Original anecdotes, commentary, rumination, and occasional pontification.
DECEMBER 1, 2024 – Today we hiked across Central Park to the Met, where we wandered slowly through the special exhibition, Siena: The Rise of Painting, 1300-1350, featuring works of the very early Renaissance, Sienese artists Duccio (ca. 1250/60 – ca. 1318/19) (in the main), and Simone Martini, and brothers Pietro and Ambrogio Lorenzetti. After …
OCTOBER 14, 2024 – Each of us might well say that by a certain age, we’re “concerned about the current direction of the country.” The more you see and experience of this land of ours—the third most populous in the world—the more chronic dysfunctionality you’ll notice. Because of this, we’re naturally likely to conclude that …
OCTOBER 7, 2024 – Today, of course, marks the anniversary of the Hamas attack on Israelis, a beastly assault and hostage-taking operation that triggered the vengeful destruction of lives and property in Gaza in the latest cycle of violence between Israel and its enemies. Forever, it seems the best that American policy-makers can do is …
JULY 27, 2024 – We’re still at our Shangri-La on the shores of Grindstone Lake in northwest Wisconsin, and if you’ve followed my posts over the past few days, weeks, months, and now years, you know my attachment to this place. While I’m here I’m far more attuned to the dynamic beauty of our surroundings …
JULY 14, 2024 – Today I finished reading The Story of Russia by Orlando Figes, a British scholar with serious academic chops and credentials. He’s written no fewer than nine books on Russian and European history, which have been translated into 30 languages. Yet, as is so often the case among academics, Figes has his …
JUNE 15, 2024 – Today our household—our hosts and we visitors—strolled from our perch above local vales down to where the Pattaconk Brook flows through the center of the compact village center of Chester. Though beastly heat is predicted for coming days, today’s weather was as ideal as can be found on planet earth. Yards, …
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 …
APRIL 30, 2024 – I looked forward to writing today’s post. Having junked out on news reports about current events—everything from the war on Gaza to the college campus protests to the Hush Money Trial to what planet Bill Barr is on—I knew exactly what I wanted to say and how I wanted to say …
DECEMBER 21, 2023 – Early this morning I’d wanted to address (here) the recent decision of the Colorado State Supreme Court on the question of whether the Fourteenth Amendment prohibits the Duly Defeated from standing for election as president. To offer my two cents’ worth in any viable currency, however, I decided I’d need to …
DECEMBER 17, 2023 – I see a close parallel between certain team sports and the infinite spectrum of world problems. If the analogy doesn’t provide solutions, at least it allows reconciliation of chronic frustration against persistent reality. I start, though, with a team sport that’s not parallel to battling issues of civilization: basketball. Played at …
JULY 4, 2023 – In commemoration of Independence Day, today’s post breaks from my individual “inheritance” to celebrate our collective American inheritance. But in the mix of dazzling fireworks, condiment-loaded hot dogs, and liberal servings of potato salad, we should take a sober and sobering account of that inheritance. In my early school years, American …
MAY 17, 2023 – Apart from chronic environmental issues bearing down on the entire planet, the most acute potential crisis facing the world right now is the effect of Congressional failure to raise (or better yet, abolish) the artificial cap on U.S. Government debt. This is one of the dumbest of all wholly avoidable, self-inflicted …
APRIL 22, 2023 – The world awaits Ukraine’s much anticipated spring offensive against the Russian invaders. Perhaps I overstate matters when I say, “the world.” At the time of the invasion 14 months ago, when news coverage was 24/7, we watched slack-jawed as Putin unleashed his horrors on the sovereign nation of Ukraine. The assault …
APRIL 20, 2023 – Every month or so for many months running, a good college friend calls me and opens the conversation with, “So, when are this Jack Smith character and Merrick Garland gonna come outta their comas and announce the indictment of your favorite ex-president? Last month you told me it was gonna be …
MARCH 31, 2023 – Today, Lindsey Graham called the indictment of Duly Defeated “the most irresponsible act by a prosecutor in the history of the country.” Currently, 9,832 people serve as prosecutors in the United States, which has been formally constituted for 234 years. Against the backdrop of those numbers, “most irresponsible . . . …
MARCH 21, 2023 – When the Duly Defeated came to Minneapolis for a rally in October 2018, the best parts of the show were the clever protest signs among the thousands of demonstrators in the street outside the rally. My favorite: “WHERE DO I START?” At around the same time, I encountered a well-educated, well-heeled …
MARCH 19, 2023 – If you’re bored and looking for an improbable tale beyond the bounds of Marvel Comics or any streaming service, read Wikipedia entries for “Wagner Group” and its self-announced founder, the cartoonish, ex-con, once aspiring competitive x-c skier (!!), former hot dog vendor-turned-oligarch, Evgeny Prigozhin. For background, see the bio of self-appointed …
MARCH 13, 2023 – My sincere apologies, Despite a whole litany of noteworthy encounters and experiences in my little world today, I choose to dwell yet again on the dismal science. But hear me—read me—out. Today I received several generic email from investment firms reassuring me that the banking system was sound. Our son who’s …
MARCH 12, 2023 – Sorry, back to the dismal science, because truthfully, I’m fascinated by dismal science and . . . of all the immediate and intermediate things for us good people to worry about, the economy ought to be front and center. If a light breeze now carries our excursion vessel—full lunch buffet included—around …
MARCH 3, 2023 – The latest news—except on FoxNews—is that Fox isn’t even pretending to be news. Correction: this isn’t news. Further correction: by an old-fashion definition of journalism, not much else that appears on cable news is . . . well, news reporting, as opposed to opinion. But a large distinction separates opinion channels …
FEBRUARY 28, 2023 – (Cont.) Almost all of my cases pled out. The public defenders were masters at their trade. One was always about to bust out of his shirt; an obvious body-builder, who, I suspected, was still caught in an adolescent need to compensate for the fact he was shorter than average. His dedication …
FEBRUARY 26, 2023 – Eventually, everyone with a law degree is asked about the accused in some recent, sensational crime, “Do you think he’s guilty [nine times out of 10 it’s a “he”]?” and “How could you defend someone you know is guilty?” These two questions assume that the person with the law degree knows …
FEBRUARY 25, 2023 – It’s okay: you can admit to your fascination over the made-for-Netflix “Murdaugh Murders” down in the “low country” of South Carolina. I won’t judge you. In fact, in the spirit of full disclosure, I’ll confess my own recent addiction to the case involving a scion of the Old South Old Boys …
FEBRUARY 24, 2023 – To Putin’s chagrin, Ukraine didn’t fall in a week or even a year. In a move personally humiliating to the Russian invader, on Monday the American president visited Kyiv—without breaking stride when an air-raid siren went off. If the brutish Boss of Russia has no regard for human life—be it Ukrainian …
FEBRUARY 23, 2023 – As is other headliner news, the full derailment story is a Venn diagram of causes and effects. In an authoritarian society, the diagram would be obscured by a giant ax falling on the necks of people whose survival threatens the hand that wields the ax. In our fractious democracy, the diagram …