Original anecdotes, commentary, rumination, and occasional pontification.
JULY 9, 2022 – Blogger’s note: The duty of friendship mandates that yesterday’s tribute be supplemented by another, this time in honor of two more people who’ve celebrated “big, if numerically unspecified, birthdays.” My self-imposed, single-post word limit has been doubled to match. Tomorrow will bring back the series, “True Story: An Explanation of Life …
JULY 8, 2022 – Blogger’s note: I interrupt the series, “True Story: An Explanation of Life on Earth, as Told to an Alien,” to bring a special feature: Happy (Big) Birthday to Beth, my spouse of 39 years. Today she turns . . . If I’ve learned one thing in life, it’s not to ask …
AUGUST 8, 2021 – Now I’m a full day of being a year older. It’ll take getting used to, just as it did (back in the day) entering the correct year on checks written in January. Of my many August 7ths so far, yesterday’s rated high. In the morning, I basked in the generous affection …
JULY 8, 2021 – Today is my spouse’s birthday. It’s not a “big one,” meaning it doesn’t end in a “zero,” but once you reach a certain stage in life, every birthday is “big,” as in, “I’ve made it ’round the sun again!” Paradoxically, every birthday is also “small,” as in, “Let’s celebrate this one …
APRIL 20, 2021 – Today my bigger sis Elsa turns a big number. I say “bigger,” because we both have a “biggest” sister (see 4/11/21), each of whom is “big” when it comes to brains and beauty, though not in physical stature. Even if Elsa were my junior, she’d still be my superior. She always …
APRIL 11, 2021 – Today is my oldest sister’s birthday, or as she’d call it, “the anniversary of her birth,” which is what it’s called—with syntactical correctness—in the Anglican (Episcopalian) Common Book of Prayer. My three sisters and I remember this form of “Happy Birthday!” from our upbringing. Kristina is the one who remains a …
SEPTEMBER 26, 2019 – I’m the luckiest brother on earth, because I’ve got the best three sisters on earth . . . or, as far as I know, anywhere else. Today is my younger sister’s birthday. Named after the Swedish Nightingale, “Jenny Lind” (or “Jenny Wren,” as our dad called her when she was a …