Original anecdotes, commentary, rumination, and occasional pontification.
OCTOER 8, 2024 – Among the books on the floor-to-ceiling shelves in the den of our house when I was growing up was the No. 1 best seller in 1958, Only in America by Harry Golden. I never read it, but I’m sure my parents had: they read pretty much every book that wound up …
OCTOBER 7, 2024 – Today, of course, marks the anniversary of the Hamas attack on Israelis, a beastly assault and hostage-taking operation that triggered the vengeful destruction of lives and property in Gaza in the latest cycle of violence between Israel and its enemies. Forever, it seems the best that American policy-makers can do is …
OCTOBER 6, 2024 – Maybe it’s an “age thing” or perhaps its my surroundings or both; in any case, today I found myself in orbit around my own little world, as it were, and the view triggered myriad emotional and cognitive responses in a combination I had not experienced before. Physically speaking, I was well …
OCTOBER 5, 2024 – We awoke this morning to a wild and wooly day—in the wind department, anyway. The sun was emerging through light, unorganized cotton candy clouds, and the outdoor thermometer registered a balmy 56F, but the wind? It howled like an over-eager parent at a high school soccer match—not with mean-spirited shouting but …
OCTOBER 3, 2024 – I’m unequivocally in the camp that puzzles over how and why the upcoming election is likely to be so close between Dems and Reps—for House and Senate, as well as the White House, but especially the White House. How is it that The Worst Rock Band Ever could be in a dead …
OCTOBER 2, 2024 – While pundits left and right debate who “won” the “debate,” my figurative gavel comes down in favor of “Marcus,” the self-confident Oakland University undergraduate among the MSNBC focus group of his peers from the Rochester, Michigan school. When asked about J. D. Vance’s criticism of Harris’s “policy” as VP, Marcus said, …
SEPTEMBER 30, 2024 – Without being on the ground . . . er, in the water . . . a person can’t fully grasp the devastation that visited parts of the American Southeast late last week. Faster than you can say “flash flood” 10 times, we who weren’t affected directly will be on to other …
SEPTEMBER 29, 2024 – Friday our good friend Sally texted to see if we’d like to join her and Camila and Claudio, an interesting and engaging couple from South African ex-pats now living in Portugal but visiting Minnesota in connection with the current World Press Institute fellowship program. Camila is a WPI alumna, fellow board …
SEPTEMBER 24, 2024 – Today on the way home today from the Red Cabin in rural northwest Wisconsin, I lost count of the Trump signs along the way. If that part of the country is politically representative of the rest of rural America, you could fairly say that Trump “owns” it. (I counted three Harris …
SEPTEMBER 20, 2024 – I remember the first time I played soccer. It was during Pee Wee baseball practice at Park Street Park. Our so-called coach decided he—and we—had had enough baseball for the afternoon and should try something different, such as soccer. If he knew next to nothing about the sport, we eight-year-olds or …
SEPTEMBER 19, 2024 – Today the early weather was splendiferous. I decided to get an early start for the Red Cabin and spend the day doing trail work in the “tree garden” before Beth joins me tomorrow to enjoy a stretch of fine days, so says the forecast. Just as I pressed the ignition button …
SEPTEMBER 17, 2024 – With just eight weeks to the Big Day, I feel like a planet with a non-symmetrical elliptical daily orbit around the sun of politics. At the apogeal phase, I’m scorched and agitated; at the perigean, I’m cool and calm. So it is with all sorts of non-political stresses and strains—anxious now; …
SEPTEMBER 13, 2024 – Hmmm. While contemplating today’s post I vacillated. Inspired by several natural phenomena I’ve encountered during my time in paradise up here at the Red Cabin, I wanted to highlight a few. On the other hand, gobsmacked by the latest news about Laura Loomer, who is charitably described as a “right-wing provocateur” …
SEPTEMBER 12, 2024 – To date, Democratic strategist James Carville’s most famous line is “It’s the economy, stupid.” It was directed at workers on the 1992 Clinton campaign, not because Carville believed they were stupid, but because he wanted everyone in the campaign to focus. At campaign headquarters in Little Rock, the insightful and effective …
SEPTEMBER 10, 2024 – I say it after each “presidential debate” I watch on TV: “My head hurts.” This time around my head really hurt. For the first few minutes, I blamed both candidates, but as the event proceeded, one of the candidates was responsible for the vast majority of my pain and eventually, 100% …
SEPTEMBER 9, 2024 – Tuesday evening millions of Americans plus millions of people around the world will tune in to the “debate,” so-called, between the two main candidates for president of the United States. I’m not sure yet if I’ll tune in or not. On Monday evening in the company of my spouse, sister and …
SEPTEMBER 8, 2024 – I dream a lot—every night. Back when I maintained a daily journal I’d often recount the more unusual dreams, but it’s been years since I kept a diurnal record of things, dreams included. Last night, however, I experienced one of the strangest dreams of my life; so strange I feel a …
SEPTEMBER 7, 2024 – As we enter the last eight weeks of the endless presidential campaign, the Man Who Would Be Grover gets weirder and weirder, to borrow from the Man from Minnesota. If, in the words of Winston Churchill, Russia is “a riddle wrapped in a mystery inside an enigma,” the Republican re-candidate for …
AUGUST 24, 2924 – (Cont.) As fully expected, Scott Jennings, a Republican surrogate and contract commentator on CNN, criticized KAM-ala’s acceptance speech for the absence of any policy substance. In keeping with his usual civility, he did compliment her style and presidential appearance. As to substance, Jennings was largely correct in one regard but way …
AUGUST 23, 2024 – It was a yowzer; I mean the DNC—attended by the most unified, most jazzed up, most diverse delegates to a Democratic National Convention I’ve ever witnessed. In what is surely a harbinger of victory, at the conclusion of KAMA-la’s rousing acceptance speech last night, a veritable torrent of 18 gazillion red-white-and-blue …
AUGUST 18, 2024 – What a difference a month makes; or technically, less than a month. Before Biden dropped out of the 2024 presidential race, Democrats had been in a five-alarm panic over the Debate Debacle. From the flight deck of the campaign, prospects looked grim. The aircraft was losing altitude fast, yet to port …
AUGUST 17, 2024 – At the top of the boarding announcement at JFK for our flight back to MSP yesterday, we heard the usual preferential treatment granted to “families with young children, passengers requiring special assistance, and all military personnel,” with the add-on, “we thank you for your service.” I have as much respect for …
AUGUST 6, 2024 – Family, friends from outside Minnesota ask me what I think of this guy Walz. What I say: In the course of watching his daily news conferences during the depths of the Covid-19 crisis, I kept thinking, This guy deserves national attention. In fact, he’s definitely presidential timber. And now here we …
JULY 31, 2024 – (Cont.) Back home other Nisei were exerting a different kind of courage in quite a different sort of combat. One of the leading “soldiers” in this regard was a conscientious objector by the name of Gordon Hirabayashi, who worked tirelessly in the pursuit of justice. A Ghandi-like character, he exercised unusual …
JULY 29, 2024 – (Cont.) Ever since we invented ourselves, we humans have in the business of exploiting other humans. Every culture, nation, and people, it seems, has had a go at it. In the last decades of the 19th century, landowners in Hawai’i were breaking the backs of plantation laborers to bring in the …