Original anecdotes, commentary, rumination, and occasional pontification.
NOVEMBER 12, 2025 – When I was a kid, Dad bought a fancy-shmancy lawn sweeper to replace the rake that he’d used every previous fall. It was from Sears Roebuck, which meant he had to assemble it himself. I remember watching him pull the parts out of a large cardboard carton labeled, “Craftsman” and assemble …
NOVEMBER 11, 2025 – China. The armchair tour continues, but I must confess that the more familiar I become with historic names, dynasties, and big sweeping epochs, the more of a stranger I feel as I wander up and down, back and forth inside that country. The view from the window of my figurative tour …
NOVEMBER 10, 2025 – Yesterday I partook in one of life’s great pleasures—in the pleasant company of our 10-year old granddaughter, attending a concert of masterpieces performed by world class musicians. It was somewhat of a last-minute operation. One of my sisters had asked me Thursday if I’d be interested in joining her and our …
NOVEMBER 9, 2025 – During our recent sojourn in San Francisco, our tour-guide-cousins gave us the back story of the pleasant Embarcadero Promenade along the bayside waterfront. In living memory it had been the site of the Embarcadero Freeway, a “permanent” assault on the sensibilities of all decent folk who lived in its vicinity. As …
NOVEMBER 8, 2025 – Today’s issue of The Times featured a book review and an article that caught my attention. The rest was jetsam, not because it wasn’t informative or useful in divining the state and direction of our country, but because I had places to visit, people to meet, things to do. The book …
NOVEMBER 7, 2025 – Just when I was searching for a topic for today’s post, one was handed to me on a proverbial silver platter, nicely polished, served by a butler in full livery. The delicacy on the platter can be best described by way of a simple mini-play with the working title, Actually Ashley. …
NOVEMBER 6, 2025 – Today Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy announced that beginning Friday, commercial flights in the U.S. will be reduced by 5,000 a day each day until 10% of pre-reduction volume is achieved. The ultimate impetus for this action is the government shutdown. As I watched the 10-second clip of Mr. Duffy delivering his …
NOVEMBER 5, 2025 – If you ask what I think about how we govern ourselves in this country, I could easily talk your ears off. You might say I’ve got some ideas on the subject. Governance per se is different from substantive public policy, however, but given how policy is formulated and implemented, governance and …
NOVEMBER 4, 2025 – Our day’s end stop Monday was at the Picchetti Winery in the rustic heights above Cupertino. The product of this +140-year-old establishment—now consisting of 9,000 cases of wine a year—is sold only through wine clubs across the country. Our tour guides, Russ and Kerri, have been members for decades and have …
NOVEMBER 3, 2025 – On this fine day in the city, we left it in favor of a tour of the “Filoli Historic House and World-Class Garden” in rural San Mateo County, 40 minutes and 100 years south of San Francisco. I’d visited the attraction a little over 45 years ago[1], five years after it …
NOVEMBER 2, 2025 – After falling back off daylight savings time, we should have re-calibrated our body clocks to coincide with the early morning sun. Instead, we opted for an extra hour of sleep. We didn’t launch ourselves out of the house, however, until noon. Beth and Kerri headed for Suffs, the road show version …
NOVEMBER 1, 2025 – Today we awoke to yet another day of perfect weather across one of America’s signature cities. After a high-style breakfast of gourmet (Swedish) pancakes prepared and presented by Kerri, the four of us drove to the short distance to Chinatown. Our route took us through the Tenderloin District and past a …
OCTOBER 31, 2025 – Among the people with whom we circulate, the mere mention of politics inevitably prompts expressions of despair. Fear, anger and anxiety dominate the ensuing conversations—and social media posts. There are no two ways about it, we find ourselves saying to one another: the country is circling the drain. But we owe …
OCTOBER 30, 2025 – The first highlight of our trip to San Francisco, of course, was our happy reunion with Russ and Kerri. Our connection ties back to common ancestors of Russ and me: Emma and August Svensson, our great grandparents. After introducing us to their quarters (between September and November)—and ours for the next …
OCTOBER 29, 2025 – Yesterday we flew to San Francisco to visit our inimitable California cousins, led by über-hosts Russ and Kerri. Three’s the charm: over the past year this is our third attempt to make the trip. The highlights of this journey will be the people—plenty of laughter; scintillating, full-spectrum conversations; delectable culinary experiences; …
OCTOBER 28, 2025 – Thankfully, I’m not an alcoholic, but I’ve known people who are, and from what little I’ve learned about their struggles, I’ve heard it said that “once an alcoholic, always an alcoholic”; that at every AA meeting, participants in recovery announce themselves by name, followed by the phrase, “and I’m an alcoholic.” …
OCTOBER 27, 2025 – The other day in a conversation with a friend who happens to be a long-time business-banker client, I used the term “codgers” in reference to old guys, quickly adding in pre-emptive self-inoculation, that by way of my age, I myself (“I suppose”) qualified as a “codger.” This friend/client of mine is …
OCTOBER 26, 2025 – Today our crew drove home from the Red Cabin so that our son Byron and his entertaining two-year-old could catch an evening flight back to Connecticut. I decided to leave the driving to him and sit in back, allowing my wife to sit up front to visit with the Connecticut Yankee. …
OCTOBER 25, 2025 – When you spend lots of time outdoors, especially at the beginning and end of the day, you become attuned to the tilt of Earth’s axis and its effect on the duration and intensity of sun-generated heat and light. At this time of year, especially in more northern latitudes, you become acutely …
OCTOBER 24, 2025 – Life on earth is fleeting, and it has to be. If it were otherwise, ages ago life would’ve overwhelmed itself and its planetary host. Within this fleeting phenomenon we call “life” are fleeting moments—scenes, motions, encounters, conversations—that last but a flash. Like precious stones, these moments are special because they are …
OCTOBER 23, 2025 – No person alive knows for sure when and why Mother developed her “nervous tic,” as my sisters and I learned to call it, because that’s what Mother herself called it. Given her glamorous appearance in her high school yearbook picture and the photos that graced her and Dad’s wedding album—not to …
OCTOBER 22, 2025 – I’ve always enjoyed the study of history, but inevitably my principal areas of inquiry—American, European, Russian, Mediterranean, and to some extent, Middle Eastern—have been rather narrow, not to mention shallow. Comparatively speaking, my knowledge of India, China and East Asia is rather abysmal. Several years ago I caught myself remarking to …
OCTOBER 21, 2025 – When it comes to “big news,” we live in a world that’s skewed more than ever toward the transactional as opposed to the strategic. This phenomenon is driven largely by the most prominent personality in our collective long-running (ironically) short-term attention span, the current president of the United States. Everything about …
OCTOBER 20, 2025 – Over the past several days I’ve made major progress on the Pergola-on-a-Platform. Completion is within sight, though some details, such as touch-ups with a paintbrush and an attractive sign (“Mt. Orray[1] – Elev. 1,391’”) will have to wait till spring. I will miss making mistakes—and the satisfaction I derived from corrections …
OCTOBER 19, 2025 – (Cont.) I’m sure I could’ve coaxed some meaningful cash out of Timothy in exchange for what was a work of shop art. In the moment, however, I decided to let him have it, gratis. In the first place, no one in the family would ever use the bulky machine, and eventually, …