Original anecdotes, commentary, rumination, and occasional pontification.
DECEMBER 17, 2025 – I know it’s a mouthful—“MacArthurMAGAburger”—but a mere taste of it can provide sufficient perspective to work as an effective antacid. What am I talking about? The life and times of General Douglas MacArthur, nemesis of President Truman (and democracy), yet the MAGA darling of a bygone era. Much can be said …
DECEMBER 16, 2025 – Last week I received a new assignment from a favorite business client—the kind that sends good work and allows me to interact with really good people. Without exception, they’re smart, respectful, conscientious, reasonable, interesting, and in the motivational department, appreciative. This latest assignment involved the threshold task of reviewing documents, starting …
DECEMBER 15, 2025 – When our oldest son, Cory, was young, if we wanted to get him to talk, we took him for a drive. Some of our most amazing conversations occurred in the car. I’m sure other parents have had similar experiences. After all, during a car ride, everyone in the car is a …
DECEMBER 14, 2025 – When the most recent wintry fusion of deep freeze, cold wave, cold snap, polar vortex, and Alberta Clipper descended upon this region of the world, I thought I’d supplement my other reading by strapping on a pair of snowshoes and venturing into David Halberstam’s highly acclaimed, New York Times bestseller, The …
DECEMBER 13, 2025 – I knew it was cold—8F—but I hadn’t taken the stiff wind into account. Two weeks had passed since I’d gotten outside for anything that might qualify as exercise. A head cold and other distractions had forced me to into “low profile” mode. On my way home from the MRI on Tuesday …
DECEMBER 12, 2025 – Life lately has been a blur of images—as is often the case during a period featured by the absence of “dull moments.” But when you feel the train wheels bouncing off the tracks, you stay with the train. You trust that gravity, die Bahn, der Zug, and a pinch of good …
DECEMBER 11, 2025 – (Cont.) If you read yesterday’s post, you know what happened and the tragedy that didn’t happen—all because of a Christmas tree stand stored in the attic above the garage. Aware of the circumstances plying our household this season, the reader surely understands my reticence—strike that; fear—about venturing up into that forbidding …
DECEMBER 10, 2025 – Hug your loved ones—hug them tight and tell them you love them. Cherish your friends, and be generous with empathy. Embrace everything in life, even when it’s difficult. Over the past 36 hours, I’ve learned that L.I.F.E. is (among other things) an acronym for “Love,” “Irony,” “Friends,” and “Empathy.” I’ve also …
DECEMBER 7, 2025 – For fewer and fewer Americans, this date marks a singular day in our national history. As the irresistible current of time carries us farther downstream from “[the] date which will live in infamy,” as FDR described Imperial Japan’s attack on Pearl Harbor, the people alive then and their personal memories are …
DECEMBER 6, 2025 – Sometimes in the case of acute pulsating pain, such as when you stub your bare right big toe on a block of granite, the best antidote is to find a hammer and smack it down on your left thumb. In short order, you achieve a kind of equilibrium: the throbbing thumb …
DECEMBER 5, 2025 – For reasons previously divulged in some detail on this blog site, I’m not religious. This doesn’t translate to atheism, mainly because that concept scares me. My fear is paradoxically comforting, though: it’s a sharp reminder that I’m still human, not a piece of digitized machinery run by flawless logic. The day …
DECEMBER 4, 2025 – While waiting for an appointment the other day, I picked up an orphaned section of the previous day’s local newspaper and flipped through the pages, skimming the headlines as I went. One stopped me long enough to read the article—hoping I wouldn’t be called before I’d finished. The headline read, “A …
DECEMBER 3, 2025 – (Cont.) As we left behind, Byron’s office and AI-driven computer screens, I pondered the contrast between the fast-moving information of his workday and my current broad leisurely survey of Chinese history—by the increasingly old-fashioned method of reading a book. That method is flawed, I recognized: it assumes that I’m not sleep-reading …
DECEMBER 2, 2025 – Back in the 90s, a couple of guys cashed in on their religious belief by punching out a whole series of novels about end times, starting with their lead-off book, Left Behind. I was never interested in reading any of the formula-laden volumes, but I knew people who had, and from …
DECEMBER 1, 2025 – Outside the Chester, Connecticut public library is a sign marking America’s upcoming Semiquincentennial. I doubt the 250th anniversary of the Declaration of Independence will be called by its Latin derivative, which is half a dozen letters longer than “Bicentennial” (and two letters longer than my good friend Dr. Ravi(shankar)’s last name, …
NOVEMBER 30, 2025 – Over the past week, my wife and I have become well acquainted with our two-year-old grandson’s expanding toy collection. As I’ve already noted, he’s well into his truck phase, which includes a full complement of cranes, plows, dozers, and excavating machines. He also plays hard with his Duplos and waxed cardboard …
NOVEMBER 29, 2025 – Late this morning all members of our household visited our son and daughter-in-law’s Francophone friends, Flo and Luke, up in West Hartford. In preparation for the trip, Mylène packed a bag of trucks from Diogo’s collection to keep him occupied while the grown-ups visited. I’m a “truck man” myself, so for …
NOVEMBER 28, 2025 – In brief residence in the home of our two-year-old grandson, I’m impressed by the library of children’s books that surround him. More to the point, I’m envious: half the books are in French and half are in English, which reflects his bilingual language development. The kid’s parents, as well has his …
NOVEMBER 27, 2025 – Irrespective of its origins, Thanksgiving Day as our National Day of Thanks is a laudable concept. I like the idea that however polarized we’ve become, we’re still united in taking the day off to devour our Butterball turkeys and count our blessings. Many in our country struggle, of course, but the …
NOVEMBER 26, 2025 – Weeks in advance we’d been informed that Tuesday would be “Grandparents Day” at our two-year-old grandson’s school. I envisioned joining a cast of thousands for a royal tour, a review of recent art projects, and a full raft of presentations and demonstrations greeted by a robust round of applause, followed by …
NOVEMBER 25, 2025 – As we settle in for Thanksgiving week at our son/daughter-in-law’s home, I’m reminded how household stuff accumulates—yard and garden tools and machinery in the garage; furniture and furnishings in every room; toys galore—big, small, and everything in between—in the “bonus room”-turned-toddler’s dreamland of toys; closets—don’t open the doors or you won’t …
NOVEMBER 24, 2025 – Yesterday, while I was taking full advantage of the mild Minnesota weather and stringing Christmas lights around our shrubs out front, our neighbors at the end of the block, Joan and Kent, strolled by with dogs in tow. We exchanged greetings, and the people called a mutual time-out for “catch-up” conversation, …
NOVEMBER 23, 2025 – I’m no Latinist, but in college I learned enough to read Virgil’s most famous poem—Aeneid—in the original, albeit with a dictionary close at hand. Sadly, I’ve lost a lot of my Latin, but I haven’t lost my irritation when I encounter speech or writing that fails to distinguish between the singular …
NOVEMBER 22, 2025 – Over the seasons throughout the years I’ve noticed that our house operates as an intricate seasonal sundial. In spring, for example, early morning sunlight peeks through the window panes of my wife’s office—forcing me off the east end of the sofa in the adjoining room, where I like to write at …
NOVEMBER 21, 2025 – We who don’t live and breathe technology (i.e. We who are above a certain age, which in the present context is best left unspecified) are quick to scorn it. “Too many people have replaced eye contact with the screen-stare,” we say with lament. Yet, this same element of modern life has …