Original anecdotes, commentary, rumination, and occasional pontification.
NOVEMBER 12, 2021 – Star Media, the Russian TV/film production company, delivers again. Yesterday, I finished watching its 12-episode-series, Sorge: Master Spy—a superb work, even if you’re not interested in WW II. That conflagration unfolds only as backdrop; the entire setting is Tokyo (before being fire-bombed by American aircraft) with intermittent trips to Stalin’s Kremlin …
NOVEMBER 11, 2021 – Over the past week our neighborhood has been out in force raking leaves before moderate weather goes . . . south. All the rakers have transformed our local world into a live-action Norman Rockwell gallery. In addition to the rakes, however, are godforsaken leaf blowers, prompting me to mutter on several …
NOVEMBER 10, 2021 – Yesterday I sent a mail-in ballot for three seats on a corporate board. In my pre-evolution years I threw such ballots in the trash (the times having pre-dated recycling as well as evolution). Now “evolved,” I voted against myself . . . Four candidates are running for three seats. The incumbents …
NOVEMBER 9, 2021 – As squirrels prepare for winter, fall is when they act most . . . squirrelly. Late the other day, however, while strolling down our alley, I caught a squirrel napping conspicuously on a tree limb barely 10 feet off the ground. Perhaps, I thought, the squirrel was resting after a hard …
NOVEMBER 8, 2021 – Over the weekend, I stapled bud caps onto another 400 white pine seedlings and saplings in the “tree garden” up at the lake. It’s been an annual project since I manually planted a few hundred seedlings in woodland acreage that’d been harvested seven years ago. The work is necessary to protect …
NOVEMBER 7, 2021 – When I was circumnavigating the globe, there weren’t such things as smartphones or the public internet. For travel information I relied on a collection of guidebooks published by Lonely Planet. That name seemed inapt, for though I traveled alone, I never felt lonely—because I traveled alone and was therefore more likely …
NOVEMBER 6, 2021 – I don’t want to divulge to anyone—me, in particular—even an approximation of how long I’d gone without practicing before yesterday evening. The long passage of silence shattered what the famous Polish pianist (and president), Ignace Paderewski (1860 – 1941) said about practicing: “If I miss one day’s practice, I notice it. …
NOVEMBER 5, 2021 – Nine hundred days was the duration of the German siege of Leningrad during World War II. More precisely, it was 872 days—September 8, 1941 to January 27, 1944—but after such mass-scale, civilian suffering, Leningraders (now St. Petersburgers) and historians rounded up—as did American Pulitzer Prize winning journalist, Harrison Salisbury, whose 635-page, …
NOVEMBER 4, 2021 – I’ve not been a big fan of big sports, though as a kid I was a major fan of major league baseball. In 1965, on my transistor radio I listened to nearly every Twins game and bought baseball cards every other day. By season’s end I knew as much about baseball …
NOVEMBER 3, 2021 – According to public information and insider observations, the heart of the Twin Cities metro area is a major crime zone. It’s not yet as bad as Minneapolis was 26 years ago, when with 97 shooting deaths, the city was known as “Murderapolis,” but the year isn’t over. Moreover, in Minneapolis this …
NOVEMBER 2, 2021 – One of the joys of having our six-year-old granddaughter visit is teaching her to pronounce, “Paganini.” This was in answer to her question, “What’s the music in the cat video?” The “cat video” is Fantasia dei Gatti (“Fantasia of the Cats”), a cartoon produced by Augustin Hadelich, the Italian-born/reared son of …
NOVEMBER 1, 2021 – Yesterday’s Times included the review of a “big picture” book, just released, written by British anthropologist David Wengrow and the late American anthropologist (and “anarchy activist”) David Graeber. By “big picture” I don’t mean large illustration. I mean a book that makes you question what billions of us have taken for …
OCTOBER 31, 2021 – I grew up in the “Halloween Capital of the World” (Anoka, MN). My wife, who didn’t grow up with world domination (Byron, IL), is skeptical. “A place doesn’t become a world capital of anything,” she asserts, “simply by saying so.” But we Anokans backed words with action. In the 1920s local …
OCTOBER 30, 2021 – Perhaps now I really have “recalibrated.” Or maybe my nearly two-month “news” blackout is simply working: once a news junkie, I no longer feel a craving for inconclusive . . . noise. But more is afoot here, I think. It’s called aging, not simply in a physical sense but psychologically, along …
OCTOBER 29, 2021 – The other night I dreamt that along with alleged co-conspirators, I’d been sentenced to execution for political crimes. I’m unsure what triggered the dream, though I’ve been reading about the French Revolution and the Reign of Terror (mid-1793 to mid-1794). The guillotine was in active use back then—initially in France then …
OCTOBER 28, 2021 – I’m not a tax lawyer, but throughout my career I’ve had more than a passing brush with tax law. Currently, I’m working on a protracted deal with lots of “tax angles,” and to my consternation, the tax accountant I work with characterizes these angles as “complicated.” Over the years, I’ve developed …
OCTOBER 27, 2021 – On paper, as it were, I should be a decent Scrabble player. I like words and etymology; I like to read and write. But in my family, when it comes to playing the game, I’ll never be more than an amateur—this despite my use of the word “qat,” my familiarity with …
OCTOBER 26, 2021 – In my latest plunge into the history of the French Revolution (Hero of Two Worlds by Mike Duncan—see 10/20/21 post), I’m reminded of a factor I’d dismissed in previous study: climate change. Royal decadence, aristocratic privilege, and enduring feudalism became a powder keg. But what was the match that lit the …
OCTOBER 25, 2021 – Recently, my sister and brother-in-law attended a fund-raising dinner for LiNK. No, not Linkedin but Liberty in North Korea. They were so impressed by the people they encountered—and by the mission of LiNK—I thought the least I could do was call attention to this amazing organization. Founded in 2004 by mostly …
OCTOBER 24, 2021 – Yesterday evening my wife and I and four friends (our theater group of yore) attended a play for the first time in nearly two years. To gain admittance to the Guthrie Theater, you had to show your ticket, a photo i.d., and proof of Covid vaccination. All good. The name of …
OCTOBER 23, 2021 – Recently, I’ve witnessed fear and suffering—up close and personal. I’ve also seen hope and kindness that confirm my faith in humanity. When peering into a matter of life and death, the existence or non-existence of “God” enter one’s thoughts. After the crisis passes, one contemplates the “Great Power” from multiple perspectives …
OCTOBER 22, 2021 – Yesterday evening while walking in the moonlight, I heard the distant echo of an amplified announcer calling a game at the local high school. The words were muffled, so I couldn’t tell if the event was a soccer match or a football game. At one stage, however, I heard, “puts the …
OCTOBER 21, 2021 – Once upon a time I was in third grade—at the height of the Cuban Missile Crisis (October 16 – 28, 1962). On the day before Kennedy and Khrushchev stepped back from the ledge, I kept my fingers crossed from the 8:00 a.m. radio news until the sun went down. During that …
OCTOBER 20, 2021 – If you hadn’t heard of Mike Duncan . . . now you have. He’s the self-proclaimed “history geek” who narrates a 179-episode podcast, History of Rome. He’s produced another series on Revolution, which I found riveting just as riveting. His study of revolutions inspired his definitive biography of Lafayette, whose full …
OCTOBER 19, 2021 – Yesterday I cheated and read some news. Worse yet, I read political news. I did not listen to my inner coach. I did not “Just say ‘no’ to nonsense.” The more I read, however, the happier I became. (Maybe exposure to news isn’t as bad for one’s mental health as I’d …