Original anecdotes, commentary, rumination, and occasional pontification.
APRIL 29, 2024 – Recently, five of us from our clan attended a wedding and reception just outside of the little ski resort town of Windham in the Catskills. The bride was the daughter of the legendary “Cliff” from my Inheritance series posted last summer right here on this blogsite. For me wedding was a …
APRIL 8, 2024 – Blogger’s note: In light (“In the darkness”?) of today’s event, this post interrupts my current series, The Neighbors. That series resumes tomorrow with a particularly amusing installment. Stay tuned. Did you hear about today’s solar eclipse across a broad swath of the United States? You didn’t? Well, I’m glad that at …
MARCH 28, 2024 – Trust me. I’m only half as crazy as I appear to be. But I must confess, I thoroughly enjoy the level of insanity that I’ve been able to maintain throughout most of my life—thus far. Despite my strivings to go all the way over the edge, I’ve long accepted that life …
JANUARY 23, 2024 – By sheer will I came to terms with the undeniable fact that what I’d wanted to believe was the bat was nothing more than a black sock. Meanwhile, Beth called me from back home, safe from nature. Nonetheless, she is our veteran cabin mouse killer and bat battler. Some eight years …
JANUARY 22, 2024 – In our part of the country, a family tradition is owning a lake cabin (Minnesota) or cottage (Wisconsin) “up north.” It’s where we urban folk can fish, swim, marvel at sunsets, watch the stars come out, and roast marshmallows for s’mores. It’s where we commune with nature and, ironically, where we …
DECEMBER 26, 2023 – In the context of a musical performance, my dad used to say that greatness lay in the details—not any single detail, he noted, but in the aggregate effect of all the details. “Therefore,” he said, “as a performer you have to get all the details right.” Dad’s musical refinement came as …
DECEMBER 24, 2023 – (Cont.) As my Grandpa Nilsson used to say on this day (out of earshot of other adults, except Dad), “’Twas the night before Christmas, when all through the house, not a creature was stirring . . . not even a mouse turd.” Then he’d laugh at his own joke, and as …
DECEMBER 19, 2023 – Today I pursued a mundane task consuming unexpectedly over two hours of time and energy that could have been deployed to far more productive endeavors. Call it a misallocation of scarce resources. My unplanned diversion, however, was not without profit. Beyond the immediate benefit of providing material for today’s post[1] was a …
DECEMBER 15, 2023 – In this age of self realization I’m finally at liberty to publicly acknowledge a condition, an affliction that has long clouded my otherwise happy existence: From childhood to geezerhood I’ve suffered from a form of aural dyslexia. That I’ve “suffered” is probably a gross overstatement—so much so that such a characterization …
DECEMBER 9, 2023 – Friday morning it was “Sassafras” who showed up—fairly late—at the back door. Under her North Face down parka was her unicorn gown, and under that, her new Korean kitty-kat PJs courtesy of “K-Grand Aunt.” Beth reminded me that it was “Pajama Day” at school. Apparently our granddaughter had had a rough …
DECEMBER 5, 2023 – Yesterday evening after scoring a sugar high from “doughnut-making” time with Grandma, our eight-year-old granddaughter was packed off for home. As Grandma herself then realized that her “supper” had featured . . . doughnuts with icing colored (by our granddaughter) in imitation of automotive fluid and over-adorned with “sprinkles.” If I …
MAY 18, 2023 – In the early days of my legal career, I dreaded “CLE” (Continuing Legal Education) seminars. Al Gore had yet to invent the internet, so “webinars” didn’t yet exist either. Even “casual Fridays” were a thing of the future. You had to attend all sessions in person and wear your usual uniform—a …
MAY 6, 2023 – I’ll never forget the humiliation. Three of my college buddies and I were watching ABC’s Wide World of Sports on the eminently portable black-and-white TV in the common area of our dorm suite. On that particularly memorable occasion, it was a slow day for Jim McKay: the featured spectacle was the …
MAY 4, 2023 – (Cont.) 5. Travis, wearing a neat, clean pair of striped bib overalls appears at the door and accompanies Malarkey to the latter’s house. From the driveway, Malarkey points to the second story fascia board in need of replacement. “I don’t climb on roofs,” says Travis. “I promised my ex that out …
MAY 3, 2023 – Our seven-year-old granddaughter and I joke a lot about co-authoring children’s books patterned after her many favorite “silly series,” such as the Old Lady who Swallowed a [Something or other] or the Seussian classics that rhyme like “a lime on the nose of a Thing like our Zing with a ring.” …
APRIL 29, 2023 – Years ago, Beth, my wife, bought the World in an all-inclusive deal: seven seas, seven continents, seven thousand islands upon a wide-diameter sphere—mounted on a handsome, wooden floor stand. The garage sale price, fully haggled, came to five bucks. The acquisition was for me (the consummate geography nerd) and fulfilled my …
APRIL 24, 2023 – (Cont.) And yet . . . I must confess that this same Pavlovian response (answering the phone spontaneously) has hacked its way into my cranial circuitry, albeit inconsistently. If certain people call me and I’m within earshot of my phone, I feel as if it’d be taken as a personal affront …
APRIL 23, 2023 – And now for a little two-part, Pavlovian comedy . . . With technological advancements and our corresponding adaptations, we easily lose sight of how ridiculous we’d appear to our former selves. Take ear buds, for example, in league with our phones. I remember the time years ago when I encountered a …
APRIL 21, 2023 – The problem with being in the same boat as everyone else, is you can’t complain. So much as a grunt marks you as a grump, and who wants to be rowing against that reputation? You have only two options: howling in private or bailing out of the boat. If you howl …
MARCH 14, 2023 – Today I put the dismal science aside in favor of a true story about funny money. It has nothing to do with economics but everything to do with human nature. The setting was Rutherford, NJ, hometown of my great grandparents and two subsequent generations of our family. During ancient times my …
FEBRUARY 28, 2023 – (Cont.) Almost all of my cases pled out. The public defenders were masters at their trade. One was always about to bust out of his shirt; an obvious body-builder, who, I suspected, was still caught in an adolescent need to compensate for the fact he was shorter than average. His dedication …
FEBRUARY 27, 2023 – (Cont.) By a classic Socratic exchange with us students, Pirsig revealed how the defense could most effectively cross-examine the cop. It added up to this: DEFENSE COUNSEL: So it’s your testimony that when you turned your flashlight on the car window, you saw a naked man? COP: Yes. DEFENSE COUNSEL: You’re …
FEBRUARY 26, 2023 – Eventually, everyone with a law degree is asked about the accused in some recent, sensational crime, “Do you think he’s guilty [nine times out of 10 it’s a “he”]?” and “How could you defend someone you know is guilty?” These two questions assume that the person with the law degree knows …
FEBRUARY 16, 2023 – Today I experienced another bone marrow biopsy ahead of my six-month-post-transplant appointment with Dr. Killjoy. The doc earned his nickname when he said last August, “No more downhill skiing for you.” I plan to show him a picture of S-turns I made recently on a downhill ski slope. I’ll explain that …
FEBRUARY 15, 2023 – No one likes to hear one’s spouse yell from upstairs first thing in the morning, “There’s no hot water!” If you pretend not to hear, you’ll soon find yourself in . . . hot water. Yet, if you promptly acknowledge the announcement, before the day is done, you’ll be in hot …