Original anecdotes, commentary, rumination, and occasional pontification.
JANUARY 31, 2021 – Grandpa Nilsson would’ve turned 130 today. He died long ago, but his influences thrive. The greatest was musical, with hardscrabble origins. Grandpa’s mother died when he was 18 months old, a month following his infant sister’s death. Grandpa’s immigrant father, Johan, carried on, working 16-hour days as a Minneapolis streetcar conductor …
JANUARY 30, 2021 – By whatever causes, I’m a dream machine—and always have been, since my earliest days. My deceased elders—parents, both sets of grandparents, and sole uncle—still figure prominently in my dreams, proving, that there really is an afterlife, though I have no way of knowing whether the dead people featured therein are cognizant …
JANUARY 29, 2021 – I remember old times when The National Enquirer was standard fare at the check-out counter of every grocery store. Above the candy, the tabloid’s front page screamed something crazy like, ALIENS INVADE CHURCH IN TULSA or GRANDMOTHER GIVES BIRTH TO TWO-HEADED ARMADILLO. My reaction was never, “Really?” It was, “How does …
JANUARY 28, 2021 – My first “chew” was Juicy Fruit—Dad’s brand. Occasionally, Mother chewed gum (her favorite was Chiclets), but Dad was our family’s main gum-chewer. He never chewed alone. He always offered us kids some Juicy Fruit too. Dad’s generosity, however, was limited by frugality: he himself never chewed a whole stick of gum, …
JANUARY 27, 2021 – Yesterday was crowded with work-related demands, routines of daily existence, and more “breaking news.” I couldn’t enjoy the sun-filled outdoors until it was no longer sun-filled. Not until 9:30 in the evening did I grab skis and escape. In the dark, the “banana-peel” ice on alley and sidewalks was too treacherous …
JANUARY 26, 2021 – Okay, here I am on a cold Tuesday morning in January, minding my own business, meaning, “working furiously on client matter,” when I catch a break—having just slammed the tennis ball over the net and forcing my opponent (Paul) to chase after the now runaway spheroid. In the few spare seconds …
JANUARY 25, 2021 – In retirement, my dad took lots of photos with his classic Canon AE-1 SLR. He didn’t snap away indiscriminately. He made judicious use of his 36mm film and was persnickety about what he “shot” and how. Film was too expensive and his eye too sharp for a shotgun approach. After Dad …
JANUARY 24, 2021 – With our month-long house guests’ (son/daughter-in-law) departure Friday, so went nightly card games, lively banter, and scintillating conversation. “We’ll have to find a show to watch,” I said to my wife. Yesterday evening we designated . . . Designated Survivor and binge-watched four episodes. For story line(s), writing, acting, directing, casting, …
JANUARY 23, 2021 – Interpreting history—or current events—is dicey. You can’t approach past or present wholly free of your own bias complex, constructed from your upbringing, education, disposition, intelligence, personal experiences, religious beliefs (or absence thereof), and cultural influences. Nor, of course, can the historian or journalist be free of her or his bias complex. …
JANUARY 22, 2021 – Yesterday my book club met via Zoom to discuss our latest “assignment”—The Contest – The 1968 Election and the War for American’s Soul by Michael Schumacher (See Monday’s post). Geezers now, we readers were 12 to 14 (me) in that watershed year. By 1967, I’d become a certifiable news nerd. I …
JANUARY 21, 2021 – Yesterday with you I watched President Biden’s inaugural speech and the stellar performances that followed, most notably, Amanda Gorman’s recitation of her poem, The Hill We Climb. Not to be moved by such heart and soul is to be bereft of both. As I observed the proceedings, I felt as though …
JANUARY 20, 2021 – When I was an immature teenager (as opposed to an immature geezer), my immature friends and I applied a disrespectful nickname to one of our high school dorm counselors. The guy’s last name was “Bliss,” so we called him, “Ignorance Is” for short—or rather, for long. We considered this clever—nearly as …
