Original anecdotes, commentary, rumination, and occasional pontification.
AUGUST 26, 2020 – Among us who detest Donald Trump, theories abound as to why people still support him. “Fear,” some say. “Greed,” others wail. “Stupidity,” “Racism,” “Neglect by conventional politicians” . . . the list goes on. To which I add . . . “the forest effect”: Within a dense and boundless forest of …
AUGUST 25, 2020 – By now we’ve all heard about The Contagion on college campuses. I’d hate to be among administrators right now. No matter what they do, they’ll be yelled at, maybe worse, when this is over. Atop news about Covid outbreaks and quarantines on campuses, we’re told about frat parties, beer bashes, and …
AUGUST 24, 2020 – With the approach of another academic year—one fraught with unprecedented challenges—I’m reminded of my own classroom days. My favorite subject was history, an interest fostered by my dad—in lieu of bedtime stories, he’d read me excerpts from such works as William Prescott’s classics, The Conquest of Mexico and The Conquest of …
AUGUST 23, 2020 – I didn’t catch any of the Democratic National Convention proceedings last week. Based on the personal reactions of people I know and respect, I should have. My excuses were two-fold: 1. I’ve been at the Red Cabin, where streaming is sketchy; and 2. I’m already so anti-Trump/anti-Republican, I needed no convincing …
AUGUST 22, 2020 – Yesterday afternoon while deep in my “tree garden,” I heard the rumble of distant thunder. When I emerged for a look at the end of our dock, an enormous thunderhead was closing in. I felt like a sailor in one-person dinghy in line with the prow of an aircraft carrier steaming …
AUGUST 21, 2020 – Yesterday I wrote about “Lady Gaga,” confusing her birthday (August 14), with my uncle’s, which, in fact, was yesterday. Having overshadowed the memory of “his day” with memories of “Gaga,” I must now write about Uncle Bruce—“UB”—the Inimitable. Originally, he was our Santa Claus (see 12/24-25/19 posts). Later, he was my …
AUGUST 20, 2020 – She was born on this day 124 years ago. We called her “Gaga” because at the babbling stage, my oldest sister called our other grandmother just plain, “Ga.” When confronted with a second grandmother, my inventive sister simply doubled up. Gaga’s name was “Orrell,” after the village of “Ore Hill” in …
AUGUST 19, 2020 – [Cont.] pretended Dad’s garden shovel was Stanley, the steam shovel in one of my Golden Books, and the wheelbarrow was a one-wheel version of my big toy dump truck. As I watched, Dad and Grandpa met two challenges with one source of dirt—what left the basement was hauled first to the …
AUGUST 18, 2020 – My dad was possibly the only man in the history of DIY projects who excavated manually, not one but two basements—concurrently. One basement was at our house in Anoka, Minnesota— “Basement No. 1.” The other—“Basement No. 2”—was at the family cabin in northwest Wisconsin. The Anoka house was built in ancient …
AUGUST 17, 2020 – As I kayak along the shoreline, I admire the big pine that were much smaller when my grandparents were alive. I reflect on all that has occurred in the world since they bought this property in the fall of 1939. World War II had just begun with Germany’s Blitzkreig against Poland. …
AUGUST 16, 2020 – [Cont.] Fritz had no handle on spoken German . . . except . . . dinner table grace. When Fritz was a kid, a family ritual was Sunday dinner with his grandparents. Part of the ritual was Grandpa Angst reciting a short grace—in German. Fritz learned to rattle it off just …
AUGUST 15, 2020 – After reading this week about: the Florida sheriff ordering his staff not to wear face masks; the Trump campaign’s effort to undermine the postal service and create doubts about the integrity of the electoral process so as to delegitimize an unfavorable result; the melting of Greenland’s ice sheet now being beyond …
AUGUST 14, 2020 – In these fraught times, I find peace in things that will survive our troubles. Things like . . . trees, for example. Here at the Red Cabin, we’re surrounded by thousands of trees, but I’m determined to add thousands more pine—the species that dominated the landscape here for centuries before “progress” …
AUGUST 13, 2020 – Yesterday I left the Red Cabin late. I had a dental appointment back in Minneapolis, three hours away, and was cutting it close. A client’s early morning curveball had detained me. I’d need to follow up immediately after my teeth were cleaned. With ignition, the radio yanked me into the middle …
AUGUST 12, 2020 – Not so long ago we said of ourselves that we were a deeply polarized nation. We’re now a poisoned nation. Let’s start with Covid. There’s much we still don’t know about the disease, but there’s also much we do know about it. One thing is that wearing masks limits its transmission. …
AUGUST 11, 2020 – If you’ve had elevated eye pressure or family history of glaucoma, perhaps you’ve experienced a periodic “visual field test.” It’s conducted by a machine consisting of a white, two-foot high, vertical half-dome (which I call, “Yosemite”) equipped with a chinrest on the open side, allowing you to stare motionless at the …
AUGUST 10, 2020 – For several years our household has survived with one car. Yesterday though, I wanted to head to the Red Cabin two days before my wife could join me. My younger sister, long-marooned with her husband in New York, graciously allowed me to borrow her car, garaged in Minneapolis. After loading up, …
AUGUST 9, 2020 – Early on I was destined for Ayn Rand Land. One of my grandpas was “Ragnar,” the name of the hero-privateer in Rand’s best-seller, Atlas Shrugged. My other grandpa was a businessman. My dad was an arch-conservative, meaning my mom had to go along. Then the kicker: my oldest sister, an intellectual …
AUGUST 8, 2020 – On our recent trip to Connecticut, we passed through Middletown, home of prestigious Wesleyan University. My wife, who’s traveled far but never resided outside the Midwest, pronounced it “Middle-TOWN.” “I think it’s ‘Middle-TUN,’” I said. I knew this mainly because my oldest sister, an alumna of Connecticut College in New London, …
AUGUST 7, 2020 – That applies to me but also to my bro-in-law “GK.” In further coincidence, he was born in the same hospital as was his wife, my younger sister, years later—a converted Victorian house on Ferry Street in Anoka, Minnesota. You could tell it was a hospital: a modestly sized, bluish neon “HOSPITAL” …
AUGUST 6, 2020 – After a two-week break from breaking news, I read many anxiety-enhancing articles in today’s paper version of . . . the paper. Our delivery person never lands The Times close to our doorstep. Instead, the person randomly flings the paper at our front yard, where “All the News That’s Fit to …
AUGUST 5, 2020 – While the rest of the world battled its way through another two days, my wife and I drove from Hamburg, Connecticut to Falcon Heights, Minnesota—1,345 miles, minus the mile to and from the highway and our overnight hotel. Total drive time: 21.5 hours inside total elapsed time of 45 hours. Such …
AUGUST 3, 2020 – (Cont.) There stood the “insane man”—with crazed face, wielding Excalibur and wearing a green tunic and leotards, stretched to the max by excess, middle-age weight. Except he wasn’t exactly “wielding” the sword: his hand and arm merely shook in fear. And the tall-standing feather in his Robin Hood cap trembled in …
AUGUST 2, 2020 – Across the road from our Lyme Light—our family’s place on Hamburg Cove in Lyme, Connecticut, lies Camp Claire, which has been there forever. Well, maybe not forever, but you know what I mean. It had been around for ages before our mother was a Camp Claire camper in the 1930s. During …
AUGUST 1, 2020 – Yesterday morning brought to Hamburg Cove my oldest sister, from Boston, and my youngest sister, from New York—each exactly a two-hour drive away. For the rest of the day, we enjoyed together this Eden midway between two major metropolitan centers of the country and a short boat trip to the Sound, …