Original anecdotes, commentary, rumination, and occasional pontification.
SEPTEMBER 7, 2020 – The time of Covid has brought some silver linings. One is more old-fashioned, unstructured play by kids in the neighborhood. Instead of being carted off to dance class, soccer practice, and Taekwondo, kids are playing hopscotch on the sidewalks and riding their bikes up and down the street. Their shouts and …
SEPTEMBER 6, 2020 – At Björnholm, Dad was always engaged in a project relating to the operation, maintenance, or improvement of the cabin. Mother saw it as “work”—the burden of owning property, but she was wrong. For Dad, whose day job back in the cities involved wearing a suit and managing an array of people …
SEPTEMBER 5, 2020 – I never met him but was shown photos in his prime. He looked the part he’d assumed in life. His name was Bernard, and I knew his parents, Carl and Nellie, and his three sisters, who stayed close to home. Nellie was my grandmother’s cousin from Småland, back in Sweden. On …
SEPTEMBER 4, 2020 – We create much wind with our words, and far from curtailing the gush of hot air, face masks are cranking up the volume and velocity of our windstorms. But up here at the Red Cabin, it’s the old-fashioned wind that’s prevailed of late. The other night the south wind blew so …
SEPTEMBER 3, 2020 – If human affairs in this country seem to be spinning out of control, they’ve got nothing on China during most of the 20th century. I’m re-acquainting myself with China’s historical chaos, misery and outrages by way of a re-read of Barbara Tuchman’s Stilwell and the American Experience in China 1911 – …
SEPTEMBER 2, 2020 – Amidst the pandemic I’ve moved the world headquarters of my law office to the Red Cabin. My wife joins me now and again until boredom and her online book business lead back to “the cities.” Although I’m plenty sociable, I’ve also always enjoyed solitude, especially when surrounded by “nature.” “Nature” is …
SEPTEMBER 1, 2020 – Here we are, deep into 2020, stuck in a cinema watching an old black and white movie. Though we’ve seen the film before, we still fall for all the devices a Hitchcock throws at us. And then there’s the music—never underestimate the soundtrack’s effect on our fears. I’m speaking of Trump …
AUGUST 31, 2020 – As I prepared to return to the Red Cabin Saturday, my wife instructed me to get in touch with John, our reclusive next-door neighbor up here for 30 years. The top end of our drive cuts across his land, and he’d once said that with his “dirt toys,” he could regrade …
AUGUST 30, 2020 – Last Thursday I drove home from the Red Cabin to host on our back porch, my five-member, monthly book club gathering. Soon after pulling into the driveway, however, I had to cancel—curfews had been ordered to prevent another night of looting. I stayed for two days to catch up on things. …
AUGUST 29, 2020 – Yesterday, for the 1,000th time over the past four years, I drove by the site where a policeman shot Philando Castile less than a half mile from my neighborhood—a quiet, leafy haven of white liberalism. My wife and I know a fair amount about Mr. Castile—our oldest son is close friends …
AUGUST 28, 2020 – Last night my wife and I watched portions of the RNC. We wearied of the shameless fear-mongering and contemptuous disregard for truth. What put us over the top, however, was the dense, unmasked crowd on the South Lawn of the White House. Cable commentators (GoebbelsNews excepted) couldn’t hide their dismay. Rudy …
AUGUST 27, 2020 – Normally, my law practice doesn’t involve really bad behavior. In other words, I don’t practice family law or criminal defense law. My practice is mostly commercial real estate and business law. (Did I detect a yawn?) But one day along came a real estate case involving enough skullduggery to pinch over …
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” …