Author: Eric Nilsson

THAT FOR WHICH EXISTS NO GREATER GRATITUDE

NOVEMBER 27, 2024 – We’d just sat down at the dinner table in the Connecticut home of our younger son’s family, when my phone rang. Caller I.D. showed “Allina Health.” I gulped. Our older son had undergone a heart MRI Monday and a PET scan on Tuesday. When scheduling these tests, the primary doctor had …

“WHERE DO I START?”

NOVEMBER 26, 2024 – Back on a suitably balmy early evening in October 2018, I ventured over to Target Center in downtown Minneapolis to witness the goings on surrounding a Trump rally inside the home of the Timberwolves. The festivities were a mere five blocks from my office. I’d tried to garner a ticket to …

WE’VE BEEN HERE BEFORE, AND WE’LL BE HERE AGAIN

NOVEMBER 25, 2024 – Reactions vary among the roughly 73 million voters who voted for Kamala Harris. Some people are scandalized and looking into permanent residency, even full citizenship requirements, in Canada, Costa Rica, Ireland or Portugal. Others are in the ring with a bunch of fellow angry Democrats accusing the Harris campaign and party …

THE REWARDS OF AN UNPLANNED TRIP

NOVEMBER 22, 2024 – For me the day was a mad scramble on multiple fronts. Ironically, all was unexpectedly quiet on the most critical front—our oldest son’s health.  His PET scan had been scheduled for 12:45, and we’d managed to arrive at the clinic with minutes to spare. After completing the requisite forms, he was …

WHERE ALL THIS COULD LEAD

NOVEMBER 20, 2024 – I’m pretty sure that Elon Musk’s name was not on the ballot earlier this month. But as it turns out, his influence was—next to Trump’s name. The owner of X contributed over $118 million toward the effort to elect (“re-elect”?) Trump, and more than ever in American democracy, money buys influence, …

HOOKED (PART I OF II)

NOVEMBER 17, 2024 – Last night before sailing off to Nod, I read more of Ian Frazier’s latest book, Paradise Bronx: The Life and Times of New York’s Greatest Borough. I highly recommend it. Currently, I’m reading all about the Bronx in the opening stages of the Revolutionary War. Of course, it’s all about the …

JUXTAPOSITION: QUIETUDE AND CACOPHONY

NOVEMBER 16, 2024 – Today was another glorious day in the “tree garden,” where I took full advantage of the unseasonably fair weather and blasted well beyond my goal of “bud-capping” 500 trees. As of nightfall, the count was closer to 600, though a far cry from my record of 1,000 two years ago, but …

THE DISTRESSING DENIGRATION OF EXPERTS AND EXPERTISE . . . AND A PREDICTION

NOVEMBER 15, 2024 – Our culture has long been “anti-elitist” but Trump’s recent cabinet appointments signal that we’re deep into territory hostile toward experts and expertise, with growing antipathy toward government and governance. Experts aren’t always right and non-experts aren’t always wrong, but context is everything. Back in the distant past when I managed a …

FINDING RELIEF IN “THE APPOINTMENTS”

NOVEMBER 14, 2024 – Lately, I’ve been so focused on serious, heart-wrenching matters in my own little sphere, I’ve had little time or desire to focus much on the larger world. When I do raise my head for a wider view, however, I find perverse relief in a painful diversion: The Appointments. They are straight …

CONNECTING THE DOTS (PART II OF II)

NOVEMBER 13, 2024 – (Cont.) Almost nine years ago I inherited a matter from a law partner who was leaving the firm. The case involved a swanky medical office building owned by two groups of doctors. The two groups were also members of two parallel practice groups that occupied portions of the building. The rest …

CONNECTING THE DOTS (PART I OF II)

NOVEMER 12, 2024 – Life for me has been a huge connect-the-dots project. I’m not sure what the final figure will be once all the dots are connected, but if I were to guess—which I’m about to do—I’d say the final figure will be full of flashbacks, intersections, coincidences, circular side-trips and the inevitable open-ended …

ON A DAY OF REST . . .

NOVEMBER 10, 2024 – Today on the medical front it was a day of rest before tomorrow’s round of tests. In the interim . . . back to politics . . . *                      *                      * As I read with amusement the continuing cascade of self-criticism by mainstream Democrats and the more acerbic attacks by progressives …

WHAT MATTERS MOST

NOVEMBER 9, 2024 – At the personal, conscious level, our mere existence is a really big deal. In fact, it’s bigger than that. It’s everything. From an individual’s point of view, what could matter more than the individual’s existence? Okay, fine. I overstate things a bit or rather, a lot. What matters more than one’s …

ELECTION POST-MORTEM (JOINING THE OTHER MILLION SO FAR)

NOVEMBER 7, 2024 – “What in the world happened to the Republican Party?” Democrats had been asking ever since Trump assumed unquestioned and unquestionable control of it. In the run-up to the 2024 election, pundits predicted that if Trump lost, the party would lie in ruins. After Trump’s decisive defeat of Harris on Tuesday, however, …

REFLECTIONS IN THE AFTERMATH

NOVEMBER 6, 2024 – Early this morning before the rest of the household was up, I quietly went downstairs, fixed myself my usual breakfast, then slipped out of the house and out of town. The election results had taken their emotional toll on us all, and for the sake of everyone’s blood pressure, I wanted …

SUPER BOWL TUESDAY BLOWOUT

NOVEMBER 5, 2024 – 7:10 a.m. –  Today’s the day, the tipping point in our political history; the day we’ll all look back on as a turning point—one way or the other—in our individual lives and collectively. The stingy November light of daybreak is hampered further by a gray, low-slung sky. Rain pelts the windows …

BITTER PEANUT BUTTER AND TRUMP’S HINDENBURG

NOVEMBER 4, 2024 – As an American I’m a product of our “make a quick buck” culture and have pursued a number of “get rich quick” schemes. My first was an attempt when I was five to sell my older sisters’ Jack and Jill magazines to the neighbors. I had no takers, but not for …

RESTAURANT REVIEW (PART II OF II)

NOVEMBER 3, 2024 – (Cont.) Last Christmas our younger son and his wife gave us a gift certificate to a local swanky restaurant—sight unseen. Both son and daughter-in-law are foodies of the highest order, meaning both are experienced food critics. They’ve wined and dined in the finest eating establishments around the world, most particularly Paris …

RESTAURANT REVIEW (PART I OF II)

NOVEMBER 2, 2024 – I’m no foodie; never was and probably never will be. In cooking up this restaurant review, I have to acknowledge my lack of culinary credentials. During my law school career, which coincided with the most intense phase of my competitive running career—I lived alone and cooked for myself. My daily diet …