Original anecdotes, commentary, rumination, and occasional pontification.
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 …
JULY 10, 2026 – I don’t consider myself to be an “arts and crafts” person, though in my youth I did engage in what could be described as “craft.” For several summers up at the family cabin, on rainy days I made small birchbark canoes—stitched with strips of birchbark I sliced very carefully out of …
JULY 9, 2026 – (Cont.) The reasons I say The Oppermanns is “a book for our times,” are chilling against the backdrop of what we’re now witnessing in America. I don’t suggest by this that one epoch is identical to another. History doesn’t “repeat itself” as an exercise in klecksography. No inkblot on the page …
JULY 89, 2026 – I’m not finished yet with my “book review” featuring The Oppermanns, but late today a development derailed my writing effort; in fact, all my efforts—except moaning and groaning from extreme physical discomfort. This derailment was unfortunate, given that it occurred amidst a modest birthday party celebration in honor of my good …
JULY 7, 2026 – (Cont.) As mentioned above, the Oppermanns are a family of achievers, whose inspiration was their paternal grandfather, a successful furniture manufacturer and retailer in Berlin, whose modest straightforward company motto was, “Oppermann customers buy good goods cheaply.” He’d gotten his start as a supplier of goods to the German armies during …
JULY 6, 2026 – (Cont.) As is the case with most great art and literature, The Oppermanns is art reflecting life—specifically, a critical phase of the life of the author, Lion Feuchtwanger. Much of what shapes the outlook of Gustav Oppermann, a central character in the book, the artistic mirror, is the writer reflecting on …
JULY 5, 2026 – Today I completed my reading of The Oppermanns, a masterfully conceived and crafted novel by the inimitable German-Jewish novelist and playwright, Lion Feuchtwanger (1884 – 1958). It was one of those books that leaves one breathless—and knowing that the work deserves to be reread, and more deeply analyzed, with the likely …
JULY 4, 2026 – To be honest, for me, the Bicentennial was a much bigger deal than the Semiquincentennial.[1] This inverted perspective is counter-intuitive: after all, “a quarter of a millennium” (or “half of half a millennium”) is much grander-sounding than “two centuries.” If celebration at the 200-year mark years warranted a few extra “bombs …
JULY 3, 2026 – (Cont.) A little before 4:00 I pulled up to Sally’s house. Outside were three people—a man and two women, all of my approximate vintage—chatting next to a car. The man was leaning his arm over the top of an open car door, and one of the women appeared to be about …
JULY 2, 2026 – (Cont.) Of course, the page/site provided no guidance as to how one can “contact Microsoft.” In my archives, however, I found two phone numbers associated with the company. I called the first one, only to subject myself to the offensively loud, compressed and repetitive sales pitch for a “free” medical alert …
JULY 1, 2026 – (Cont.) When I first met Tim, he was in his late 20s, maybe 30; a reformed paleo-archeologist with a masters degree from the University of Tübingen. I was impressed when years later he showed me his thesis paper—all in German. I didn’t understand a word of it, but I no trouble …
JUNE 30, 2026 – One thing I’ve learned in life is to make sure my fly is closed and I’m not wearing ketchup on my tie when reading the riot act to someone. Years ago I witnessed that exact situation on the part of a particularly obnoxious lawyer with whom I was acquainted. Slovenly on …
JUNE 29, 2026 – We’ve all grown accustomed to “news inundation,” much of it arising out of outrageously bad governance in the nation’s capital. Some of the outrageous—the reflecting pool, for example—makes a mockery of the very real but unaddressed needs of Americans. Other aspects of the outrageous—the continuing campaign to round up people for …
JUNE 28, 2026 – (Cont.) Older age, I’m discovering, induces a re-evaluation of both “happiness” (and its pursuit), and “meaning.” In the first place, as one looks back at age 70, one realizes that pursuit of most things slows. No longer is the step-up in vocational or professional standing “pursued,” any more than an Olympic …
JUNE 27, 2026 – This morning I shot off an order for a couple of new books—The Backsliders: Why Leaders Undermine Their Own Democracies by Susan Stokes, a professor of political science at the University of Chicago and Our Declaration: A Reading of the Declaration of Independence in Defense of Equality by Danielle Allen, a …