Original anecdotes, commentary, rumination, and occasional pontification.
OCTOBER 18, 2021 – Our town’s hardware store of choice was Joe Chutich’s Western Auto on Main. That’s where Dad bought stuff and where he rented a TV for the Olympics, presidential nominating conventions, and the moon landing. Joe was nice but serious. His kids were nice and smart. One’s now a Minnesota Supreme Court …
OCTOBER 17, 2021 – For many people, Covid has confined our travel space. For example, over two years have now passed since I took a plane flight. Not since my pre-teen years have I gone so long not going far, at least by air. This relative confinement has sharpened my awareness of a grand paradox …
OCTOBER 16, 2021 – I recently finished viewing yet another Russian TV series—Vlasik: The Shadow of Loneliness. It’s about Nikolai Sedonovich Vlasik, who rose from obscurity to become Stalin’s head of personal security in the 1930s and through WW II (“The Great Patriotic War”). As I’ve found with other productions by Epic Media (and its …
OCTOBER 15, 2021 – Given the inner calm I’d achieved by avoiding “breaking news,” I worried about the detrimental effect of reading Peril by veteran journalist Bob Woodward and Robert Costa, national political reporter for The Washington Post. The flap copy starts with, “The transition from [You-Know-Who] to President Joseph R. Biden Jr. stands as …
OCTOBER 14, 2021 – “Supply chain” problems plague us. Reasons abound for shortages of parts, materials, dock space, truck drivers, and other disruptions. Recently, however, my wife the discriminating consumer, stumbled upon a simple solution: stop junking up the system with . . . “crap.” Her revelation led us to hysterical laughter, but this required …
OCTOBER 13, 2021 – While driving across rural Wisconsin Monday, I saw an enormous sign that screamed, “F_ _ _ BIDEN.” The blue background, white lettering, and big white stars on the sides mimicked “[YOU-KNOW-WHO]/PENCE” and “YOU-KNOW-WHO]/2020” signs on display during last year’s presidential campaign and “YOU-KNOW-WHO]/2024” signs during this year’s “stop the steal” effort. …
OCTOBER 12, 2021 – Late yesterday I drove from the Red Cabin back to home in the cities. Full darkness descended as I entered the final leg of my journey—a busy highway linking suburbs of the eastern half of the Twin Cities. Swept into frenetic traffic, I stole a skyward glance and caught a glimpse …
OCTOBER 11, 2021 – Yesterday I didn’t encounter another human being. I stayed “on premises,” pulling our dock and lift out of the water and storing the components on shore for the winter. It’s a complex operation, and not wishing to over-tax my body, I took things slowly and deployed lots of “wheels” (logs) and …
OCTOBER 10, 2021 – Thirty miles from the Red Cabin, I stopped to buy a Subway sandwich. After grabbing the goods, I realized that I’d been subjected to . . . unnecessarily loud music. I wondered, For what purpose was it so loud? To keep the minimum-wage workers sufficiently alert not to confuse sliced cheese …
OCTOBER 9, 2021 – Our granddaughter is several weeks into kindergarten, and as close-by grandparents, we share in pick-up and after-school “entertainment” duties. For us the kindergarten experience was in a galaxy far, far away, but not so many light years that lots of details can’t be remembered. Our hard drives had ample storage. One …
OCTOBER 8, 2021 – Rent control has long been in vogue in “Big Blue” states like New York and California. Now it’s up for consideration in Minneapolis and St. Paul. The shortage of affordable housing across urban America is a major problem, intersecting with companion issues, from racial inequality, income disparity, and access to transportation, …
OCTOBER 7, 2021 – Yesterday, I took . . . a business trip . . . to downtown Minneapolis, my first such venture in over 18 months. Before the lockdown last March, I’d worked in downtown Minneapolis for decades. Every day I’d dress up, look the part, and interact with lots of people in the …
