Original anecdotes, commentary, rumination, and occasional pontification.
AUGUST 4, 2026 – The current era reminds me of a key feature in Highlights for Children magazine, which was popular with teachers, parents and slightly nerdy kids back when I was in second grade. My “go to” page was the one with all the “mistakes” that you were supposed to identify—you know, the shoe …
AUGUST 3, 2026 – (Cont.) Professor argues that the Declaration lays down five aspects of “equality” among peoples: First is the equality of people from domination of one by another. This finds expression in the first sentence, “for one people [. . .] to assume among the powers of the earth, the separate and equal …
AUGUST 2, 2026 – In a previous post, I misstated (2015) by one year, the pub date (2014) of the book I just now finished, Our Declaration / A Reading of the DECLARATION of INDEPENDENCE [sic] in Defense of Equality by Danielle Allen (Harvard University). The significance of this error is that as it turns …
AUGUST 1, 2026 – Yesterday’s much needed cloud cover and most important . . . gentle, all-day rain . . . yielded to a return of bright, sun-filled weather this morning. I took my breakfast out to our back porch and reveled in the felicitous combination of honey-laced oatmeal (further enhanced with pecans, chopped walnuts, …
JULY 31, 2026 – When I returned home yesterday after a week’s absence, I noticed immediately the parching effect of the current drought. The lawn, front and back, was mostly yellow. Baked to a crisp, my lemon basil plant was beyond salvation, but Beth’s potted plants stood a fighting chance. I gave them a good …
JULY 30, 2026 – Early this morning I stepped outside the back door of the old cabin and strolled around to the front for a view of the lake. Sunbeams filtered through the trees to the east, signaling positive prospects for the day ahead. The air was already warm and a bit hazy but not …
JULY 29, 2026 – After dispensing with legal work—in which I experienced the satisfaction that accompanies “break-throughs”—I turned to my oft-mentioned project of late, construction of my model sailboat fleet. Most of today’s effort was devoted to intricate rigging, necessitating reliance on “cheaters,” pincer-nosed pliers and small-motor coordination. After hoisting main and jib on the …
JULY 28, 2026 – Today the waters parted long enough to allow for painting the “sails,” tiller, splashboard and hull trim of another vessel of my model sailboat-from-wood-scraps fleet. This one was particularly tricky—it’s dual colored (for a husband-and-wife crew among the guests we’ll be hosting at the Red Cabin in August) and required an …
JULY 27, 2026 – This morning my wife and I attended to a bit of familial “crisis management.” The good news is that we were able to discharge our parental duties by phone from the porch of the Red Cabin. With this priority temporarily addressed, I was able to return to my next priority: earning …
JULY 26, 2026 – Atmospheric conditions at the lake today reflected nature’s many moods in this neck of the woods. Well into daylight, I slipped out of bed and peered out the windows. A dense fog had descended over the woods, and I knew that a good many “photo ops” were to be had. I …
JULY 25, 2026 – It was an easy choice between reading beyond the morning headlines or reveling in nature’s magical majesty here in the lacustrine woodlands of northwestern Wisconsin. While Beth lounged in bed here at the Red Cabin, I stole downstairs, charged up the coffee apparatus, and fixed my usual breakfast. Soon I was …
JULY 24, 2026 – A common factual presumption is that the party holding the White House suffers a loss of Congressional seats in mid-term elections. In fact, over the past century, the party in control of the White House has lost House seats in 22 out of 25 mid-term elections and has lost House and …
JULY 23, 2026 – Much of this beautiful day was given over to a birthday party; first in rehearsing some music for which I’d been recruited to perform at the party, and later, in attending and playing at the party itself. The occasion was the surprise party for a loyal fan of our decades-long “Fidder …
JULY 22, 2026 – In the final scene of the 1970 movie, Tora! Tora! Tora!, after the successful surprise attack on Pearl Harbor, a sober Admiral Yamamoto turns to his elated staff aboard the flagship of the Japanese fleet and says, “I fear all we have done is awaken a sleeping giant and fill him …
JULY 21, 2026 – One insidious feature of living in a big country, despite our hyper-connectivity, is that much of daily life can appear so disarmingly normal, even in the most abnormal times. A few days ago, you’ll recall, I wrote about how none of what we’re experiencing in the political and governmental arenas is …
JULY 20, 2026 – Earlier this month I wrote a review of The Oppermans. I’m now reading the book a second time. The redundancy is proving beneficial, both from the standpoint of grasping better the importance of certain details and from the perspective of meaning—that is, why a book such as this should be read …
JULY 19, 2026 – Often someone will ask if I’ve listened to Ezra Klein’s latest interview with so-and-so about such-and-such. And nearly as often, I’ll answer with the same shame-tinged reticence that a lazy student answers the teacher’s question, “Did you finish today’s assignment?” Seriously, I need to eschew all other consumption of information about …
JULY 18, 2026 – Yesterday we attended the closing program of this summer’s daytime Korean Culture Camp, or “KCC,” which our granddaughter attended. She’s half-Korean—given that her father, our oldest son, is “100% Korean.” But what does that mean, exactly—“100% Korean”? He would have much to say about that. He and his brother, also “100% …
JULY 16, 2026 – In the course of human events, what’s “normal”? The realistic but somewhat snarky response is “abnormality.” Plus, depending on what historical perspective is brought to the question, one must grapple with ever-changing standards to be applied to the analysis. Are we talking “cave day” values, the mores predominant in Persia in …
JULY 16, 2026 – Today saw life’s end for the oldest oak in the woods of my wife’s extended family tree. “Aunt Mid,” as we called her, was in fact, Mildred Whitney Bridgeland, wife of Art Bridgeland, a first cousin of Beth’s mother. Art died a decade ago. “Aunt Mid” died at 97. She “landed” …
JULY 15, 2026 – This morning I awoke, looked out the front windows at the lake—but saw no lake and certainly no opposite shore. Even the trees that guard the berm along the shore were more in the nature of smudges than familiar well-defined objects. One breath of not-so-fresh air confirmed my initial impression: smoke …
JULY 14, 2026 – Today at Grindstone Lake was hotter than a pistol at the storming of the Bastille on this day in 1789. Chaotic incident was the spark that lit the beginning of the end of the Bourbon Monarchy in France. If there were a few French fur traders and missionaries in this neck …
JULY 13, 2026 – With my mug of morning Java, I sat on the dock before the sun emerged from its lair behind the bend in the shoreline to the east. A warm breeze out of the south turned the lake into a sea of diamonds except in my immediate venue, where the trees and …
JULY 12, 2026- As twilight surrendered to nightfall, I realized I’d lost track of time. Time flies when you’re building sailboats, especially half a dozen at once. As the reader who read yesterday’s post is aware, these are model sailboats, not life-size vessels, but today I transitioned from the “zen” phase to the “roll up …
JULY 11, 2026 – Today I experienced little bits o’ heaven. It all started with church. Not church church, but at the Mennonite Church on County Road K a half mile or so south of the south shore of Grindstone Lake. The occasion was the joint annual meetings of the Grindstone Lake Association and the …