JANUARY 19, 2021 – This morning CNN online carried an article about a growing movement questioning unbridled free speech. The timing of the piece was triggered by Big Tech efforts to quell in the aftermath of the Storming of the Capitol, the propagation of nonsense by the master and his misguided followers. While I applaud …
JANUARY 18, 2021 – I’m a third of the way into The Contest – The 1968 Election and the War for American’s Soul by Michael Schumacher. As members of my family can attest, the book is so riveting, I had to “sneak read” during someone else’s protracted turn in a late-night card game. The book’s …
JANUARY 17, 2021 – Yesterday my wife and I with son-Byron and daughter-in-law-Mylène, loaded a weekend’s worth of gear, food, and accessories into the RAV4 and headed north—first to the Amnicon Falls State Park in extreme northwest Wisconsin, then southeast from there to the Red Cabin. Byron drove, and because Mylène tends to get carsick …
JANUARY 16, 2021 – To compensate for the cold water—er, beer—I poured on readers yesterday, this post provides warm cocoa. On Thursday, I received a call from Carol, a second cousin on my mother’s side. Our great-grandfather was George B. Holman, mover and shaker of his day—founder of a thriving moving and storage business. Carol …
JANUARY 15, 2021 – On Wednesday I watched about a half hour of the House impeachment “debate.” All the talk can be summarized this way: PRO IMPEACHMENT: “Trump shot someone in the middle of Fifth Avenue—I mean, the Capitol!!! Get him OFF. THE. STREET!—before he shoots us all.” ANTI-IMPEACHMENT: “First, Glory-to-God. (!) Second, you Democrats …
JANUARY 14, 2021 – (Cont.) New time and scene: last Sunday. Byron and his wife, Mylène, have been visiting from New York, staying with us for a few wonderful weeks, since both are able to work remotely—and wow, but do they work hard! They took Sunday off and borrowed my car to meet their close …
JANUARY 13, 2021 – (Cont.) After dusk had yielded to darkness, my wife called. She had everything under control. I’d later learn the full extent to which that was the case, including a restatement of the exact expletives she’d directed irately at Byron in full earshot of the police officer on hand. (The most serious …
JANUARY 12, 2021 – The news has gotten so bad, I need to take a break—so to speak—and tell a story. Make that two, one within another. In the year I turned 51, I bought a brand-new Ford Mustang. It even had vanity plates bearing the nickname and origins of the car’s first forebear: PNY …
JANUARY 11, 2021 – Yesterday I visited a website so crazy I won’t name it. It’s devoted full flush to Trumpian authoritarianism; an infinity mirror of rants. The experience felt like a voyage to hell aboard a ship with certain crew and passengers drilling holes through the bottom of the hull. Before swimming with sharks, …
JANUARY 10, 2021 – Remember the good ol’ days when the story of the week was Trump’s “perfect phone call”? Oh, what we’d give to have our outrage confined to that! I guess I have to qualify “our outrage.” If you weren’t outraged by Trump’s ham-fisted attempt to extort a foreign leader to feed naked …
JANUARY 9, 2021 – As we Democrats and democrats view more images of Wednesday’s capitol rampage, we heighten our condemnation of Trumpublicans. They unleashed dark forces, then licensed the assault on democracy. But it’s important to consider what came first—chicken or egg; chicken-poop (Republicans in Congress) or the T. Rex (white supremacy/conspiracy theorists) egg? The …
JANUARY 8, 2021 – Trump was absolutely right about something: If I voted for Democrats, there’d be a breakdown of law and order—inside the Capitol Building, no less. In part I find relief in seeing that the mob was as motley as they were. Put less charitably but more precisely, I’m relieved that they were …
JANUARY 7, 2021 – When poop hit the fan yesterday, I was in the dentist’s chair, looking at the TV screen affixed to the ceiling. The hygienist—in full riot gear—peered down at my gaping mouth. CNN played above. Five minutes into my appointment all hell broke loose . . . on the TV screen. “Uh!” …