Original anecdotes, commentary, rumination, and occasional pontification.
SEPTEMBER 6, 2025 – The regular follower of this blog might sense a pattern of incongruity. In many posts I convey genuine optimism about life. Other posts signal deep concern about the current state of affairs afflicting our country and pessimism about our social, political, economic, and most critical, environmental prospects. How, you might ask, …
SEPTEMBER 5, 2025 – One common phenomenon among us “older folks” is being continually awestruck by the sheer volume of knowledge that lies beyond our capacity to encounter, let alone absorb. This sounds naively quaint. It’s the same order of naiveté as entering the Library of Congress and saying (out loud), “Geez Louise but this …
SEPTEMBER 4, 2025 – This evening I listened to snippets of the Senate hearing today during which RFK, Jr., Secretary of the Department of Health and Human Services, was grilled by Democrats and Republicans—as well he should be until he resigns or his boss decides to fire him. One can hope. But just as Trump …
SEPTEMBER 3, 2025 – At the lake the other evening we had a clear view of the waxing gibbous moon. Our vantage point was the end of our dock, facing south over the water. The Moon occupied center stage in the darkening sky, and we watched in awe its brilliant performance. Of course, we’d attended …
SEPTEMBER 2, 2025 – When I stumbled into the (warm, dry) cabin out of the rain at 9:35 this morning, I announced to my wife that before the rains had cut short my all too brief work session up on “Mount Pergola,” I’d accomplished three things: 1.With no effort whatsoever I’d found the Lutz screwdriver …
SEPTEMBER 1, 2025 – Whether or not we acknowledge our circumstances, we are always and in all places part of nature. That is, we’re captive to the immutable laws of physics, the infinite range of chemical reactions, the irresistible forces of geophysics, and the unending wonders of biological processes. It matters not whether we’re glued …
AUGUST 31, 2025 – (Cont.) My third example of a false assumption—memorable because it occurred just a few days ago—involved our granddaughter. The catalyst was her favorite Japanese animation character. Allow me to explain . . . Last Monday evening Illiana stayed overnight with us so we could take her to the Minnesota State Fair …
AUGUST 30, 2025 – (Cont.) My second memorable experience with an invalid assumption occurred two years later. By way of background . . . I was still very much embattled over the violin: my parents wanted me to study it seriously, whereas I wanted nothing to do with it. But by now things had gotten …
AUGUST 29, 2025 – Life nowadays, it seems, is a grand tour through the land of false assumptions, from RFK, Jr’s nonsense science to the Pyrite President’s belief that all that glitters is gold, even if it’s not even fool’s gold but painted plastic and marked “Made in China.” But I must say that my …
AUGUST 28, 2025 – Today I’d wanted to write about the horrific evil that tore into Annunciation Catholic Church and School across town yesterday. But what could I . . . what could anyone . . . possibly say about such an affront? The tragedy is beyond words, and even to try to say something …
AUGUST 27, 2025 – Theories abound about the Pyrite President’s persistent grip on a sizable chunk of the American electorate. In my opinion no single theory is the Holy Grail. After all, we’re a country of nearly 340 million souls under the influence of trillions of algorithms that we’ve unwittingly self-tailored to our individual preferences. …
AUGUST 26, 2025 – As is the case with many of my fellow members of the species, I am a person of episodic obsession. When we were building the Red Cabin and in the market for a wood-burning stove, about all I could think about during waking hours and in my dreams was . . …
AUGUST 25, 2025 – Those of us who were scandalized by Trump from his earliest days as a self-promoter were plenty put-off by his “birther campaign” against President Obama. Ludicrous on its face, the effort to question Obama’s citizenship was little more than a cheap circus act conducted by an amateur clown. Little could we …
AUGUST 24, 2025 – I was going to write about something else today, except late in the proceedings—at around 6:30 this evening—I experienced a “Voilá!” moment that inspired me to write about something different altogether. Readers all too familiar with my Pergola-on-a-Platform shouldn’t be surprised that the “Voilá!” moment occurred while I was working on …
AUGUST 23, 2025 – For the past two days I’ve been at the Red Cabin continuing work on the Pergola-on-a-Platform, a project I started last June. For a good month the project resided mostly in my head until it spilled onto one, two, then multiple pages of sketchbooks. For most of July I got down …
AUGUST 22, 2025 – Yesterday I wrote about mastery, and as I pondered that concept further today, I thought of its companion—specialization. Just as I can claim mastery over very little in life, so too I lack any notable specialization. Sure, you could consider me a “real estate lawyer” professionally or go out on a …
AUGUST 21, 2025 – I have a friend who’s fond of saying, “No one is an A-student at everything.” What he means is that no one can master everything in this complex world of ours. I’ve found this to be true of most people I know, including the A+ students at one thing or another …
AUGUST 20, 2025 – Today “UB” would’ve turned 102. He didn’t do too bad in the longevity column, having lived just 44 days shy of 95. I remember exactly where I was when I received the call—walking down a broad corridor of Schiphol Airport in Amsterdam, awaiting a flight back to the U.S. A hospice …
AUGUST 19, 2025 – I grew up in a household that was unabashedly Republican and anti-government, which was a bit ironic, since my dad worked for . . . the government[1]. Given the amount of at-home political discussion, by osmosis I was politically aware from a very early age. By fifth grade and the 1964 …
AUGUST 18, 2025 – I wouldn’t have it any other way—a week-long visit by our out-of-town two-year-old grandson . . . and his parents. The little one was on hand for his second birthday, and every new word (e.g. “Gosh”) and attempt at a new phrase (e.g. “Geezlouise”) brought us one delight after another. Only …
AUGUST 16, 2025 – (Cont.) The more I read about apocryphal epochs in 20th century history, such as Nazi Germany, the Soviet Union under Stalin and China under Mao, the more they seem to feature the same three aspects of the human condition. These have universal application, I think, and can be used as tools …
AUGUST 15, 2025 – (Cont.) The central thesis of Mao: The Unknown Story is that Mao Zedong was a monster. By comparison, Adolf Hitler was an elder statesman and Joseph Stalin, a venerable world leader. Chung and Halliday, the authors of Mao, portrayed him as the ultimate nihilist narcissist psychopath, who brought nothing but utter …
AUGUST 14, 2025 – If you’re feeling glum about our nation’s prospects, I invite you to take a close look at China from 1937 to the present. Why China and why during that period? For its extreme example of our resilience as a species. Many other examples exist, but none on the scale or to …
AUGUST 13, 2025 – Today (now yesterday) my wife and I spent in a kind of nirvana—otherwise the Red Cabin in the company of our younger son, his wife and their two-year-old son. For one more full day at the lake, we got to interact with the little guy and watch him absorb all that …
AUGUST 12, 2025 – The bald eagle holds a special place here in the Northwoods of Wisconsin. This is befitting since back in the day, the eagle had no place here. Only after the total ban on DDT did this once endangered species return from the edge of extinction. Today bald eagles in these parts …