Original anecdotes, commentary, rumination, and occasional pontification.
NOVEMBER 19, 2021 – Simon Winchester wrote a book entitled, The Perfectionists, an interesting work about precision engineering. In the world of machines and micro-machines, precision to the nth-degree marks the difference between function and failure. Perfection applies with equal force to many fields, from music to medicine. It even rules in the practice of …
NOVEMBER 12, 2021 – Star Media, the Russian TV/film production company, delivers again. Yesterday, I finished watching its 12-episode-series, Sorge: Master Spy—a superb work, even if you’re not interested in WW II. That conflagration unfolds only as backdrop; the entire setting is Tokyo (before being fire-bombed by American aircraft) with intermittent trips to Stalin’s Kremlin …
NOVEMBER 5, 2021 – Nine hundred days was the duration of the German siege of Leningrad during World War II. More precisely, it was 872 days—September 8, 1941 to January 27, 1944—but after such mass-scale, civilian suffering, Leningraders (now St. Petersburgers) and historians rounded up—as did American Pulitzer Prize winning journalist, Harrison Salisbury, whose 635-page, …
OCTOBER 29, 2021 – The other night I dreamt that along with alleged co-conspirators, I’d been sentenced to execution for political crimes. I’m unsure what triggered the dream, though I’ve been reading about the French Revolution and the Reign of Terror (mid-1793 to mid-1794). The guillotine was in active use back then—initially in France then …
OCTOBER 26, 2021 – In my latest plunge into the history of the French Revolution (Hero of Two Worlds by Mike Duncan—see 10/20/21 post), I’m reminded of a factor I’d dismissed in previous study: climate change. Royal decadence, aristocratic privilege, and enduring feudalism became a powder keg. But what was the match that lit the …
OCTOBER 21, 2021 – Once upon a time I was in third grade—at the height of the Cuban Missile Crisis (October 16 – 28, 1962). On the day before Kennedy and Khrushchev stepped back from the ledge, I kept my fingers crossed from the 8:00 a.m. radio news until the sun went down. During that …
OCTOBER 20, 2021 – If you hadn’t heard of Mike Duncan . . . now you have. He’s the self-proclaimed “history geek” who narrates a 179-episode podcast, History of Rome. He’s produced another series on Revolution, which I found riveting just as riveting. His study of revolutions inspired his definitive biography of Lafayette, whose full …
OCTOBER 16, 2021 – I recently finished viewing yet another Russian TV series—Vlasik: The Shadow of Loneliness. It’s about Nikolai Sedonovich Vlasik, who rose from obscurity to become Stalin’s head of personal security in the 1930s and through WW II (“The Great Patriotic War”). As I’ve found with other productions by Epic Media (and its …
OCTOBER 13, 2021 – While driving across rural Wisconsin Monday, I saw an enormous sign that screamed, “F_ _ _ BIDEN.” The blue background, white lettering, and big white stars on the sides mimicked “[YOU-KNOW-WHO]/PENCE” and “YOU-KNOW-WHO]/2020” signs on display during last year’s presidential campaign and “YOU-KNOW-WHO]/2024” signs during this year’s “stop the steal” effort. …
SEPTEMBER 23, 2021 – Netflix, Schmetflix. For entertainment, I binge on (YouTube) series by Star Media and Epic Media, Russian film-production companies. My list includes Kill Stalin and Zhukov—reviews are buried among my 855 prior posts—and I’m impressed by story lines, casting, acting, direction, costuming, music, staging, and set-and-prop detail. The latest: The Attackers, a …
SEPTEMBER 13, 2021 – When I hike the trails through my tree garden, I take incremental measures to weed out the prolix, wild raspberry bushes. I love cultivated raspberries and miss the ones that used to grow in our backyard at home. The wild ones, however, are a different animal . . . er, plant. …
SEPTEMBER 11, 2021 – On 9/11 I shared in the universal reaction to horror wrought by extreme misanthropes. Then came the “War on Terror”—a game for which we set the rules: 1. The game has no end; 2. No matter how many points we score, the other side wins by scoring once; and 3. The …
