Original anecdotes, commentary, rumination, and occasional pontification.
OCTOBER 30, 2019 – Yesterday after work-work, I worked raking leaves in our yard. In Minnesota, raking leaves means you’ll soon be shoveling snow. I thought about that as I raked a billion maple leaves into a gigantic pile. Dry, crinkly leaves are a piece of pumpkin pie when compared to shoveling snow onto four-foot-high …
OCTOBER 22, 2019 – Ironically, my family’s retreat—our place away from it all—is in the middle of Trumpland, in far off rural America; “ironically,” because my wife and I can’t stand anything “Trump.” For three years, our morning routine has involved going out-loud ballistic over the latest headlines about a guy with no business being …
OCTOBER 12, 2019 – “At one of my violin lessons with Symphonie Espagnole,” I told him, “my violin teacher stopped to tell me a story about it. “During World War II he’d been a tail-gunner on a B-17. On a night mission, his plane got hit. The crew bailed out over the Allied/German line. My …
OCTOBER 10, 2019 – My wife said I was his best friend. That statement is sad to the extent it was true. I wasn’t much of a friend. In earlier years, I’d had little interaction with our neighbor directly across the alley. His father, the retired owner of a machine shop, had been the dominant …
OCTOBER 3, 2019 – I’ve never worked in the kitchen of a high-end eating establishment. At one place and another, however, I catch glimpses of the küchen when the swinging doors swing, as if I’m watching an early film flickering on an old theater screen. Depending on the establishment, the wall that separates kitchen from …
SEPTEMBER 28, 2019 – For years I’ve enjoyed the daily experience of walking in a place that affords a 180-degree view of the sky. We humans spend most of our waking hours looking at the world parallel to the ground. You might say it’s a “down to earth” way of seeing things. If you’re an …
SEPTEMBER 22, 2019 – Everything—everything—from a quark to the universe is part of a larger system. At extreme ends of the spectrum lie quantum physics and grand-scale philosophy. Between those extremes, an infinite (paradoxically) number of systems interact. In our daily work and lives, however, we largely ignore the totality of most systems that affect …
SEPTEMBER 20, 2019 – In the splendid weather of late, each morning with coffee and The Times out on the back porch—and each evening there with lemonade and a good book—are blessings to be savored. Thus, you can imagine my chagrin when these simple porch pleasures were denied by offenses to the senses. Yesterday morning …
SEPTEMBER 18, 2019 – I recently took two airplane rides aboard commercial aircraft (Airbus A319 and Airbus A321, to be precise). Listen to me—“airplane rides”! You’d think I’m some kind of bumpkin who rarely travels. Depending on your standards, you could justly accuse me of being a bit of a bumpkin but not one unacquainted …
SEPTEMBER 15, 2019 – Metaphors can work like 3-D glasses in a movie theater, revealing features not readily discernible otherwise. Consider for a moment, eating establishments—dives, diners, delis, oyster bars, steakhouses, club houses, fast-food franchises, and upper crust/uppercut restaurants. They’re as varied as people. Speaking of whom . . . I often wonder what contrasts …
SEPTEMBER 11, 2019 – Right now I’m in New York City on multiple missions. Remembering 9/11 is not among them, but it is impossible to be in this great town on this date without reflecting on the horrific event that so disrupted the life of the world on 9/11/2001. No one alive and conscious then …
SEPTEMBER 9, 2019 – Unless your name is “Benjamin Button,” when you’re young, everything you know about being older is vicarious. You watch your parents, grandparents, maybe great-grandparents, and wonder how you’ll appear, think and act when you’re an old geezer. More likely, you’ll proclaim how you won’t appear, think or act. Good luck with …
SEPTEMBER 7, 2019 – Yesterday evening while I was working on a passage of the Mendelssohn Violin Concerto, an extraneous thought appeared: what would Aristotle think of me playing this piece? Why Aristotle? I have no idea. The mind works in strange ways. I had to allow the possibility that Aristotle would greatly prefer the …
SEPTEMBER 4, 2019 – Yesterday I ran into “Charlie.” We used to work at the same bank, where he managed money, and I managed corporate trust accounts. That’s how we met. I still run into Charlie on a regular basis, and every time I get his take on the economy. He’s smart, reads voraciously, and …
SEPTEMBER 2, 2019 – After putting the last of our recent house guests onto the airplane, my wife and I and friend Sue sauntered off for another day at the Minnesota State Fair. Sue is delightfully curious, ensuring that we wouldn’t miss a thing. Given the hordes of other fair-goers, it was hard to miss …
AUGUST 31, 2019 – Yesterday we took our international guests on a boat ride down the Mississippi River and then to the historic Fort Snelling at the confluence of the Mighty Miss and the Minnesota River. Much water had flowed since I’d last seen the old fort, built in 1820. It’s staffed by engaging, knowledgeable …
AUGUST 18, 2019 – Friday we picked up travelers from overseas flights—extended family and friends from France and Portugal. Our dual-national daughter-in-law Mylène had arrived Thursday from New York; our son Byron and his birth mother, Sang Hee, fly in next Tuesday. After clearing customs and baggage claim with extraordinary ease (our guests remarked how friendly …
AUGUST 13, 2019 – “Doc” Andberg, our town vet and family friend, ran his first marathon a few years after B.C.E. 490 when Pheidippides ran from Marathon to Athens. I thought Doc was too old to be doing such a thing. He was older than my dad, for Pete’s sake. However, one day on the golf …
AUGUST 7, 2019 – Today I turn 65. Readers older than I have standing to agree or disagree with the observations and resolutions I’m about to make. People under 65 will be left to wonder . . . until they’re 65. 65 is when I qualify for Medicare and a net savings of $500/mo. in health …
JULY 23, 2019 – Yesterday, after the usual entanglements at work, I went home and wrestled with our overgrown shrubbery. After giving major haircuts and gathering up, then piling up the clippings, I was ready for something more relaxing . . . like practicing my violin. What was I thinking?! On my scale, so to …
JULY 21, 2019 – Lately I’ve suffered a bad bout of my own myopia. Sure, occasionally I read the “news,” or rather, I check the “media,” to see what’s happening beyond my immediate horizon. But beyond my little world, my limited observations, my narrow frame of reference, I know barely a smattering of details about …
JULY 19, 2019 – Trigger warning: I’m about to bash . . . big-time college sports. What lit my fuse was my bus ride home this evening. Typically I take the “61,” which runs straight through downtown, but construction raised havoc with the route. My alternative was a “3,” which follows a circuitous path through …
JULY 12, 2019 – Recently I moved my offices from the Flour Exchange Building to the TriTech Center, two blocks closer to the center of downtown Minneapolis. What prompted the move was a big rent hike. The new space is fresh, “high-tech,” splashy, and appealing, especially to hipsters . . . like me. It even …
JULY 9, 2019 – In the grand scheme of human affairs, we’re deep into three colossal screw-ups: (a) devastation of the environment; (b) nuclear weapons; and (c) failure to address drug-resistant killer microbes and the next pandemic. If the sheer magnitude and complexity of those problems anesthetizes your brain so you no longer worry about …
JULY 4, 2019 – As go Christmas, Thanksgiving, and Presidents Day, so goes the Fourth of July. In other words, the fashion in which we celebrate these holidays is quite detached from the historical reality of their origins. In the case of Independence Day, where is the meaning in fireworks, local parades, fireworks, backyard barbecues, …