Original anecdotes, commentary, rumination, and occasional pontification.
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 31, 2023 – Late yesterday evening I stepped outside to check on the stars and saw that a few were out, beaming their light down from deep space. I did my usual—picked one I knew wasn’t a planet, called it “Twinkle, Twinkle” and made my wish. At the close of this little ritual of …
MAY 30, 2023 – (Cont.) Second: the plight of women. This is one of history’s great challenges. With some notable exceptions, women have shouldered burdens and abuse disproportionate to their 50% representation of humanity. (In the case of extremist Ukrainian atrocities against the Poles of Volhynia, women and children were a sizable majority of the …
MAY 30, 2023 – One evening recently I stumbled upon a Polish film entitled Wołyń (pronounced, VO-win), which is a region of Central-Eastern Europe fraught with history and bloodshed in a four-way tug-of-war among Poles, Jews, Ukrainians, Russians and Germans. Notice that I said “four-way” but named five “tribes.” That’s because historically, the Jewish population …
MAY 28, 2023 – On this Memorial Day, I’m moved to express a somewhat contrarian view. I have nothing against the occasion; just the manner in which we observe it. Quick! What’s the first thing most Americans think of when they hear, “Memorial Day”? Exactly: “weekend.” And what do we most closely associate with “Memorial …
MAY 27, 2023 – Recently, while I was hiking the hills of “Little Switzerland,” a golfer in his late 20s called out a greeting to me as he strode from his cart to the tee. An extrovert, he prompted me to respond similarly. I reciprocated and added a passing observation about the late-day improvement in …
MAY 26, 2023 – After paying my dues all morning and into the afternoon, I took a break to take our seven-year-old granddaughter to nearby Como Park, St. Paul’s version of Central Park. She had the day off from school—something about a teachers’ workshop—so her mom had taken her to work at a shop near …
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 19, 2023 – When it comes to art and poetry, I know what I like and what I don’t like, and I really like the poetry of Don Brunnquell. This evening we attended a reading by Don, aided by several others, from a newly published collection of his poems, A World Together / Family …
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 17, 2023 – Apart from chronic environmental issues bearing down on the entire planet, the most acute potential crisis facing the world right now is the effect of Congressional failure to raise (or better yet, abolish) the artificial cap on U.S. Government debt. This is one of the dumbest of all wholly avoidable, self-inflicted …
MAY 16, 2023 – For several months leading up to Christmas last year, I worked single-mindedly on a gnome home project for our granddaughter, Illiana. What had begun as a simple, rustic concept morphed into a kaleidoscope of whimsical possibilities—and engineering challenges. When Illiana’s delight at the unveiling of the magnum opus – gnomus domus …
MAY 15, 2023 – For a half hour today, I slowed down the merry-go-round and savored time with our first grade granddaughter. It was my turn to pick up Illiana from school, and when she slipped into the car, she asked if we could go to a playground. “Sure,” I said. “Which one?” “How about …
MAY 14, 2023 – (Cont.) Many princely pines in the Trädgård are in worse shape than how we found our back-garden princess, but the latter is more accessible and not surrounded by tick-land. With all the necessary operating equipment relatively close at hand, I decided to administer emergency care to the stricken princess. I summoned …
MAY 13, 2023 – Nature. We view it romantically, spiritually, philosophically, scientifically, even religiously. But we also have a long history of approaching it contemptuously, as a nuisance, an obstacle, an enemy, and of course, a giant reservoir of riches to be exploited, pretty much at any cost, so long as a handsome profit can …
MAY 12, 2023 – Today we made our first trip to the Red Cabin since the snow melt and ice-out. Vegetation here is 10 days to two weeks behind the foliage at home, which itself is well behind its usual schedule. In mid-March the snow was still two feet deep, and that was before the …
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 10, 2023 – When you attend a major league baseball game, you expect to see accomplished baseball players pitching, hitting, running and fielding. You’d howl if the players missed every other catch and throw; or if a football team took to the field, played football and called it baseball. Likewise, you wouldn’t want your …
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 8, 2023 – As we navigate through life, we’re often oblivious to the random influence we have on one another. Today on my return from “Little Switzerland,” I walked past a house and yard that have been worked over beautifully by the owner. Over the years I’ve observed the substantial sweat equity he’s invested …