Original anecdotes, commentary, rumination, and occasional pontification.
AUGUST 1, 2025 – Today I found amusement by being in two worlds at once on my way to the woods. Let me explain . . . Last week I’d arranged to meet with a Wisconsin DNR forester for an extended site visit of Björnholm, or at least a portion of it, to gain some …
JULY 29, 2025 – Today while waiting for an appointment, I was fully engaged in my principal distraction of late[1]—reading a 600-page biography of Mao Zedong, master of China from 1949 until his not-a-day-too-soon-death in 1976. When a younger person asked what I was reading, I held up the cover, which bears Mao’s portrait—and his …
JULY 22, 2025 – Today I joined the kickoff meeting of the planning committee for my 50th college class reunion. When I’d volunteered a while back, I naively assumed that I’d be among 10 or 12 classmates following an inner group of half a dozen leading the charge. In fact, so many people have joined …
JULY 20, 2025 – “Our lake” is unusually quiet, despite its being in the middle of lacustrine cabin country[1] in northwest Wisconsin. Wide open with dimensions described in miles, Grindstone Lake has remarkably little boat traffic, even on the Fourth of July and Labor Day. This phenomenon is especially surprising given the number of serious …
JULY 16, 2025 – Yesterday, as I drove down our winding drive and drew closer to the lake, the stiff breeze played whirlybird with every single leaf in the dense vegetation along my way. At first the fluttering leaves looked as if they were hanging on for dear life, but then I began to see …
JULY 15, 2025 – In 2020 I constructed, painted and installed a sign marking the gateway to my “träd gård” (Swedish for tree garden) up at the lake, acreage where three years before I’d planted hundreds of two- and three-year white pine seedlings. I fashioned the five-and-a-half-foot-long sign out of treated lumber to ensure that …
JULY 6, 2025 – My good friend Jeffrey Oppenheim. was among the small group that founded the Falmouth [MA] Jewish Congregation in that vibrant Cape Cod community. Today 300 households are among the membership of what has become a robust, dynamic organization, with an impressively educated and experienced staff, a broad palette of educational programs …
JULY 1, 2025 – Early Friday we bade farewell to the City and headed north . . . I mean east . . . I mean northeast . . . back to Yankeedom, to the “Constitution State.”[1] What I’ve realized quite recently is that the Connecticut shoreline along Long Island Sound doesn’t run on a …
JUNE 30, 2025 – (Cont.) The weather Thursday marked a radical departure from the wilting conditions that prevailed since our arrival Tuesday. All in our party agreed that predicted high of 75F and overcast skies would be perfect for walking the town. Jenny, our guide and consummate New Yorker, has many favorite places in the …
JUNE 26, 2025 – When you’re in Connecticut, people refer to Gotham not as “New York City” but simply as “the city.” I’ve never encountered this reference in writing, so I don’t know if it’s capitalized, but when I say it or hear it, I always think of it as capitalized, given the size and …
JUNE 25, 2025 – (Cont.) On Sunday morning we cleared out of old Lenox and headed for Stockbridge and the Norman Rockwell Museum. Our progress was deferred, however, by a sign at a junction just below Lenox. It read, “Frelinghuysen Morris House & Studio.” I must here confess to extreme dereliction; my failure to have …
JUNE 19, 2025 – Today our crew—four adults, one kid, one toddler—headed for Connecticut’s best and biggest beach, the main but by no means only attraction at the sprawling Hamomasset State Park halfway between Old Saybrook and New Haven. In tow were four chairs, a beach mat, a beach umbrella (with stand), two hefty coolers …
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 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 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”). …
APRIL 23, 2025 – We go through life taking lots for granted. In many respects, that’s okay. If we stopped at every turn to take full stock of the miracles in our lives, we’d make little progress in compiling additional miracles to take for granted. Furthermore, if we shifted our attention from pressing challenges and …
APRIL 20, 2025 – This being the high holy day of (Western) Christianity makes it the high holy moly day for me, given my complicated relationship with this particular brand of religion. “Holy moly” means different things to different people, but to me in the present context it means, “Yet again I’m reminded of the …
APRIL 14, 2025 – One can’t predict how data points will line up to spell, “Abracadabra, open sesame!” straight out of Ali Baba and the Forty Thieves. And just as occurs in fiction, the door to the cave of knowledge and understanding opens to reveal a vast stash of loot for the taking. I love …
APRIL 13, 2025 – I harbor the hope that the reader who is about my age or beyond it will understand the sentiments expressed below. If you are my junior, the likelihood exists that at best you’ll lay my two cents aside for possible future reference. If you’re in the latter camp, I wholly understand: …
APRIL 3, 2025 – While the investor world along with major stock indices seemed to be in a free fall today, I happily stuck my head in the sand—figuratively speaking. After all, I was driving and wouldn’t have been able to travel far with sand in my eyes. My first stop was the Asian Foods …
MARCH 18, 2025 – Yesterday evening in the company of my two history-hungry friends, I attended yet another amazing two-hour lecture (no breaks) by the inimitable Russian history scholar, Professor Theofanis Stavrou. With his usual enthusiasm he delivered his far-reaching deep-diving tightly organized well-sourced exposition. His notes were on the lectern, but he never consulted …