Original anecdotes, commentary, rumination, and occasional pontification.
OCTOBER 12, 2019 – “At one of my violin lessons with Symphonie Espagnole,” I told him, “my violin teacher stopped to tell me a story about it. “During World War II he’d been a tail-gunner on a B-17. On a night mission, his plane got hit. The crew bailed out over the Allied/German line. My …
OCTOBER 11, 2019 – Thanks to a recalcitrant lawnmower (ours) and my small, back-deck, do-it-yourself project, Herb came out of his shell and all the way up our driveway. If, as he informed me, he hadn’t gotten along with his domineering father, he did take after him when it came to tools, small engines, mechanical …
OCTOBER 10, 2019 – My wife said I was his best friend. That statement is sad to the extent it was true. I wasn’t much of a friend. In earlier years, I’d had little interaction with our neighbor directly across the alley. His father, the retired owner of a machine shop, had been the dominant …
OCTOBER 9, 2019 – Projecting quiet, rugged confidence, the doctor greeted me and donned rubber gloves. As I described my run-in with a rock, she inspected my split skin and gently pinched the two sides of the wound. The good doctor then took a step back, put her fists on her hips and pondered. “We …
OCTOBER 8, 2019 – Now that I have your attention . . . I have a somewhat revealing, somewhat embarrassing story to tell—which will also explain why I didn’t pursue a medical career. My wife and I had just finished hiking in Interstate Park on the Minnesota side of the St. Croix National Scenic Riverway …
OCTOBER 7, 2019 – For today’s topic, I wrestled between trees and Trump. Sorry to disappoint, but trees won. A few years ago, we sold logging rights to back acreage of Björnholm, our family’s woodland retreat next to The Red Cabin. The loggers—two Mennonites—worked with remarkable efficiency, felling and piling hardwoods for sale to the …
OCTOBER 6, 2019 – Today marks the day three decades ago when our younger son, Byron Kang Boger Nilsson, first arrived in the U.S. We’d been through a similar event just over three years before, when his older brother, Cory, had landed in our embrace—likewise, after a “forever” flight from Seoul, Republic of South Korea. …
OCTOBER 5, 2019 – Yesterday my wife and I hiked through a boreal forest in northern Wisconsin to a precipice overlooking Lake Superior. Along the way I wondered how long I’d survive in those woods—or any northern woods—if I were equipped only with tools of early humans. Not long, I guessed. Maybe I’d catch some …
OCTOBER 4, 2019 – TRAVELED NORTH FROM THE RED CABIN PARENTHESIS WHICH IS ALREADY NORTH COMMA BUT EVERYTHING IS DIRECTIONALLY RELATIVE PARENTHESIS STOP DROVE THROUGH ELK COUNTRY AND DOWN MANY TWISTING GRAVEL ROADS THROUGH VAST CHEQUAMEGON NATIONAL FOREST STOP DESPITE LOW CLOUDS, MIST AND RAIN WE HIKED SOME STOP OUR REWARD ON ONE TREK WAS A …
OCTOBER 3, 2019 – I’ve never worked in the kitchen of a high-end eating establishment. At one place and another, however, I catch glimpses of the küchen when the swinging doors swing, as if I’m watching an early film flickering on an old theater screen. Depending on the establishment, the wall that separates kitchen from …
OCTOBER 2, 2019 – I am well into a nearly 900-page work of scholarship and analysis by historian Richard White entitled The Republic for which it Stands. The book is not for the faint of heart (or short of attention). It provides a detailed account of Reconstruction and the Gilded Age, and for me, anyway, fills …
OCTOBER 1, 2019 – Today’s post features an experiment. Quick quiz (with no “correct” answer): How would you prioritize the issues listed below? Impeachment (Or, “Democrats’ war against the president” (if you’re a Republican)/”The need to halt foreign interference in our elections” (if you’re a Democrat)); Responding to climate change; Keeping out hordes and rounding …
SEPTEMBER 30, 2019 – Yesterday we attended a retirement party for our friend Joe Craven, long-time commercial pilot (Northwest/Delta) and former Navy airman. Frankly, I’m sorry Joe is retiring. I always felt safer knowing that he was among the ranks of American commercial pilots. Whenever we socialize with Cravens, Rich Thomas, a mutual friend of …