AUGUST 27, 2021 – As one of many, I’m following news reports and commentaries about the American withdrawal from Afghanistan. Much attention is on the moment; less focus on 20 years of failed policy. The ragged retreat is the bad fruit of long-lived failure. The more I read and listen, the more I scream, as …
AUGUST 19, 2021 – I never, ever thought I’d say, “Make America Great Again!” Whether I’ll don a red “MAGA” cap remains to be seen, but having learned never to say, “never” . . . “Really?!” you say. Really. With great nostalgia I recall when every kid at school was given a Mantoux test for …
AUGUST 17, 2021 – During a recent trip to Home Depot, we loaded a cart with several items manufactured in Vietnam. These prompted me to think about the intractable Vietnam War and our ignoble exit from the country in 1975. Those of us who were old enough to have noticed remember the Fall of Saigon, …
AUGUST 9, 2021 – My three sisters gathered in Lyme, CT over the weekend. What drew them here was the 75th annual meeting of the Huntley National Association. I attended vicariously thanks to my sisters’ vivid descriptions. Back in time, our grandfather, whose mother was a Huntley, was very active in the association. He paid …
AUGUST 1, 2021 – Yesterday, our son Byron and daughter-in-law, Mylène, gave us a walking tour of their new home-town, Chester, CT (pop. 3,994), then drove us to Rocky Neck State Park on Long Island Sound. On the rural route back, we stopped for locally-made ice-cream. As we enjoyed the scenery of these parts, where …
JULY 21, 2021 – If I were a physician and America my patient, the metaphorical conversation would go something like this . . . AMERICA: Tell me straight up, Doc. Am I gonna make it? ME: You’ve got lots of potentially life-threatening issues going on. AMERICA: I know. I feel very crappy, and lately I’ve …
JULY 6, 2021 – As I write (evening of July 5), some neighborhood kid reminds me that the Fourth was only yesterday. His leftover “Whistling Poppers” (I’m making up the name) sound like they’re landing on our front doorstep. I trust that his parents will soon restore peace—assuming they aren’t the ones disturbing it. In …
JULY 1, 2021 – If ever there were a thoroughly Shakespearean character who occupied center stage of the grand drama of American politics, it was Lyndon Baines Johnson. I’d never liked the man. When I was a kid, my elders were staunch Republicans, which disqualified him right there, but as I acquired a brain of …
JUNE 19, 2021 – Don’t tread on me . . . with your gun fetish. Hunt all you want (with your registered rifle and firearm safety classes) and skeet shoot until you drop (likewise, with a registered firearm and adequate instruction), but don’t think that because you’re obsessed with your “right to bear arms,” I’m …
JUNE 11, 2021 – Years ago while browsing the shelves of an independent bookstore, I encountered a tome called, Empire of the Czars by Marquis de Custine, a French nobleman who spent three months in Russia in 1839. His acerbic insights endured as a companion to the discerning examination of the United States by his …
JUNE 6, 2021 – No matter how much I read about it; no matter how many movies I’ve watched, I can’t imagine myself on the beach at Normandy on that day—this day—in 1944. The Germans knew it was coming but didn’t know when or exactly where. Thanks to their Führer who thought he was a …
JUNE 2, 2021 – I watched most of President Biden’s speech delivered yesterday in Tulsa. If we can debate the details of how to diminish racial economic disparity in America, all responsible citizens must acknowledge the fact of that disparity. All of us must also give Biden credit for—acknowledging formally, officially, openly, and in Tulsa, …
MAY 31, 2021 – I’ve long forgotten the context of the conversation, but one day when I was a firstgrader palling around with Johnny Ridge a couple of doors down, he told me nonchalantly that his uncle “sat on a grenade and got a reward.” Years later, the uncle, Rick Sorenson, came back to Anoka …