Original anecdotes, commentary, rumination, and occasional pontification.
NOVEMBER 19, 2021 – Simon Winchester wrote a book entitled, The Perfectionists, an interesting work about precision engineering. In the world of machines and micro-machines, precision to the nth-degree marks the difference between function and failure. Perfection applies with equal force to many fields, from music to medicine. It even rules in the practice of …
NOVEMBER 17, 2021 – I’d wanted to write something cool (but heartwarming), when Bam!—I read about the trial of Kyle Rittenhouse, the Illinois kid who grabbed his assault rifle and ammo and drove to Kenosha, Wisconsin to kill a couple of BLM protesters . . . in self-defense. After closing arguments in a courtroom presided …
OCTOBER 28, 2021 – I’m not a tax lawyer, but throughout my career I’ve had more than a passing brush with tax law. Currently, I’m working on a protracted deal with lots of “tax angles,” and to my consternation, the tax accountant I work with characterizes these angles as “complicated.” Over the years, I’ve developed …
OCTOBER 24, 2021 – Yesterday evening my wife and I and four friends (our theater group of yore) attended a play for the first time in nearly two years. To gain admittance to the Guthrie Theater, you had to show your ticket, a photo i.d., and proof of Covid vaccination. All good. The name of …
OCTOBER 15, 2021 – Given the inner calm I’d achieved by avoiding “breaking news,” I worried about the detrimental effect of reading Peril by veteran journalist Bob Woodward and Robert Costa, national political reporter for The Washington Post. The flap copy starts with, “The transition from [You-Know-Who] to President Joseph R. Biden Jr. stands as …
SEPTEMBER 25, 2021 – When asked what he thought about democracy, Mahatma Gandhi purportedly said, “It’s an interesting idea.” Democracy has ample flaws to render it “interesting,” starting with . . . everyone gets to participate—including people who aren’t subscribers to democracy’s fundamental principle: power is derived from the consent of the governed, not from …
AUGUST 28, 2021 – “Stay off the MSG,” our son Byron texted in response to a synopsis of my dream Thursday night. Years ago he would have been right. Whenever I ate lunch at the Nanking a block from my office tower in downtown Minneapolis, I experienced hallucinogenic dreams the following night—after my hands tingled …
AUGUST 27, 2021 – As one of many, I’m following news reports and commentaries about the American withdrawal from Afghanistan. Much attention is on the moment; less focus on 20 years of failed policy. The ragged retreat is the bad fruit of long-lived failure. The more I read and listen, the more I scream, as …
AUGUST 24, 2021 – Yesterday I watched an exchange on FoxNews—my “go-to” source for rightwing propaganda. Tucker Carlson, a highly compensated creature of the rightwing audience-rightwing media feedback loop, was interviewing Brit Hume, the outlet’s stately “senior policy analyst.” The subject was “Biden’s botched evacuation” from Afghanistan. Mr. Snarly and Mr. Stately reveled in Biden’s …
AUGUST 21, 2021 – I used to joke that in “Libertaria,” traffic lights would be privately owned, coin-operated, and voluntary. I’m no longer joking. Our biggest single threat is unfettered freedom to do whatever it takes to make a buck—and whatever purveyors of falsehoods, religious beliefs, or conspiracy theories order us (ironically) to do. What’s …
AUGUST 2, 2021 – On Sunday we—my wife, son Byron, daughter-in-law Mylène, and I—made a Home Depot run in Middletown, CT, followed by a near total buy-out of current inventory at an adjacent Price Chopper grocery store. I was familiar with “Home Depot”; I’d never heard of “Price Chopper” As we grabbed “price-chopped” stuff off …
JULY 22, 2O21 – What’s worse: a. The violent, January 6 attack on the Capitol; or b. Republicans’ continued support of a disordered former president, who called the unruly mob, “a loving crowd”? I say “b.” A country in which people who wield substantial political power will say and do anything to stay in the …