OCTOBER 6, 2021 – Contemporary life has been kind to dogs and the industries that support them—from chow manufacturers to purveyors of leashes and strollers; yes, strollers. Recently, my youngest sister saw a dog owner in Central Park pushing two hounds (all dolled up) in a stroller. In Minnesota I haven’t yet seen people pushing …
OCTOBER 5, 2021 – Yesterday evening after sunset, I hiked to Little Switzerland for my daily “hill climbs.” In the distance appeared the twin TV transmitting towers near the northern beltway around the Twin Cities. The blinking red lights of the 1,200-foot towers reminded me of a preposterous idea I devised 20 years ago. Our …
OCTOBER 4, 2021 – Traditional conservatives are quick to condemn big spending bills as “inflationary. Little sets their hair on fire faster than, “a trillion bucks.” Not all experts, however, think “a trillion bucks” are inflationary. Cathie Wood, whose Ark Investment Management fund has attracted billions of dollars, said recently on Bloomberg Wealth, “I truly …
OCTOBER 3, 2021 – A friend recently gave me Bob Woodward’s bone-chilling book, Peril, in which he details how America nearly cratered last January. Yesterday, after plunging into the book, I realized that to avoid cerebral explosion, I’d have to take a break; far better for mental and physical health to be lost in the …
OCTOBER 2, 2021 – This year we’ve seen extraordinary loon- and eagle-activity on our lake. Along our shoreline, especially, eagles have been loud, busy, and majestic. Loons, meanwhile, have dominated the waters and developed unusual familiarity with humans passing by aboard pontoons. Little action has been caught on camera. Loons and eagles are much too …
OCTOBER 1, 2021 – If I could magically, instantly acquire 20,000 hours of flying time, I’d consider getting my pilot’s lesson. Otherwise, at my age I wouldn’t trust my faculties in the cockpit of an airplane any more than I’d trust them astride a Harley. Thus, I must be satisfied as a ground-bound spectator, straining …
SEPTEMBER 30, 2021 – Yesterday I talked about celestial majesty—the beauty of the Milky Way, the wonder of the cosmos. Today, the subject is . . . your anus. I’m joking, of course. I meant “urine—us,” which is how astronomers pronounce the problematic name of the seventh planet of our solar system, spelled U-r-a-n-u-s. I’ve …
SEPTEMBER 29, 2021 – Yesterday evening I joined two of my sibs and a brother-in-law for dinner at the cabin of Björnholm. It was a simple and splendid affair—the four of us, seated around the oak table, partaking in bowls of chickpea stew accompanied by Swedish flatbread and a recording of Alfred Brendel playing in …
SEPTEMBER 28, 2021 – When you’re a kid, you view life through a narrow prism. When you’re a geezer, the perspective delivered only by age allows you to see through a wider lens. Take, for example . . . learning to ride a bike. That rite of passage brought extreme anxiety when I was a …
SEPTEMBER 27, 2021 – Long ago, Barnes & Noble maintained a large store in downtown Minneapolis. At lunchtime on most workdays, whether I was grabbing food, running errands, or enjoying a rare power lunch at Murray’s Steakhouse, my office-return path took me to Barnes & Noble. Often, I made the bookstore my only destination over …
SEPTEMBER 26, 2021 – Little imagination is required to grasp the paradox of AI: machines ruling their makers. Of course, this condition existed long before Bill Gates invented the computer or Al Gore, the internet. Yet, while visiting our son Byron and his wife, Mylène, last month, my wife and I watched with amusement, the …
SEPTEMBER 25, 2021 – When asked what he thought about democracy, Mahatma Gandhi purportedly said, “It’s an interesting idea.” Democracy has ample flaws to render it “interesting,” starting with . . . everyone gets to participate—including people who aren’t subscribers to democracy’s fundamental principle: power is derived from the consent of the governed, not from …
SEPTEMBER 24, 2021 – To divert myself from worldly woes, I leap to the future when all of earth is scorched earth and “alien” visitors search for evidence that water once flowed here. Then I return to the present for a fresh look at . . . worldly woes. Take, for example, packaging. Why should …