Original anecdotes, commentary, rumination, and occasional pontification.
JUNE 13, 2024 – (Cont.) The Empire Builder pulled into Chicago’s Union Depot over an hour late—too late to attend as planned a performance of the Dvorak cello concerto in Millennial Park with Beth’s cousin, Brian Piper, and his wife Gina, who are rightly proud of their city. After stopping at the luxurious Metropolitan Lounge …
JUNE 12, 2024 – This morning our household woke up at 5:45—or more precisely put, our eight-year-old granddaughter woke up our household. Once the sun had peaked around the blinds, she was too excited to stay in bed. Her excitement was immediately contagious. “I thought we were getting up early for the train trip,” she …
JUNE 11, 2024 – The springboard for this post, which . . . I promise, is not simply another predictable harangue into the wind . . . is not the jury verdict against Hunter Biden. No, the point of departure is the recent “speech” by the Duly Defeated at a campaign rally in Las Vegas. …
JUNE 10, 2024 – One of my brothers-in-law reported recently that a cousin of his had excoriated our president; nothing specific, only that Biden had “Sucked the soul out of the American people.” Out of sheer curiosity, I’d like to have a conversation with the cousin, over a beer, perhaps, except I don’t drink beer. …
JUNE 9, 2024 – Back in the day up at the lake, when we went to the grocery store we’d grab the free “Buyer’s Guide” of real estate listings published by the Hayward Area Board of Realtors. We read the listings mostly for their entertainment value. In a vintage edition, for example, I found a …
JUNE 8, 2024 – Here I sit, halfway in the sun, halfway in the shade, watching the big parade of cumulus clouds drift slowly but purposefully overhead. Like a vast armada with sails hoisted to the heavens, their crews look down on us earthbound admirers and occasionally wave. You can tell the ships of the …
JUNE 7, 2024 – It’s instructive, I think, to view the Duly Defeated’s stranglehold on the Party of Lincoln—and Nixon—through the historic prism of the Watergate Era. This perspective can reassure hand-ringers worried that the Duly Defeated might well become the Duly Elected. During the first impeachment hearings of Biden’s immediate predecessor—remember that far back?—a …
JUNE 6, 2024 – For years the Soviet view of the D-Day invasion was inversely proportionate to the American obsession with commemoration of that historic day. Stalin had long been pressing Churchill and Roosevelt to open a second front in Western Europe to draw Germans away from the Eastern Front, where the Nazis had been …
JUNE 5, 2024 – Back in the day when I was a compulsive runner and x-c skier, I didn’t think much during the thousands of hours I spent pounding the pavement or striding relentlessly down the track. The physical demands were too intense to allow for anything but focus on pace or . . . …
JUNE 4, 2024 – In search of a topic for today’s post, I first scanned the early morning news headlines, but all that came through was, “There is nothing new under the sun.” Then, while comfortably seated on our back porch, I happened to glance up from my cup of java just as a bird …
JUNE 3, 2024 – Voter dissatisfaction with each of the two major candidates in a presidential election has long been a feature of the American political landscape. This phenomenon persists in the current round, but not voting or voting for a third-party candidate is no more likely to produce a “happy result” than these maverick …
JUNE 2, 2024 – In ancient times I was involved in a case concerning a prominent piece of real estate in downtown St. Paul[1]. For years the matter consumed a plurality, sometimes a majority, of my billable hours at the firm. Other lawyers with the pertinent client relationship that predated my hiring had reeled the …
JUNE 1, 2024 – This morning in my self-quarantine at the Red Cabin, I received a call from my sister Jenny. She was on a stroll—no, at her customary gait, it was a power walk—through Central Park across the street from her and her husband’s Upper West Side abode. “How’s your cold?” she asked. “I’m …
MAY 31, 2024 – What light was filtering through the thick overcast was now fading, and as I walked along the woodland path, I mistook the sound of rain—which I did not feel, being well-attired against mosquitoes—for wind until the shining leaves moved not in concert but individually, like a sea of uncoordinated bobble-heads plunked …
MAY 30, 2024 – In his recent commencement address at Brandeis University, Ken Burns imparted exceptional wisdom in prose that bordered on poetic. One pearl among the many reflected the famous documentarian’s relationship with nature. He encouraged the graduates to . . . Be in nature, which is always perfect and where nothing is binary. …
MAY 29, 2024 – My wife recently returned from a three-week sojourn in The Last Frontier—Alaska, a name derived from Aleut-language meaning, the “mainland” or more expanded idiomatic form, the “object toward which the action of the sea is directed.” She was not on a cruise, which is vantage point of most Lower 48 American …
MAY 28, 2024 – What delights Beth (a former teacher) and me (a former student, who by and large enjoyed school) is that our second-grade granddaughter likes school so much, one of her favorite after-school activities is . . . playing school. Half the fun for all of us is the set-up. Emulating what she …
MAY 27, 2024 – This time of year is “birthday week” for our two sons, Cory (May 23) and Byron (May 27). When Cory turned one, 37 years ago, I started the tradition of writing, then reading aloud, a birthday letter, which summarized highlights of the previous year and imparted encouragement for the year ahead. …
MAY 26, 2024 – I recognized the small, embossed leather pouch with its tidy snap-down cover and bearing the stylized initials “CPA.” The gold letters were undiminished by time, though long expunged from memory is the identity of the pouch’s original owner. I’d uncovered the object among an unorganized cluster of odd-lot keepsakes consigned to …
MAY 25, 2024 – (Cont.) In the morning of May 25, Dan and I found our way to the Dalkon Shield Settlement Claims Administration facility occupying a full city block in downtown Richmond. On hand to greet us was Mike Sheppard. I remember him well even without the aid of my journal. He engaged with …
MAY 24, 2024 – The other day while in conversation with our eight-year-old granddaughter about writing, she asked me how many diaries I had. “Lots,” I said. “Ten?” she asked, seeking greater precision from me. “More than that. If I had to guess, probably several dozen.” “You should count ’em,” she said. We then went …
MAY 23, 2024 – (Cont.) Menard’s, Lowe’s, and Home Depot have become emporia selling everything a person needs to build a house and fill it wall-to-wall from the basement floor to the attic rafters, with all the props and fittings known to the Great American consumer. And every single item that fills one of these …
MAY 22, 2024 – These days you have to ask yourself—what is America? A crazy place? A terribly bad place? A wonderfully good place? A country about to push itself over the edge of a precipice? The most resilient nation on earth, still destined to be . . . dare I say it . . …
MAY 21, 2024 – (Cont.) The years passed. While I was in my second year of law school, Fred died at the age of 80. I was saddened by his passing; over the years I’d enjoyed many meaningful conversations with him. Ruth lived in the big house for a few years after Fred’s passing, then …
MAY 20, 2024 – (Cont.) Fred and Ruth had two small house dogs—a Corgi (I believe) named Bambi, and Chico, which, as you can tell from the name, was a Chihuahua—and three kids: Tom, Julie, and Sara. Tom was the oldest—way older than my oldest sister. He was well into grown-up status by the time …