JULY 21, 2021 – If I were a physician and America my patient, the metaphorical conversation would go something like this . . . AMERICA: Tell me straight up, Doc. Am I gonna make it? ME: You’ve got lots of potentially life-threatening issues going on. AMERICA: I know. I feel very crappy, and lately I’ve …
JULY 18, 2021 – Amidst catastrophic flooding in northern Europe, grave endangerment of the Great Salt Lake ecosystem, still raging fires in the West, continuing drought and record heat across half of North America, I’m pessimistic that we—humanity—can do enough in time to mitigate climate change materially or to adapt quickly enough to avoid its …
JULY 15, 2021 – Daily, I visit www.fox[propaganda].com. (I eschew the TV version, which competes shamelessly with even more bizarre media outlets like Newsmax and OAN (“One America News”).) Fox and its competitors on the right are more than irritants. They’re irresponsible, anti-social, destructive forces leveraging an influence loop for the sole and soulless sake …
JULY 13, 2021 – For today’s post, I’d intended to write about an observation quite apart from today’s appalling news. After several failed attempts, I yielded to the news. Yet my struggle wasn’t over. There’s the turmoil in Cuba and its root causes—a half-century trade embargo by the U.S. playing a much larger role than …
JULY 10, 2021 – Thursday evening on our way to the cabin, we stopped at the Beechmoor, a classic, northwest Wisconsin bar and grill. It’s at the south end of Whitefish Lake, which, as the water flows, is two lakes down from our own Grindstone Lake. The bar was crowded (vaccination cards, people?), and besides, …
JULY 9, 2021 – If I were an adversary of the United States, I’d be salivating over our current internal demise. Our self-destruction requires of our enemies, no outlandish military expenditure, no high-risk/low-probability-of-success sabotage, no complex of computer hackers, no advanced planning and expenditure of any kind; simply enough Americans—not even a majority—to believe their …
JUNE 27, 2021 – On Saturday we took friends on a cruise aboard our pontoon. We “steamed” across the lake, then putted along the “Barbary Coast” before heading for the islands in the southwest corner. As we passed by the small, public campsite on the south end of Observation Island, we saw two large tents …
JUNE 22, 2021 – Back in eighth grade algebra, to pass a test with 100 problems you had to score at least 61. To ace the test you had to hit 90 or above. Seventy to 79 got you a “C,” meaning your grasp of concepts was sketchy—putting at risk your entire GPA and life’s …
JUNE 21, 2021 – Yesterday we returned from a quiet, pleasant weekend at the Red Cabin, surrounded by the sights and sounds of nature. Our time up there always has a calming effect and helps put the noise and nonsense of “civilization” into perspective. Soon after arriving home, however, we returned to Alice in Wonderland—first …
JUNE 19, 2021 – Don’t tread on me . . . with your gun fetish. Hunt all you want (with your registered rifle and firearm safety classes) and skeet shoot until you drop (likewise, with a registered firearm and adequate instruction), but don’t think that because you’re obsessed with your “right to bear arms,” I’m …
MAY 28, 2021 – Historically, the power of political leaders emanates from the people who are subject to that power, voluntarily or involuntarily. Lust and fear, meanwhile, are the central ingredients in the relationship between the governed and those who govern. In a dictatorship, fear runs two ways. The dictator who lusts for power fears …
MAY 26, 2021 – Recently, the QAnon Congresswoman caught flak for what was deemed an anti-Semitic remark—comparing public health measures to Holocaust savagery. I see it differently. Comparing the face mask rule with the Holocaust lacks the cogency necessary for placement on the broad scale of anti-Semitism—from insidiously subtle to outrageously overt. Congressional Dems and …
MAY 24, 2021 – One of my made-up maxims (page 47 of my imaginary book, Eric’s Adages) is this: To give a statistic meaning, you need to give it company. Whether the context is economics, demographics, or scientific research, to understand a figure, a number, a data point, you need to have a reference point—often …