Original anecdotes, commentary, rumination, and occasional pontification.
MAY 29, 2026 – The intensity of today’s reunion activities revealed that yesterday’s engagements were in the wading end of the pool. Today we all swam in much deeper waters, starting with chatting up a storm over breakfast and in the case of seven of us, turning off the lights on the last conversations of …
APRIL 8, 2026 – Despite bombs bursting over Beirut, now that the fuse to yesterday’s White House insanity has been cut below the shower of sparks, we the people of short attention spans can turn to other challenges; problems with slightly longer fuses and less prominent dazzle—at least by the measure of “clicks” in our …
MARCH 28, 2026 – Fortunately, half a century ago Bruce Springsteen’s band-buddies back in Asbury Park, New Jersey started calling him “the boss” (in reflection of his dual role as music and band finance director) and not “the king.” Lots of Americans have a boss, but no American should have a king. Springsteen’s famous moniker …
MARCH 24, 2026 – Today at Beth’s suggestion, we took our fourth grader granddaughter to Central Park after picking her up from school; not the Central Park but its namesake in the adjoining town of Roseville. Saturday’s teaser temp—in the mid-70sF—had passed eastward, but with the mercury at 50F and the sun edging another three …
MARCH 6, 2026 – I read somewhere—I think it might’ve been in The Shallows: What the Internet Is Doing to Our Brains by Nicholas Carr—in which a study of London cabbies revealed overly developed memories in the region where navigational information is stored. Obviously, the study pre-dated Google Maps and other familiar GPS-based apps. Today …
MARCH 3, 2026 – Yesterday my iPhone went on the fritz for the second time in four days. All outgoing calls were a “fail,” and all incoming calls went straight to voicemail. On the first “fail,” I searched for online solutions and found one that worked: “Turn on airplane mode [sic] for 30 seconds, then …
FEBRUARY 25, 2026 – By the time I’d assembled myself for breakfast yesterday morning, I was feeling significantly better. Maybe not quite airworthy, but with two days to go before our postponed departure from southern New England, I was optimistic. In the afternoon, I actually got outside and did some light shoveling to help “widen …
FEBRUARY 6, 2026 – This morning I addressed one of the two certainties in life—the one that starts with “T”. One thing led to another, however, and soon I was off on numerous financial tangents. Two of these required busting through online security barriers. I’ve grown quite accustomed to these, but in the cases at …
FEBRUARY 1, 2026 – I’ve written about him several times on this blogsite, most recently on September 7, 2025: our neighbor, the inimitable “Mr. Paulson,” literary savant, retired honors English teacher at Roseville High, life-long coach, and honorary scout for the Twins. Our paths often cross as he’s out walking the family’s ancient canine and …
JANUARY 30, 2026 – After my daily ski outing at noon, I returned home to “de-ice” over lunch and the latest news about ICE. When I saw live coverage of the mass demonstration underway in downtown Minneapolis, six miles from our driveway, I left word with Beth, who was out, and headed down to join …
JANUARY 24, 2026 – This morning I was putting the finishing touches on another post about ICE—specifically, the unintended consequences of the policy behind it—when suddenly, out of the calm cold blue, I received notification that a man in Minneapolis had been shot by ICE agents. Now the world knows what happened yet again at …
JANUARY 13, 2026 – If the fascist raiders now on the (ice)-covered ground of Minnesota weren’t a distressing flashback to Germany in the Nazi era—or Norway during the German occupation from April 1940 to V-E Day in 1945 (see yesterday’s post)—we all could laugh at the BlackICE[1]-analog to the Brownshirts of Nazi Germany. Take for …
DECEMBER 31, 2025 – With the close-out of 2025, I’d like to underscore the importance of celebrating the victories, not lamenting the defeats. If you share my politics, you’re likely to call me Pollyannaish, and from one valid perspective, I plead guilty as charged. On the other hand, to stay afloat psychologically in this troubled …
DECEMBER 28, 2025 – I come from a family of characters, who in one way or another have found a relatively clutter-free entrance onto the great highway of life and worked their ways over to the cruise-control lanes of “through traffic.” Good for each of them—for excelling in school and training; for finding their callings; …
DECEMBER 24, 2025 – The outside environment today, this day before Christmas, was “Blah, humbug!” After the blizzards and bitter cold that raged earlier in the month, an erratic mercury turned our local environs into an icy, crunchy, dirty-snow landscape. A featureless overcast matched the ugly ground cover in unattractive appearance. These black and white …
DECEMBER 10, 2025 – Hug your loved ones—hug them tight and tell them you love them. Cherish your friends, and be generous with empathy. Embrace everything in life, even when it’s difficult. Over the past 36 hours, I’ve learned that L.I.F.E. is (among other things) an acronym for “Love,” “Irony,” “Friends,” and “Empathy.” I’ve also …
DECEMBER 7, 2025 – For fewer and fewer Americans, this date marks a singular day in our national history. As the irresistible current of time carries us farther downstream from “[the] date which will live in infamy,” as FDR described Imperial Japan’s attack on Pearl Harbor, the people alive then and their personal memories are …
DECEMBER 6, 2025 – Sometimes in the case of acute pulsating pain, such as when you stub your bare right big toe on a block of granite, the best antidote is to find a hammer and smack it down on your left thumb. In short order, you achieve a kind of equilibrium: the throbbing thumb …
DECEMBER 5, 2025 – For reasons previously divulged in some detail on this blog site, I’m not religious. This doesn’t translate to atheism, mainly because that concept scares me. My fear is paradoxically comforting, though: it’s a sharp reminder that I’m still human, not a piece of digitized machinery run by flawless logic. The day …
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 11, 2025 – Our favorite (at least until the next one arrives) granddaughter is a regular reminder that however we might feel about the prospects—for the health of the earth’s biosphere, the survival of democracy in America (such as it has been), global peace and security in the short run, intermediate term or long …
SEPTEMBER 29, 2025 – I’d planned to return home today, leaving at around 2:00 to arrive home around the time our almost 10-year-old granddaughter finishes her weekly real-time, online art class. My wife signed her up for the classes, and we’ve developed the Monday routine of picking her up from school, taking her to our …
SEPTEMBER 8, 2025 – Today I enjoyed three disparate experiences that suggest our ship isn’t listing quite as fast or dramatically as it seemed to me after reading this morning’s headlines. Mind you, this doesn’t mean that the ship is free of serious problems below the waterline or that the furniture on the Lido deck …
AUGUST 8, 2025 – Over the years our older son Cory has given my wife and me ample reason not to be judgmental of other people’s parenting. He’s been through a lot—as have we, his parents. Much of his struggles, one might say, is “self-inflicted,” but since I can’t walk in his shoes, I hesitate …