Original anecdotes, commentary, rumination, and occasional pontification.
DECEMBER 30, 2023 – In high school I had a friend named Mike. By general consensus, Mike was a pain in the neck but an endearing one, if that dichotomy can be imagined. His high energy could be mistaken for impulsivity, and he was of strong opinions, intensely conveyed. He took special pleasure in watching …
Blogger’s Note: A new mini-memoir series! DECEMBER 29, 2023 – In searching for a new blog series topic, I dusted the cobwebs off my past to see what material might spring forth from cartons in the attic of my memory. Miraculously, some rich stuff surfaced from a tired old cardboard box labeled (figuratively), “SUMMER JOBS …
DECEMBER 26, 2023 – In the context of a musical performance, my dad used to say that greatness lay in the details—not any single detail, he noted, but in the aggregate effect of all the details. “Therefore,” he said, “as a performer you have to get all the details right.” Dad’s musical refinement came as …
DECEMBER 24, 2023 – (Cont.) As my Grandpa Nilsson used to say on this day (out of earshot of other adults, except Dad), “’Twas the night before Christmas, when all through the house, not a creature was stirring . . . not even a mouse turd.” Then he’d laugh at his own joke, and as …
DECEMBER 23, 2023 – During the course of my 24-hour stay at the Red Cabin, a dense fog filled the surrounding woods. When I hiked along the lakeshore path, I seemed to be walking along the border of infinity: beyond about 50 feet from shore, the lake itself was completely missing from view. Back in …
DECEMBER 22, 2023 – Today I drove through mist, fog, and rain to our “Red Cabin” on the shores of Grindstone Lake in northwest Wisconsin. Usually the lake surface freezes by Thanksgiving, and by Christmas the ice will safely support any number of recreational activities, from skating, skiing and ice-fishing to cross-lake snowmobiling. Trees of …
JUNE 1, 2023 – We humans are expert at treating life as one big experiment. We often talk about our country that way, as in, the “Great American Experiment,” which, if any aspect of our lives is an experiment, our construct of a nation-state certainly is. In a scientific context, experiments originate from hypotheses, but …
MAY 25, 2023 – (Cont.) Aluminum docks are fine—if you’re installing or removing them: they’re light and easily assembled and disassembled. But I despair over the visual pollution they cause along the shoreline. On more crowded portions of the 16-mile shore around Grindstone Lake, the dominant features are white-painted aluminum docks and huge aluminum boat …
MAY 24, 2023 – (Cont.) Carl and Grandpa eventually grew too old to play any role in “dock-in” day—and thus, too old for the Old Crow that would follow the arduous annual ritual. The dock itself grew old too, of course, and had to be replaced. Dad was now lord of the manor—and harbor master, …
MAY 23, 2023 – (Cont.) What made the cradle so dangerous were the hand cranks. Made of cast iron, they were connected to other cast iron fittings in such a way that by squeezing a mechanism on the crank handle, you could lock the crank in place or release it so you could turn the …
MAY 22, 2023 – (Cont.) What amazed me as much as Carl’s steel driving skill was his ability to line things up so that the holes in the sides of the dock frames lined up perfectly with the holes in the pipe brackets. After Carl had driven the pipes down into the lake bed and …
MAY 21, 2023 – Way back in time, “dock-in” day was an annual ritual in the lake and cabin country of northern Minnesota and Wisconsin. Every family with a rustic, lacustrian getaway had its unique formula, but invariably the affair involved the dock itself—bracketed pipes and wooden dock sections heavier than sin; a steel boat …
MAY 20, 2023 – Today a sister called me to catch up. At some juncture she said, “I’m sure you remembered, but today is Dad’s birthday.” “Yeah,” I said, adding that he would’ve been 101. “Maybe it’s a good thing he didn’t live that long,” she said, light-heartedly. I agreed. Rarely are sight, taste, hearing, …
MAY 18, 2023 – In the early days of my legal career, I dreaded “CLE” (Continuing Legal Education) seminars. Al Gore had yet to invent the internet, so “webinars” didn’t yet exist either. Even “casual Fridays” were a thing of the future. You had to attend all sessions in person and wear your usual uniform—a …
MAY 11, 2023 – Today I accompanied our seven-year-old granddaughter to her three favorite playgrounds. I’d been to each before, but this time the energy level—hers, not mine—was higher than usual. As she climbed twisted ladders, hung upside down on elaborately arranged monkey bars, and zoomed down a long, two-stage, ground-based roller slide—“I’ll race you …
MAY 9, 2023 – Late this month, Brown University will confer honorary doctorate degrees on six Americans of distinction. Among them will be the inimitable Ruth Oppenheim. I first met Ruth during college. Her son, Jeff, a close friend of mine, had invited me to stay with the family in Barrington, Rhode Island over Thanksgiving …
MAY 6, 2023 – I’ll never forget the humiliation. Three of my college buddies and I were watching ABC’s Wide World of Sports on the eminently portable black-and-white TV in the common area of our dorm suite. On that particularly memorable occasion, it was a slow day for Jim McKay: the featured spectacle was the …
APRIL 28, 2023 – To catch up on my continuing legal education credits, lately I’ve been attending web-based seminars featuring a bevy of lawyers talking about the finer points of one sub-set or another of . . . the law. I shouldn’t be surprised that many of them speak with a very strong Minnesota accent; …
APRIL 26, 2023 – I’ve always been jarred by our cultural norm of breaking the conversational ice with a person in a non-business setting. “What do you do?” we ask, or if the person’s retired, “What did you do before retirement?” If the question elicits useful information, in most settings the answer provides only a …
APRIL 25, 2023 – Rumor had it—actually a local newspaper reported it in an article about my dad and our family when at 32 he was appointed to the public servant job he’d have for the rest of his working days. “It” was my mother’s notion that parents should always use positive language when framing …
APRIL 1, 2023 – My grandpa Nilsson, a violinist, launched my three sisters on their own careers as violinists. He and they were in perfect synch: he was a serious teacher, and they were serious students. In my case, he practically stood on his head trying first to get me to practice, and when that …
MARCH 13, 2023 – My sincere apologies, Despite a whole litany of noteworthy encounters and experiences in my little world today, I choose to dwell yet again on the dismal science. But hear me—read me—out. Today I received several generic email from investment firms reassuring me that the banking system was sound. Our son who’s …
MARCH 6, 2023 – (Cont.) It was known as the “McCauley Mansion,” built by a member of the McCauley clan, who’d made tidy money during the early days of the lumbering town. But all had gone to wreck and ruin by the time Harriet McCauley, inheritor of the home, had reached her 50s. By 1960, …
MARCH 5, 2023 – (Cont.) Then one day late last fall I saw a “NOTICE” taped to the side door of the house. The city was finally taking action. But if St. Paul is slow to plow its streets after a snowstorm, the city’s even slower about addressing troubled properties. Only last week was the …
FEBRUARY 28, 2023 – (Cont.) Almost all of my cases pled out. The public defenders were masters at their trade. One was always about to bust out of his shirt; an obvious body-builder, who, I suspected, was still caught in an adolescent need to compensate for the fact he was shorter than average. His dedication …