Original anecdotes, commentary, rumination, and occasional pontification.
JULY 18, 2024 – My namesake niece, Erica Rhodes, has achieved fame—if not yet a fortune (I’m still waiting for her to buy us a mansion)—as a standout standup comedienne. Based in L.A., she appears at comedy clubs all over the country[1] and never fails to draw an enthusiastic crowd and hearty applause. This evening …
JULY 13, 2024 – Yesterday evening, my wife and I along with other family members were among the sardines who packed ourselves into the Fitzgerald Theater in downtown St. Paul for the first of three 50th Anniversary shows of A Prairie Home Companion. If the marathon performance encroached on the bedtime of many a fan …
DECEMBER 16, 2023 – Yesterday evening we took our eight-year old granddaughter to the circus. It was no ordinary circus. For over an hour, my wife and I were more flabbergasted—it turned out—than our granddaughter had been: when I asked her excitedly afterward, “Did that fire up your imagination?” Her response: “Not really.” I’ll explain …
SEPTEMBER 27, 2022 – Lately I’ve been working on the 1,000-piece jigsaw puzzle (a physical map of North America) that our daughter-in-law, Mylène, gave me innocently a year ago—knowing my interest in maps. My unanticipated diagnosis and treatment provided ample opportunity to tackle the puzzle. Not until I’d emerged from the transplant process, however, did …
OCTOBER 5, 2021 – Yesterday evening after sunset, I hiked to Little Switzerland for my daily “hill climbs.” In the distance appeared the twin TV transmitting towers near the northern beltway around the Twin Cities. The blinking red lights of the 1,200-foot towers reminded me of a preposterous idea I devised 20 years ago. Our …
DECEMBER 1, 2019 – Yesterday evening while my poor wife coughed at home, I ventured to Pantages Theater in Minneapolis for Garrison Keillor’s A Prairie Home Christmas. It was a brilliant show: Rich Dworsky at the piano, with the Guy’s All-Star Shoe Band; Tim Russell and Sue Scott as “the voices”; Fred Newman at sound …
MAY 9, 2019 – I think the producers of The West Wing should do an encore called, IMPEACHIM’. The show would mimic what’s unfolding today—mostly on CNN—but provide depth and context. The first season would feature the president behaving within a full range of what people of taste would find distasteful. Some of the infractions …