Original anecdotes, commentary, rumination, and occasional pontification.
MARCH 4, 2026 – Yesterday in a regular chat with a close college friend, we talked politics—as usual. After venting our spleens over the latest outrage—war against Iran—my good friend asked me, “Where do you think America will be a year from now? What’s your prediction?” After answering his question, I asked him, in turn, …
MARCH 2, 2026 – Today I experienced a further lesson in the difficulty of reconciling my circumstances with our country’s ugly past. In this particular instance, I have in mind the treatment of Indigenous populations by the European settlers, colonizers, fortune-seekers, and religious zealots who preceded us, not to mention by us, as well, with …
MARCH 1, 2026 – By all appearances, we’re well into the post-democracy phase of American history. On the surface, this can be quite discomforting, especially for us who’ve been convinced that the sky has been falling since January 20 of last year. But from a broader perspective, the current crisis, if you will, is not …
FEBRUARY 27, 2026 – (Cont.) At the Brushmill I’d been torn between the chicken pot pie and the red lentil soup to go with my half of the misticanza salad that Byron and I had ordered together. Ultimately, I’d gone with the soup, thinking it was the more healthful choice, but then again, as everyone …
FEBRUARY 13, 2026 – Today a wholly clear smooth on-time uneventful two-hour and seven-minute Delta flight took us from Minneapolis/St. Paul to Hartford . . . to visit our two-and-a-half year old grandson, his new baby sister . . . and their parents. The 90 minutes in MSP terminal were a reminder that perhaps I …
FEBRUARY 8, 2026 – Whenever I pick up Illiana from school on a sunny day, to get the conversation rolling, I remind her that “As I’ve mentioned before . . . between the winter solstice back in December and the summer solstice in June, the north end of the earth’s axis is leaning more and …
FEBRUARY 6, 2026 – This morning I addressed one of the two certainties in life—the one that starts with “T”. One thing led to another, however, and soon I was off on numerous financial tangents. Two of these required busting through online security barriers. I’ve grown quite accustomed to these, but in the cases at …
JANUARY 15, 2026 – I’ve said before in a post what bears repeating: “By its very nature, the beast of war brings out the very worst and the very best of humanity.” This evening I watched yet another (superb) Norwegian film (see last Monday’s post)—Into the White—that captures this axiom about as well as any …
JANUARY 6, 2026 – At 12:46 a.m. today our time, we received a simple text from our younger son, Byron. “On our way to the hospital!” it read. We knew what that meant: the baby had better wait at least 40 minutes, since that was how long it would take to drive to the hospital. …
JANUARY 4, 2026 – Yesterday, our old-fashioned mail delivery service dropped into the mail slot of our old-fashioned house, an old-style letter envelope containing two ancient letters and two postcards of the same vintage as the two very old letters. On the face of one of the postcards was a Post-It Note bearing the handwriting …
JANUARY 1, 2026 – Unlike birthdays after a certain age, New Year’s Day brings a feeling of hope, renewal, and opportunity for more accommodating circumstances. I don’t know that I’ve ever heard a person express resolve about much of anything when facing a birthday cake loaded with candles—or rather, impoverished of candles because it can’t …
DECEMBER 27, 2025 – I remember the time I accidentally crushed an ant on the sidewalk. It registered on my retinas but a nano-second too late for me to rotate my leather-soled dress shoe to avoid the mishap as I rose off the downtown park bench after having finished my Subway sandwich. On my way …
DECEMBER 26, 2025 – I’ve always been fascinated by dreams, probably because by way of my particular mix of brain chemistry, I’ve always experienced remarkably vivid and memorable dreams. If I had another 10 cracks at an undergraduate education, one of them would be in psychology, with a sub-focus on the sub-conscious and un-conscious states …
DECEMBER 23, 2025 – The regular reader knows by now that I’m a compulsive student of history. Just as some folks are obsessed with NFL football or college basketball (or as I used to be, with major league baseball), I’m zeroed in on “what happened and why” in previous chapters of civilization. What is the …
DECEMBER 12, 2025 – Life lately has been a blur of images—as is often the case during a period featured by the absence of “dull moments.” But when you feel the train wheels bouncing off the tracks, you stay with the train. You trust that gravity, die Bahn, der Zug, and a pinch of good …
DECEMBER 3, 2025 – (Cont.) As we left behind, Byron’s office and AI-driven computer screens, I pondered the contrast between the fast-moving information of his workday and my current broad leisurely survey of Chinese history—by the increasingly old-fashioned method of reading a book. That method is flawed, I recognized: it assumes that I’m not sleep-reading …
NOVEMBER 24, 2025 – Yesterday, while I was taking full advantage of the mild Minnesota weather and stringing Christmas lights around our shrubs out front, our neighbors at the end of the block, Joan and Kent, strolled by with dogs in tow. We exchanged greetings, and the people called a mutual time-out for “catch-up” conversation, …
NOVEMBER 22, 2025 – Over the seasons throughout the years I’ve noticed that our house operates as an intricate seasonal sundial. In spring, for example, early morning sunlight peeks through the window panes of my wife’s office—forcing me off the east end of the sofa in the adjoining room, where I like to write at …
NOVEMBER 20, 2025 – The man looked about my age, maybe older, since he was engaged in a way that I would ascribe to someone who was fully retired and, well, definitely older than I am. He was wearing headphones and waders with a skirt of pouches and moving slowly in waters just beyond the …
NOVEMBER 14, 2025 – This morning I left town a full two hours later than I’d intended. As I told Beth when she asked what my hold-up was, I said, “Clients come first.” Well, most of the time, anyway. After dispensing with biz, I backed out of the driveway and stomped on the gas. Today’s …
NOVEMBER 5, 2025 – If you ask what I think about how we govern ourselves in this country, I could easily talk your ears off. You might say I’ve got some ideas on the subject. Governance per se is different from substantive public policy, however, but given how policy is formulated and implemented, governance and …
NOVEMBER 4, 2025 – Our day’s end stop Monday was at the Picchetti Winery in the rustic heights above Cupertino. The product of this +140-year-old establishment—now consisting of 9,000 cases of wine a year—is sold only through wine clubs across the country. Our tour guides, Russ and Kerri, have been members for decades and have …
NOVEMBER 2, 2025 – After falling back off daylight savings time, we should have re-calibrated our body clocks to coincide with the early morning sun. Instead, we opted for an extra hour of sleep. We didn’t launch ourselves out of the house, however, until noon. Beth and Kerri headed for Suffs, the road show version …
NOVEMBER 1, 2025 – Today we awoke to yet another day of perfect weather across one of America’s signature cities. After a high-style breakfast of gourmet (Swedish) pancakes prepared and presented by Kerri, the four of us drove to the short distance to Chinatown. Our route took us through the Tenderloin District and past a …
OCTOBER 31, 2025 – Among the people with whom we circulate, the mere mention of politics inevitably prompts expressions of despair. Fear, anger and anxiety dominate the ensuing conversations—and social media posts. There are no two ways about it, we find ourselves saying to one another: the country is circling the drain. But we owe …