Original anecdotes, commentary, rumination, and occasional pontification.
MAY 2, 2020 – Perhaps you and I see the same images. Perhaps we don’t, for we live in the Disunited States of America. In any case, witness gun-toting protesters in Michigan and beach crowds in California. “What?” They say. “A killer virus is afoot? It’ll take time . . . and patience . . …
APRIL 25, 2020 – Feeling outraged that America’s led by a village idiot, I think about this day in Portugal in 1974. That’s when the military initiated the largely bloodless “Carnation Revolution”—named so because citizens stuck carnations into rifle barrels of soldiers guarding the streets. It signaled the end of Estado Novo—the “New State”—under the …
APRIL 15, 2020 – Recently, all set to “do our taxes” by the traditional deadline, I realized that thanks to The Virus, the filing deadline is now July 15. Then a client called: what could he do with retail clients who can’t pay rent? (Fortunately, the client’s property isn’t mortgaged.) “Negotiate,” I said, “but condition …
MARCH 25, 2020 – Lately I’ve pondered what my grandparents would’ve said about the current crisis. They were born in the early 1890s and lived to advanced ages, topped by my maternal grandmother, who died at 100. They lived through many cataclysms, but as far as I could tell, were none the worse for wear. …
MARCH 25, 2020 – When I was a student (in ancient times) of ancient times, one standout was Alexander the Great. There was a guy who studied at the feet of Aristotle, then at my age as a college junior, became king on his way to becoming a conqueror, and ultimately “Great,” all by the …
MARCH 21, 2020 – When our sons were cub scouts, I volunteered to be co-leader of our younger son’s “den” of “cubs,” who, being eight-years old, resembled more a dray of squirrels. For a den meeting landing on President’s Day, we hatched the idea that one of the tall dads would dress up like Lincoln and …
MARCH 17, 2020 – As I sit in our “sitting room,” sipping coffee, distancing myself from the latest news (while my wife, on the other hand, reads it), and moving my fingers across the keyboard of my laptop, I realize that by chance I’m wearing my dark green sweatshirt—the one about which my wife often …
FEBRUARY 17, 2020 – When I was in grade school, everyone knew Lincoln’s birthday and Washington’s. Those dates were as common knowledge as the fact that Fourth of July fell on . . . July 4. But with the Uniform Federal Holidays Act of 1971, many holidays, including Washington’s birthday, were moved to the closest …
FEBRUARY 15, 2020 – In every era society faces two over-arching questions: 1. What’s happening? and 2. What should be done about it? In the current era, people have ready but competing answers to the second question. These prescriptions, however, turn on the answer to the first question, and again, everyone knows exactly what’s happening. …
FEBRUARY 6, 2020 – If you haven’t listened to Senator Romney’s speech on the floor of the Senate yesterday, you should. Yesterday evening in his normally comedic monologue, Stephen Colbert, host of the Late Show, gave an impassioned tribute to the lone Republican Senator to vote to convict President Trump. In voting against the Lock-step …
FEBRUARY 2, 2020 – Yesterday’s edition of The Washington Post published an opinion piece by James Comey, one of Trump’s many outspoken nemeses. Comey provided cool reassurance to those among us who can’t stand Trump. He cited major upsets in our history, from the assassination of JFK to the demise of the Democratic Party with …
JANUARY 27, 2020 – Seventy-five years ago today, Soviet troops liberated the concentration camps of Auschwitz-Birkenau near the Polish town of Oświęcim (“Auschwitz” in German), just west of Kraków. It is estimated that of the 1.3 million people who were sent to those camps, about 1.1 million died—shot, gassed, worked to death, starved to death, …
JANUARY 26, 2020 – A prominent historian once said that no reliable history could be written less than a half-century after events under examination. Based on my own life experience, I find that perspective compelling. As we watch Trump’s impeachment trial unfold, we—right, left, center, off the charts—must wonder, Starting 50 years from now, how …
JANUARY 17, 2020 – Undaunted, he worked doggedly for admission into another Polish university, less selective than Jagiellonian University, but nonetheless, boasting a top-flight history department. He labored under the tutelage of a legendary scholar/professor, and then made a second attempt at Jagiellonian University. He passed. (In a “small world” aside, my wife and I …
JANUARY 16, 2020 – Recently I was asked to handle a business transaction involving a party with an H1b visa. Concerned about the effect the contemplated event might have on such a visa, I called my good friend Jurek, an immigration lawyer. A few years ago, our offices used to be on the same floor …
JANUARY 5, 2020 – We aren’t the only ones to have mucked up the Middle East. First prize goes to Britain, but Russia, the Ottomans, and the French also starring roles in the historical muck-up. Yet don’t forget the locals themselves, whose tribal and internecine religious rivalries have created ample havoc apart from the influence …
DECEMBER 28, 2019 – I must confess: I’m a skimmer. With an exception now and again (ask me how the Torrens Assurance Fund works under Minnesota law—a few years ago I had to learn it), I’m very much a generalist. Whenever I decide to “go deep” on one subject or another, I soon discover I’ll …
DECEMBER 7, 2019 – As President Franklin D. Roosevelt said famously in his address before a joint session of Congress, December 7, 1941 is “a date which will live in infamy.” He certainly welcomed the opening of the “door war” that had been closed so long and firmly by isolationists. Japan’s attack served as a …
NOVEMBER 30, 2019 – Occasionally, I look up from my shoes to survey my surroundings. Amidst the detritus of human activity I see wondrous works produced by human minds, hearts, and hands. One endeavor for which I have special admiration is academic scholarship. As my blog readers know, I’m a sometime student of history. However …
NOVEMBER 24, 2019 – There’s no greater anti-addiction advocate than a former addict. Political addiction, as most forms of addiction, doesn’t “go away.” The addict has to work fiendishly at keeping the addiction “at bay.” This ongoing process is called euphemistically, “recovery.” Backsliding is so common, so likely, that the addict must obsess about it …
NOVEMBER 22, 2019 – I remember the fall day decades ago. It was just before noon as I walked from my office building—the First National Bank Building in downtown St. Paul—to the St. Paul Athletic Club, where I launched my daily (running) workout. Next to the club was a parking lot, and standing there were …
NOVEMBER 19, 2019 – Perhaps you’ve read Theodore Rex by Edmund Morris, acclaimed biography of one of our “greatest” presidents, “greatest” defined as “face chiseled in granite.” Or, as I did last weekend, maybe you’ve watched Ken Burns’ documentary, The Roosevelts. At least you’ve heard of Teddy Roosevelt and even seen his likeness chiseled out …
NOVEMBER 13, 2019 – My friends who support Trump offer the following reasons: Tax cuts; Deregulation; Court appointees; Attempted invasion by illegal immigrants; Democrats are so corrupt. Among my Trumpster friends, their pick of the foregoing reasons outweighs Trump’s “unlikability.” Meanwhile, friends who share my disdain for Trump struggle to explain his support. The most …
NOVEMBER 12, 2019 – Yesterday was “Veteran’s Day,” because Armistice Day was “so far away.” And yesterday, World War I was on my mind, since my grandfather Nilsson was a veteran of The Great War, which ended on Armistice Day—officially, at the 11th hour of the 11th day of the 11th month—a long, long time …
OCTOBER 2, 2019 – I am well into a nearly 900-page work of scholarship and analysis by historian Richard White entitled The Republic for which it Stands. The book is not for the faint of heart (or short of attention). It provides a detailed account of Reconstruction and the Gilded Age, and for me, anyway, fills …