Original anecdotes, commentary, rumination, and occasional pontification.
AUGUST 14, 2019 – I try to be a nice person. Generally speaking, I think I am nice . . . most of the time . . . in public, at least . . . when I have to be. But then someone calls me out. Not to my face, not expressly, but by showing me “nice” …
AUGUST 13, 2019 – “Doc” Andberg, our town vet and family friend, ran his first marathon a few years after B.C.E. 490 when Pheidippides ran from Marathon to Athens. I thought Doc was too old to be doing such a thing. He was older than my dad, for Pete’s sake. However, one day on the golf …
AUGUST 12, 2019 – Yesterday, my wife and I continued preparations for 112 guests at our cabin. Nothing else makes the mind so single minded. Among my assignments: cleaning up the writing table in the “scriptorium,” which has become a guestroom. The surface of my desk, which I’d built years ago out of beautiful, reclaimed pine, …
AUGUST 11, 2019 – Last Monday I posted my 100th story on this blog site. That’s 50,000 words—one-half of an average length novel. So far, so good . . . or maybe not “so” good, but just “okay” good. If you’ve been reading my posts, I hope you’ve enjoyed them. I’ve certainly enjoyed writing them. At this …
AUGUST 10, 2019 – Today I criticize Republicans’ defense of corporate America. My target: money, money, and . . . money. There’s nothing inherently wrong with money. It’s simply a medium of exchange. However, the American corporate obsession with short term money (profitability) and money in politics undermines our future. First, take executive compensation. For some time, …
AUGUST 9, 2019 – To be honest, I’m not following the Democratic presidential campaign very closely. I don’t have to. I just need to vote for the Democratic nominee. The 2020 election will not be one in which a responsible citizen, in my judgment, should express displeasure with both major parties. A vote for any candidate …
AUGUST 8, 2019 – This story ought to lessen the despair among my fellow non-Republicans who, with every White House Tweet storm, feel a new wave of nauseum. Toward the end of my daily walk/hill climb, I hike down an alley that leads into our neighborhood. Below a short retaining wall on one side of the …
AUGUST 7, 2019 – Today I turn 65. Readers older than I have standing to agree or disagree with the observations and resolutions I’m about to make. People under 65 will be left to wonder . . . until they’re 65. 65 is when I qualify for Medicare and a net savings of $500/mo. in health …
AUGUST 6, 2019 – The most reliable barometer of America’s future is the desire of people to come here to forge a better life. The stronger the desire, the more hope for our future. If the day comes, however, when ambitious people no longer view America as a beacon of opportunity, then know that we are …
AUGUST 5, 2019 – Gun control; immigration reform; student loan burdens; opioid crisis; arms sales to Saudia Arabia; support of Israel; relations with NATO allies; relations with Russia; relations with China; disease control; tariffs; war in Afghanistan; religious extremism; white nationalism; investment in public transit; transportation safety; affordable and accessible quality health care; storage of nuclear …
AUGUST 4, 2019 – The next day was another hot, sunny day. Starting around 10:00 in the morning, we jumped on our bikes and patrolled the beach end of Rice Street. Occasionally we’d take a spin around the block. By 11:00 a sizable crowd of swimmers and sunbathers had gathered. Time to strike. I felt an …
AUGUST 3, 2019 – I went to work on my clump of clay: Jedediah Carson passed by here in the year 1845. Bobby watched closely. When I finished, he asked, “What should I write?” I thought a bit and recalled the American Heritage article about the Kensington Runestone—the large stone uncovered by a farmer in rural …
AUGUST 2, 2019 – It was in early August before fifth grade. I’d been down at the beach most of the day. For a change of pace, I went home, hopped on my bike and rode figure eights in the street in front of our house. Something—boredom?—triggered a thought. I pulled out of a figure eight …
AUGUST 1, 2019 – Every good story involves a little background: FIRST: By the age of eight, I was hooked on history. My dad ensured that. He read aloud to me books like William Prescott’s Conquest of Mexico and articles out of his bi-monthly issues of American Heritage magazine. History fired up my imagination. SECOND: Our house …
JULY 31, 2019 – I listened to several patches of yesterday evening’s Democratic Presidential “Debate.” I think each of the innumerable candidates falls into one of three rings: FIRST RING: “I can beat Trump because I’m for free stuff”; SECOND RING: “I can beat Trump because I can”; THIRD RING: “I can beat Trump because I’m …
JULY 30, 2019 – I’m a non-conformist, as are other members of the family. Example: I hate going to the dentist. I’m kidding. Seriously, I’d dreaded yesterday’s appointment, though it was a cleaning session with Michelle. No problem there. She’s a five-star pro. What I’d feared was what she’d do with me after I mentioned episodic …
JULY 29, 2019 – At midnight Saturday I’d just turned off the downstairs lights. The faint glow of an upstairs nightlight was all that guided my way to the steps. My wife had retired earlier and was fast asleep in the second floor bedroom overlooking the open space below where I’d been reading. Suddenly appeared …
JULY 27, 2019 – Thursday evening my wife and I spent four hours in and around a work of art, hosted by our dear friends, the artists themselves, Jack and Linda Hoeschler of St. Paul. They are not artists in the way most people think of artists, and I doubt Jack or Linda would ever …
JULY 26, 2019 – (cont.) As for my part, I was thrilled. Dad, the anti-sports fan, was showing me a new and unexpected side. We hopped in the car and proceeded down West River Road, bound for Bloomington and old Metropolitan Stadium. Along the way we stopped at a burger drive-in in the Camden neighborhood …
JULY 25, 2019 – Yesterday evening my brother-in-law, who is a big fan of baseball, and my sister, who is not, took me—a one-time baseball fanatic—to a Twins-Yankees game at Target Field, an easy walk from their apartment on the edge of downtown and from my office in the center of downtown Minneapolis. The weather …
JULY 24, 2019 – In these parts, winter can be brutally long. Some people would say brutally wrong, especially last winter, when heavy snow and cold temps slammed us repeatedly all the way into April. We took it on the chin—or wrist, rib, elbow or ankle. When spring finally arrived, it did so reluctantly. Trees, …
JULY 23, 2019 – Yesterday, after the usual entanglements at work, I went home and wrestled with our overgrown shrubbery. After giving major haircuts and gathering up, then piling up the clippings, I was ready for something more relaxing . . . like practicing my violin. What was I thinking?! On my scale, so to …
JULY 22, 2019 – What is Nature? Webster’s defines it broadly as “the physical world and everything in it that is not made by people.” Religionists might define it as “creation.” Spiritualists might define it as “God” (or “god”) itself. For now, I’ll go with Webster’s. But what exactly is the nature of Nature? Beautiful? …
JULY 21, 2019 – Lately I’ve suffered a bad bout of my own myopia. Sure, occasionally I read the “news,” or rather, I check the “media,” to see what’s happening beyond my immediate horizon. But beyond my little world, my limited observations, my narrow frame of reference, I know barely a smattering of details about …
JULY 20, 2019 – In a vibrant democratic society, just as in every parent-child relationship, a tension exists between independent thought and the need to conform. On the surface—and in the mind of many-a-teenager—these two concepts seem inherently incompatible, but they are not. In a well-adjusted society/relationship, they are complementary. I’ve written an entire screenplay …