SEPTEMBER 29, 2019 – Yesterday evening we “dined” at the wholly refurbished House of Wong in an old local strip mall that recently underwent a major “face lift.” House of Wong opened in 1958. We’d eaten there once about 30 years ago. It was popular among old folks then, and it’s a favorite of older …
SEPTEMBER 28, 2019 – For years I’ve enjoyed the daily experience of walking in a place that affords a 180-degree view of the sky. We humans spend most of our waking hours looking at the world parallel to the ground. You might say it’s a “down to earth” way of seeing things. If you’re an …
SEPTEMBER 27, 2019 – I’ve devised an impeachment quiz for supporters of the president: 1. The Constitution is the supreme law of the land: ____ Yes; see next question. ____ No; we’re done. 2. Have you read the background to Article II, Section 4 (impeachment) of the Constitution? ____ Yes; see next question. ____ No; …
SEPTEMBER 26, 2019 – I’m the luckiest brother on earth, because I’ve got the best three sisters on earth . . . or, as far as I know, anywhere else. Today is my younger sister’s birthday. Named after the Swedish Nightingale, “Jenny Lind” (or “Jenny Wren,” as our dad called her when she was a …
SEPTEMBER 25, 2019 – Like you, I trust, I’m scandalized by the incessant gush of the president’s corruptionfecklessnesserraticismselfdealingnepotismvindictive behaviorsupportfordictatorscontemptforalliesscornforsciencedisregardfortheruleoflawinhumanetreatmentofdesperatehumanbeingspersonalderisionofothersetceteraadnausem. Now the latest serious infraction: Ukraine-Bidengate, a much simpler case of wrong than the Byzantine record of prior offenses. Finally, Pelosi says enough is enough. Yet some Democrats still oppose impeachment on grounds the process would …
SEPTEMBER 24, 2019 – In case you haven’t already heard it, you must listen to the speech of Greta Thunberg (pronounced, TŪN-berry) at the UN Climate Change Summit. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KAJsdgTPJpU Her words and delivery smack you directly between the ears—where the brain resides. As she cuts to the quick, you remind yourself, “To travel from her …
JANUARY 23, 2019 – Awhile back I was hiking across my usual terrain in Little Switzerland . . . the golf course in nearby Como Park. Near the foot of the hill I call “St. Moritz,” I encountered a lost golf ball. I know it was lost because no golfers were anywhere in sight. Initially …
SEPTEMBER 22, 2019 – Everything—everything—from a quark to the universe is part of a larger system. At extreme ends of the spectrum lie quantum physics and grand-scale philosophy. Between those extremes, an infinite (paradoxically) number of systems interact. In our daily work and lives, however, we largely ignore the totality of most systems that affect …
SEPTEMBER 21, 2019 – Yesterday evening my wife and I joined 20 others to hear one sensationalist artist, Steve Copes on violin, accompanied by another phenomenon, Hanna Hjunjung Kim, deliver a pinnacle performance of Dmitri Shostakovich’s Violin Concerto No. 1. For 35 minutes, our lower jaws were in dangle mode. At the end, we were …
SEPTEMBER 20, 2019 – In the splendid weather of late, each morning with coffee and The Times out on the back porch—and each evening there with lemonade and a good book—are blessings to be savored. Thus, you can imagine my chagrin when these simple porch pleasures were denied by offenses to the senses. Yesterday morning …
SEPTEMBER 18, 2019 – I recently took two airplane rides aboard commercial aircraft (Airbus A319 and Airbus A321, to be precise). Listen to me—“airplane rides”! You’d think I’m some kind of bumpkin who rarely travels. Depending on your standards, you could justly accuse me of being a bit of a bumpkin but not one unacquainted …
SEPTEMBER 17, 2019 – Our family has a favorite story, originating with my younger sister and featuring the word, “behave.” Actually, it’s two words. The tale goes like this . . . My sister Jenny was on an extended tour playing violin in the orchestra of an opera company. In a rather obscure and underserved …