Original anecdotes, commentary, rumination, and occasional pontification.
MAY 29, 2025 – Today I tuned into a replay of a Westminster Town Hall Forum[1] on the imperial presidency. The segment featured Jack Goldsmith, who teaches at Harvard Law School. Before his academic career he’d served in the Office of Legal Counsel and Special Counsel to the Department of Defense during the Bush W. …
MAY 28, 2025 – (Cont.) ME ONE: Moving on from the basics—clean air and water, decent nutrition and affordable housing . . . I’d say what are most important for our well-being are universally affordable, accessible and effective public health and public education systems. ME TOO: I couldn’t agree with you more. Public health should …
MAY 27, 2025 – Today I engaged in my usual routine when at the Red Cabin—I took a long hike up and down the trails of the Björnholm “tree garden,” trimming encroaching vegetation as I proceeded, and checking the latest growth displayed by the hundreds, nay thousands, of young pine. With the pittance of snow …
MAY 26, 2025 – Visiting us for several days at the Red Cabin are two of my wife’s cousins—Brian and Eric. Brian I keep calling “Byron” by mistake, and half the time when someone shouts, “Hey, Eric!” I think I’m being hailed, but as it turns out, I seem to be wrong 100% of the …
MAY 25, 2025 – (Cont.) The hoarder’s grip as it pertains to lumber afflicted my dad in the same two-handed fashion that it applies to me. There was naturally and habitually, the whole matter of frugality. When other people observed this trait in Dad, they’d attribute it straight away to his having grown up during …
MAY 24, 2025 – (Cont.) My latest confrontation with lumber hoarding was precipitated by a sign . . . in the woods (where else?), more precisely, the upper reaches of the Björnholm tree garden. Not so many years ago, I’d fashioned a prominent “BJÖRNHOLM TRÄDGÅRD” [“tree garden” in Swedish] sign painted on wood, mounted on …
MAY 23, 2025 – My ancestors had a special relationship with stuff. For details, see my memoir (Inheritance), published here in a long series across the several month, mid-year 2023. A less charitable way of putting it is that several people up the chain (“tree”?) were . . . and if I include myself, are …
MAY 22, 2025 – If you were mildly paying attention to yesterday’s news cycle, you saw, heard or read about our president’s unpresidential treatment of Cyril Ramaphosa, president of the Republic of South Africa. Sadly, our president’s unbecoming ambush of his guest came as no surprise. It was yet another outburst by a world leader …
MAY 21, 2025 – Time. If you stop it long enough to examine it, you’ll see it as an interesting conceptual sculpture. The overall construct is a paradox: time is at once long and short; near and far; uniquely perceived by every individual, yet a common feature of our humanity; intangible in the moment but …
MAY 20, 2025 – Had our dear old dad lived to be even older than he was when the curtains closed at 10 days shy of 88 years; if he’d escaped the multiple myeloma that killed him and he’d dodged any number of other potentially terminal events, he would’ve turned 103 today. An early morning …
MAY 19, 2025 – In case my younger friends and family members require formal notice, I’m getting old . . . -er. That fact shouldn’t surprise anyone. What’s new about my growing old, however, is my now express albeit reluctant acknowledgment of this irreversible reality. Physical infirmity is too obvious to hide, especially from oneself. …
MAY 18, 2025 – We’ve all been long exposed to the adage that “history repeats itself,” as more recently amended to, “history doesn’t repeat itself, but it rhymes.” Weary of this cliché, I find more useful the insights that an examination of history, similarly to close analysis of literature, reveals about the psychological make-up of …
MAY 17, 2025 – As readers might know or guess by my name, I’m of Swedish descent. Though Swedes have no monopoly on “Eric,” I’m guessing a higher percentage of Swedes and people of Swedish descent are called “Eric” than is the case in all other lands, except, perhaps, Norway and Denmark (but in those …
MAY 16, 2025 -This evening Beth and I went out to dinner with my sister Jenny, still in town for her opera gig but with the night off. We ate at the 112 Eatery over in the North Loop of Minneapolis. Tucked into a long narrow space of a building from the late 1800s, the …
MAY 15, 2025 -Today on my way back from Little Switzerland, I noticed the playground rules—10, if you disregard the overlap between “Smoking is prohibited” and “Tobacco use is prohibited in the presence of youth”—posted at a local city playground. My personal opinion is that the 10 commandments could be conveyed far more effectively if …
MAY 14, 2025 – I might have one more tree-planting session this spring, but if I don’t I’m satisfied with this season’s effort: 190 trees, including 25 hemlocks, 30 Norway pines, and 135 white spruce. Moreover, I lugged over 30 gallons of water deep into the woods and up to the heights of Björnholm to …
MAY 13, 2025 – A few days ago I finally finished reading The Crimean War by the British historian, Orlando Figes. I’d mentioned this book several months ago on this blog and remarked that prior to “going back to college” to study Russian history, I was as ignorant as the next American about the Crimean …
MAY 12, 2025 – Publishing a book is not a casual undertaking. Writing the darned thing isn’t even the half of it. In the case of the all the histories I read, a vast amount of scholarship precedes the drafting. Before delving into each book, I check out the author’s bibliography, which reflects what kind …
MAY 11, 2025 – This morning my sister Jenny stopped by for coffee and conversation. Though she’s married to the official humorist of the family and our niece is the professional stand-up comedian of the clan (on occasion, the two have joined forces on the big stage), Jenny is the one who can guarantee occupational …
MAY 10, 2025 – Today my wealth—and that of my friends Matt and Ravi—increased beyond measure. By “wealth” I don’t mean how that term is typically defined and perceived in our society. I mean the sum of one’s hope, faith, love, and friendships. This remarkable increase in wealth was bestowed upon us by a most …
MAY 9, 2025 – Today’s plan required me to leave the Red Cabin first thing to be home by 11:30. I decided to take advantage of the chance for nearly three hours of “quiet time” in the car. No music, no phone calls (except three; one to leave a VM, two check-ins with “the boss”). …
MAY 8, 2025 – Although I’m a long-time “dirt” lawyer, as real estate attorneys call one another, eons have passed since I last did my own tract search of a piece of property. We dirt lawyers rely on title insurance companies to undertake that effort in conjunction with examination of title. But today I needed …
MAY 7, 2025 -Normally, Azerbaijan isn’t anywhere close to Falcon Heights, Minnesota, but this morning I encountered the former Soviet Socialist Republic of Azerbaijan (at one time part of Caucasian Albania[1]) at the geographic center of North America, a million miles from the southwestern shore of the Caspian Sea, where you’d ordinarily find the modern …
MAY 6, 2025 – (Cont.) For the reader discouraged by the regular reminders of our collective dysfunctionality, I recommend planting a few conifer seedlings . . . or a few hundred if you’d like to contribute to the mission of this aging arborist. The reality of the matter is that it’s hard labor, at least …
MAY 5, 2025 – (Cont.) I started this season’s planting in the areas that last week Jeff Oppenheim had helped me clear of what I call “riff raff”—the variety of small bushes, the names of which I’ve never bothered to learn, since I’m way too focused on the overstory, namely the trees. These first sections …