit of a rock, where he could not get at her. “Why do you stay up there in that sterile place and go hungry?” said the Wolf.  “Down here where I am the broken-bottle vine cometh up as a flower, the celluloid collar blossoms as the rose,…

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John Lubans

John Lubans (WSJ portrait)
WSJ rendering from a photo by Eva Baughman.

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