Original anecdotes, commentary, rumination, and occasional pontification.
SEPTEMBER 22, 2025 – The film tells us little of Quisling’s ascendancy to power—as it were; he’s not depicted as a megalomaniac or Il Duce character, though as head of the Nordisk folkereisning i Norge, or “Nordic popular rising in Norway,” a political action group established in the early 1930s, Quisling was known as its fører—the …
SEPTEMBER 21, 2025 – (Cont.) The best stories are ones that tell us about ourselves, and Quisling: The Final Days, does just that. Not that we’re traitors. Few of us, in fact, would see anything of ourselves in the flawed eponymous character. Enter, however, Peder Olsen, a hospital chaplain assigned by the Right Reverend Eivind …
SEPTEMBER 20, 2025 – I can’t remember how old I was when I first heard the name, “Vidkun Quisling,” but it was my dad you said it. And you can bet that Dad used the word “traitor” to describe the Norwegian “Minister President” during the German occupation of Norway. So did everyone else who invoked …
AUGUST 24, 2025 – I was going to write about something else today, except late in the proceedings—at around 6:30 this evening—I experienced a “Voilá!” moment that inspired me to write about something different altogether. Readers all too familiar with my Pergola-on-a-Platform shouldn’t be surprised that the “Voilá!” moment occurred while I was working on …
AUGUST 20, 2025 – Today “UB” would’ve turned 102. He didn’t do too bad in the longevity column, having lived just 44 days shy of 95. I remember exactly where I was when I received the call—walking down a broad corridor of Schiphol Airport in Amsterdam, awaiting a flight back to the U.S. A hospice …
AUGUST 19, 2025 – I grew up in a household that was unabashedly Republican and anti-government, which was a bit ironic, since my dad worked for . . . the government[1]. Given the amount of at-home political discussion, by osmosis I was politically aware from a very early age. By fifth grade and the 1964 …
AUGUST 16, 2025 – (Cont.) The more I read about apocryphal epochs in 20th century history, such as Nazi Germany, the Soviet Union under Stalin and China under Mao, the more they seem to feature the same three aspects of the human condition. These have universal application, I think, and can be used as tools …
AUGUST 15, 2025 – (Cont.) The central thesis of Mao: The Unknown Story is that Mao Zedong was a monster. By comparison, Adolf Hitler was an elder statesman and Joseph Stalin, a venerable world leader. Chung and Halliday, the authors of Mao, portrayed him as the ultimate nihilist narcissist psychopath, who brought nothing but utter …
AUGUST 14, 2025 – If you’re feeling glum about our nation’s prospects, I invite you to take a close look at China from 1937 to the present. Why China and why during that period? For its extreme example of our resilience as a species. Many other examples exist, but none on the scale or to …
JULY 29, 2025 – Today while waiting for an appointment, I was fully engaged in my principal distraction of late[1]—reading a 600-page biography of Mao Zedong, master of China from 1949 until his not-a-day-too-soon-death in 1976. When a younger person asked what I was reading, I held up the cover, which bears Mao’s portrait—and his …
JUNE 24, 2025 – (Cont.) Before Saturday I knew three things about the Shakers: 1. Aaron Copeland had given them tribute in Appalachian Spring, arranged from the ballet music he’d composed for the Martha Graham Dance Company. (One of the signature melodies of the suite is from the Shaker hymn, “Simple Gifts.”); 2. They made …
JUNE 15, 2025 – (Cont.) I’m now in the small state of Connecticut, which is a big state for boats—many of them, big boats. The state next door, Rhode Island, is an even smaller state but with a moniker writ large: The Ocean State. The rest of New England is outwardly seafaring too, except . …
MAY 31, 2025 – As I first reported several weeks ago, part of my follow-through from the spring semester course in Russian history I took at the University of Minnesota, has been my study of the Stalinist Purges of the 1930s. The textbook for this study has been The Great Terror, Robert Conquest’s aptly entitled …
MAY 18, 2025 – We’ve all been long exposed to the adage that “history repeats itself,” as more recently amended to, “history doesn’t repeat itself, but it rhymes.” Weary of this cliché, I find more useful the insights that an examination of history, similarly to close analysis of literature, reveals about the psychological make-up of …
MAY 17, 2025 – As readers might know or guess by my name, I’m of Swedish descent. Though Swedes have no monopoly on “Eric,” I’m guessing a higher percentage of Swedes and people of Swedish descent are called “Eric” than is the case in all other lands, except, perhaps, Norway and Denmark (but in those …
MAY 13, 2025 – A few days ago I finally finished reading The Crimean War by the British historian, Orlando Figes. I’d mentioned this book several months ago on this blog and remarked that prior to “going back to college” to study Russian history, I was as ignorant as the next American about the Crimean …
MAY 12, 2025 – Publishing a book is not a casual undertaking. Writing the darned thing isn’t even the half of it. In the case of the all the histories I read, a vast amount of scholarship precedes the drafting. Before delving into each book, I check out the author’s bibliography, which reflects what kind …
MAY 10, 2025 – Today my wealth—and that of my friends Matt and Ravi—increased beyond measure. By “wealth” I don’t mean how that term is typically defined and perceived in our society. I mean the sum of one’s hope, faith, love, and friendships. This remarkable increase in wealth was bestowed upon us by a most …
APRIL 21, 2025 – The semester is flying by—only three more classes of Russian History from Peter the Great to the Present led by the inimitable and indefatigable Professor Theofanis Stavrou. I am hoping that he’ll decide to sign on for yet another year of teaching at the University of Minnesota. There’s no reason to …
APRIL 16, 2025 – During last Monday’s lecture in Russian History from Peter the Great to the Present, Professor Stavrou again stressed the importance of reading literature. When he’d given the same pitch the previous Monday he’d remarked that he himself tried to read at least one novel a week. I’m not a big reader …
APRIL 14, 2025 – One can’t predict how data points will line up to spell, “Abracadabra, open sesame!” straight out of Ali Baba and the Forty Thieves. And just as occurs in fiction, the door to the cave of knowledge and understanding opens to reveal a vast stash of loot for the taking. I love …
APRIL 3, 2025 – While the investor world along with major stock indices seemed to be in a free fall today, I happily stuck my head in the sand—figuratively speaking. After all, I was driving and wouldn’t have been able to travel far with sand in my eyes. My first stop was the Asian Foods …
MARCH 31, 2025 – As long-time followers of this blog site are aware, I’m capable of “serial posts”—not to be confused with “Post cereals.” The longest on record featured my “inheritance”; the runner-up was an account of my “Grand Odyssey,” travels around the world now 44 years in the rearview mirror; taking the bronze medal …
MARCH 30, 2025 – Yesterday evening we attended the opening night performance of Secret Warriors at the History Theater in downtown St. Paul. Despite the hard rain and temperature of 35F, a crowd just shy of the 587-seat capacity turned out for the production. Judging by the appearance of the attendees, I guessed that my …
MARCH 27, 2025 – Here’s the question that dogs me whenever I consider a major issue of public concern: Can I—never “Do I”—ever know what I’m talking about? Another way of presenting the question is, Can I ever grasp, synthesize, analyze and draw a reasonable conclusion from . . . drum roll, drum roll . …