Original anecdotes, commentary, rumination, and occasional pontification.
APRIL 2, 2020 – Raise your hand if you want to live in a country where decades after Stalin’s excesses had been suffered by millions and revealed to millions more, people would demonstrate their adoration of the man by posting his portrait publicly, ringed with flowers. Or signal approval if you’d wanted to live in …
MARCH 31, 2020 – This morning during my daily glance the headlines, I saw one that said The Contagion will peak in Wisconsin (next-door) on May 22. Would that it will be! Thus far, I’ve learned a lot of new things. If May 22 is the regional peak, we have about 100 days before we’re …
MARCH 30, 2020 – If anyone resides in heaven, it’s Mary “Manna” Ibele, a dear old family friend. She died a week ago at 95 after a wonderful life, full of love for all that’s good in the world. I last saw Manna and Warren, her husband of 72 years, two years ago at a …
MARCH 29, 2020 – Pandemic. It’s as old as civilization. And how about civilization? We’re making it up as we go along. Viewed optimistically, it’s a record of progress. Seen pessimistically, it’s a descent into inevitable self-extinction. Evidence abounds for each perspective. I believe, however, that the more accurate depiction of the human record is …
MARCH 27, 2020 – We’re in the thick of it. The virus brings abject fear, grim statistics, disturbing images. I’m told stress can reduce one’s ability to produce antibodies—ironically, a suggestion that adds to stress. I’m striving to reduce stress by reducing exposure to the news. I’ve quit The Times. I’ve stopped watching cable and …
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 23, 2020 – For years, whenever I observed over-indulgence—on my part or by others—I thought of the future book about our profligate ways. The working title: They Ate Well. I thought of the irony in “well,” since many Americans suffer from myriad ailments because of oversized portions of unhealthful food, but the more accurate …
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 19, 2020 – FIRST, A TRIGGER WARNING: An anti-Trump rant! Not decades ago when I first learned about Trump, was I impressed by the man. When in my banking days I learned about his financial disasters—long before they were broadly publicized—I developed wariness about him. When he hatched his groundless “birther” hoax against Obama, …
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 …
MARCH 15, 2020 – Yesterday, the earth turned, the sun shone, the stars came out . . . and abject fear and chaos ruled the news feed and the airwaves until they (the fear/chaos) didn’t, if you had the good sense to shut ’em down. In my own case, after my third call-out of a …
MARCH 15, 2020 – It’s easy to worry yourself sick—oops, bad imagery; it’s easy to worry yourself into a state of extreme anxiety if you consume too much information about corvid-19. Fine, but none of us wants self or any loved one to be among the millions who could fall seriously ill from The Virus. …
MARCH 12, 2020 – Tuesday evening I’d composed a post for Wednesday. Entitled, “BERNIE BURNIN’,” it lampooned CNN coverage of primary results Tuesday evening. By Wednesday morning it seemed trivial, irrelevant, and not very humorous. My daily voyage got struct by a rogue wave, within a sea-change inside a hurricane. For days I’d been on …
MARCH 9, 2020 – Yesterday’s edition of The New York Times—delivered late and to a dwindling snowbank more than stocking feet away from our front step—contained the usual week’s worth of interesting reading material. However, given the ridiculously nice weather that blossomed over our region, I read nothing except the lead story of the SundayStyles …
MARCH 8, 2020 – Yesterday one of our sons said to my wife and me, “You have to quit looking at the news.” Sound advice—after reading that one more article by an infectious disease physician or one more report about a statistician’s explanation of risk algorithms, either of which article/report seems to leave me with …
MARCH 7, 2020 – Life is a big carnival ride that suddenly lost its power. Some of us are swinging in the very highest seats looking out over the carnival grounds as the sun’s light and warmth dip toward the horizon. Others of us are swinging upside down, growing more nauseous by the minute. A …
FEBRUARY 22, 2020 – These days, we dwell on the crazy and dysfunctional about our politics. I hear people—myself included!—say, “It’s never been this bad.” And yet, despite our insanity, we manage many things extraordinarily well. When we’re down on the state of our world, it’s important to take stock of what does work and celebrate …
FEBRUARY 16, 2020 – Political campaigns promote many ideas for perfecting the world. In our more lucid moments, we know perfection is elusive, but the appeal of universal justice, health care, and prosperity is intoxicating. Though we don’t have a snowball’s chance in Minnesota today of achieving universal perfection, I’ve had three experiences that suggest …
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 11, 2020 – As the sun rose yesterday morning, it revealed a spectacular display of mid-winter hoarfrost. When I rushed out the back doorway to catch my bus, the beauty was at its peak. An inner voice urged me to return, change into ski clothes and head for “Little Switzerland” to take “Ooo, Ahhh!” …
FEBRUARY 9, 2020 – When I was in law school, I had a legal-writing professor whose class was a real downer. At the outset of every session, he’d walk to the chalkboard, pick up a stick of chalk and write across the board, “THERE IS NO JUSTICE IN THIS WORLD.” I thought this was a …
FEBRUARY 7, 2020 – Wednesday brought speeches by democracy’s heroes, Senators Jones and Romney, followed by the death knell of democracy—Trump’s acquittal. Thursday brought Trump’s unbridled hate and vindictiveness. For a man who can’t distinguish right from wrong, good from bad, God from the devil, Trump’s condemnation of House Democrats as “evil” was the penultimate …
FEBRUARY 3, 2020 – I grew up in a household in which organized sports were frowned upon, and the more highly organized the sport, the greater the frown. Our dad was the frowner in chief. He loved books, art, classical music, and was reliably skeptical of whatever attracted the masses. Sports qualified as a “masses …
JANUARY 14, 2020 – This is my 250th blog post. At 500 words per post, the cumulative total equals 125,000 words. My brother-in-law’s memoir—yet to be published—comes in at around 150,000. Fifty more blog posts and my total collection will attain equivalency with his memoir . . . in quantity, anyway. As I hiked back …