Original anecdotes, commentary, rumination, and occasional pontification.
AUGUST 18, 2026 – I know from experience that nothing in the Department of Boring beats someone announcing first thing in the morning that they had “the strangest dream last night”—then proceeding to recount it. The person might be excused if he uses fewer than 10 words, as in, “Last night I dreamt I was …
AUGUST 14, 2026 – (Cont.) In a nutshell . . . my epiphany, as it were, was about the rightwing perception of America as a (formerly) wonderful place that has lost its way, thanks the tentacles of a Communist plot, and the counterbalancing leftwing view that America was never such a wonderful place, given our …
AUGUST 13, 2026 – You never know when an epiphanic moment is going to hit you. It could be while you’re out for a walk or on your drive to meet another couple for dinner. Or on the way home from the dinner, as you mull over a particularly compelling part of the conversation, especially …
AUGUST 12, 2026 – Yesterday I expressed an unsettled feeling about the midterm elections, prompted by NYT columnist Thomas Friedman’s suggestion that they’ll be “razor close.” Today, however, I’m feeling slightly more sanguine, thanks to a bit of anecdotal triangulation. First, a “most favored nation” business client of mine—(a client who’s smart and interesting, good …
AUGUST 11, 2026 – Not since my “Pergola-on-a-Platform” project last summer and fall have I been so intensely immersed in a whimsical endeavor as I am with the design and construction of my model sailboats. Today I added another two vessels to the collection, but what’s even more notable on the fleet-building front is that …
AUGUST 4, 2026 – The current era reminds me of a key feature in Highlights for Children magazine, which was popular with teachers, parents and slightly nerdy kids back when I was in second grade. My “go to” page was the one with all the “mistakes” that you were supposed to identify—you know, the shoe …
AUGUST 1, 2026 – Yesterday’s much needed cloud cover and most important . . . gentle, all-day rain . . . yielded to a return of bright, sun-filled weather this morning. I took my breakfast out to our back porch and reveled in the felicitous combination of honey-laced oatmeal (further enhanced with pecans, chopped walnuts, …
JULY 24, 2026 – A common factual presumption is that the party holding the White House suffers a loss of Congressional seats in mid-term elections. In fact, over the past century, the party in control of the White House has lost House seats in 22 out of 25 mid-term elections and has lost House and …
JULY 22, 2026 – In the final scene of the 1970 movie, Tora! Tora! Tora!, after the successful surprise attack on Pearl Harbor, a sober Admiral Yamamoto turns to his elated staff aboard the flagship of the Japanese fleet and says, “I fear all we have done is awaken a sleeping giant and fill him …
JULY 21, 2026 – One insidious feature of living in a big country, despite our hyper-connectivity, is that much of daily life can appear so disarmingly normal, even in the most abnormal times. A few days ago, you’ll recall, I wrote about how none of what we’re experiencing in the political and governmental arenas is …
MAY 21, 2026 – To those of us who’ve been on the anti-Trump train since he’s been in the public eye, his multiple disorders have never been a mystery or a surprise. As we’ve seen for 11 years, with Trump, what you see is exactly what you get, which is appalling. For me personally, this …
MAY 18, 2026 – . . . North Korea! Or more precisely, Kim Jung-un. Or more accurately, the loser is . . . the United States and nuclear non-proliferation. Now that the Republicans have settled on a ratio existendi ex post facto for the war against Iran—namely, keeping nuclear weapons out of the hands of …
MAY 17, 2026 – “Seventeenth of May.” Though I’m of Swedish heritage, I have no problem celebrating Syttende Mai—”Seventeenth of May”—in honor of the Norwegians’ Constitution Day (1814), which marked the country’s independence from Denmark. After all, though my wife’s paternal grandmother was Swedish, as was mine, her paternal grandfather was Norwegian, just as my …
MAY 12, 2026 – Today I inadvertently observed the Dear Leader’s press conference, so-called, before his departure for “Chi-EENa.” One more blather session such as that one and the country will need therapy along with remediation. In my jaundiced view, what was readily apparent in Trump’s interactions with reporters was how remarkably out of touch …
MAY 8, 2026 – In continuation of the pursuit of continuing legal education (“CLE”) credits, I’m in the middle of a six-hour webinar symposium on “Universal and Quality Health Care,” sponsored by the University of St. Thomas School of Law (St. Paul, MN). Again, along with a host of UST-sponsored CLE courses on constitutional law …
MAY 5, 2026 – Sooner or later it was bound to happen: the Teflon would suffer a big scratch. Heretofore . . . The “Access Hollywood tape”? Ancient history. The “perfect phone call”? No one remembers—or cares. January 6? A Democratic plot. DOGE butchery without accounting? Old news, forgotten pain. ICE? Same. Assaults on the …
MAY 1, 2026 – Long before the Trump Era, I used to muse that “In America one could find the best of life and the worst of life.” This observation was not particularly insightful. After all, we have a population of around 340 million living within 3.8 million square miles spread across 58 degrees of …
APRIL 30, 2026 – Today while I was striding along toward the end of my daily walk, with both hiking poles now in one hand, I heard a neighbor call out. M. was out walking her aging canine friend and approaching the quiet intersection I’d just crossed. I acknowledged her greeting, and since I was …
APRIL 18, 2026 – All the people who’ve died or will die in Africa because of the end of USAID? We’ll never get them back. All the people who will perish because funding of cancer research funded by the federal government was ripped into sawdust by the chainsaw of DOGE? We’ll never get them back. …
APRIL 16, 2026 – Whenever my wife and I get together with friends, conversation invariably touches three bases: 1. Health reports; 2. Shared political angst; and 3. Latest streaming favs. Oh yeah, and occasionally, as in always, we’ll talk kids and grandkids. Generally, I try to tune out the health reports, keeping my own to …
APRIL 15, 2026 – Though I’m not a veteran of the armed services, I have empathy for those who currently serve in the United States Army, Navy, Marines or Air Force, especially those who are among the 50,000 service members stationed in the Middle East. That empathy, however, is overshadowed by my support for a …
APRIL 8, 2026 – Despite bombs bursting over Beirut, now that the fuse to yesterday’s White House insanity has been cut below the shower of sparks, we the people of short attention spans can turn to other challenges; problems with slightly longer fuses and less prominent dazzle—at least by the measure of “clicks” in our …
APRIL 7, 2026 – At the conclusion of an altogether satisfactory appointment this afternoon, the good doctor wished me well and added, “Let’s hope the world doesn’t end this evening.” The implicit reference underlying his apocryphal statement, of course, was to Trump’s 8:00 EDT deadline for Iran to open the Strait of Hormuz. Not since …
APRIL 4, 2026 – I have a very distinct memory of war. No, it didn’t feature bombs going off or people screaming death cries. The setting of my war story was our mostly quiet little town of Anoka, Minnesota, which straddled the Rum River at its confluence with the lazy Mississippi about 20 miles upstream …
APRIL 1, 2026 – With the title of today’s post, I’ve taken obvious liberties with the famous expression, “Nero fiddled while Rome burned.” I’d intended to add to the unrelenting Democratic outrage and confounding Republican sycophancy over the Emperor’s obsession with Sharpie pens, The Ballroom, and Florsheim shoes while the black smoke from his impulsivity …