Original anecdotes, commentary, rumination, and occasional pontification.
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 …
MAY 24, 2021 – One of my made-up maxims (page 47 of my imaginary book, Eric’s Adages) is this: To give a statistic meaning, you need to give it company. Whether the context is economics, demographics, or scientific research, to understand a figure, a number, a data point, you need to have a reference point—often …
MAY 17, 2021 – If you’re Norwegian, you know what today—“Syttende Mai,” or “Seventeenth May”—is all about. If you’re Swedish, there’s some spillover effect, meaning you’re aware that it’s the one day on which Norwegians wave their flag and shout, “Hurra!” May 17 is Norway’s Constitution Day or National Day and also commemorates Norway’s independence—kinda, …
MAY 16, 2021 – Yesterday I spent hours outside—trail cutting on the “back 40,” inspecting the budding pine in the “tree garden,” hikes along the shore path, and working on our granddaughter’s treehouse. When surrounded by nature for days running, you begin to notice how everything is connected. And that’s before you don a scientist’s …
MAY 11, 2021 – Lately I’ve been reading about the English Civil War. Through a modern lens, that episode offends modern sensibilities. Then I catch myself. Returning to the present, I check my newsfeed and wonder: Who’d be more shocked and awed—a person from England in 1649 (the year the king lost his head) viewing …
MAY 9, 2021 – If only I’d read about Anna Jarvis, the force behind Mother’s Day in the U.S., before I bought my wife a card and big present! I’ll explain in a bit, but first, a bit o’ history. Ms. Jarvis first celebrated Mother’s Day after her own beloved mother died in 1905. The …
MAY 1, 2021 – Today, “May Day” (not to be confused with the pilot’s distress call, derived from “m’aidez!”), is when you were supposed to hang a homemade May basket, filled with candy, on the outside door handle of your girlfriend’s house, hit the doorbell, and run as the girl chased you down for a …
APRIL 27, 2021 – Hardly a day goes by, it seems, when we’re not confronted by some confounding denial of truth—that you-know-who, for example, lost his bid for re-election as president; or the January 6 attack on the capitol was led by anti-you-know-who forces to discredit you-know-who. Within that explanation you realize it carries a …
APRIL 26, 2021 – Besides “fixing” the electoral system, Republicans want to “fix” school curricula critical of American history. Both initiatives are inherently racist—the former because its intended effect is suppression of Democratic Black voters; the latter because it seeks to downplay our record of racial injustice. Republicans say it’s “unpatriotic” to criticize our history—a …
APRIL 15, 2021 – Recently, I watched the Netflix documentary, Sérgio, about Sérgio Vieira de Mello, Brazilian UN diplomat extraordinaire. The film is as inspirational as it is heart-breaking. A UN staff member remarks how unusual it was by organizational convention that such a high-ranking official would be known exclusively by his first name. That …
MARCH 25, 2021 – “The past is never dead. It’s not even past.” I got that from a 2016 Smithsonian article quoting Wiliam Faulkner in a fascinating story behind the film, Free State of Jones, written and directed by Gary Ross (Hunger Games; Seabiscuit), and starring Matthew McConaughey (Dallas Buyers Club – Best Actor). The …
MARCH 22, 2021 – One day when I was a little kid my sister Elsa told me how to spell Hungary. I’m not sure of the circumstances, but in her usual, authoritative way, she informed me that although the country name sounded like “hungry in the stomach,” it was spelled with an “a, as in …
MARCH 19, 2021 – The up-coming trial of the Minneapolis cop charged with killing George Floyd, Jr. will be another boxing match, racial injustice class. In Corner #1: One set of facts—the video that all the world has seen; white cop pressing his knee against the neck of helpless black man until black man dies; …
MARCH 8, 2021 – Until my wife and I watched The Crown on Netflix, British royalty was barely a blip on my radar (See 2/24/21 post). By the end of the series, however, the blip was a battleship. Then came last night’s airing of Oprah’s interview of Harry and Meghan. My wife and I watched …
MARCH 7, 2021 – The details are so intricate and interwoven, only by patient review of the fast-paced, suspenseful, multi-dimensional back-room political dealing can a person appreciate the episode in its full expanse. It unfolded in the final days of the 1960 presidential campaign. At the center was Martin Luther King, Jr., adamant about his …
MARCH 1, 2021 – (Dedicated to the memory of my late brother-in-law, Dean Rhodes, tax accountant (etc.) extraordinaire) What finally tripped up the murderous gangster Al Capone was . . . tax evasion. He was convicted at the surprisingly young age of 32 and sentenced to 11 years in the Big House. After his conviction, …
FEBRUARY 27, 2021 – Yesterday evening our five-and-a-half-year-old granddaughter was working hard at a life-size drawing of “make believe” on a large sheet of paper. When I approached, she waved me off. “You’re not allowed to look yet, Grandpa!” she said, “It’s not done yet.” Obediently, I repaired to a nearby chair to continue my …