Original anecdotes, commentary, rumination, and occasional pontification.
AUGUST 2, 2024 – (Cont.) When the auto-mechanic . . . er, dental hygienist . . . said that my Sonicare toothbrush had worked wonders on my gumlines, I immediately thought of another analogy: me as a country. When I heard the good news about the condition of my gums, I thought of myself as …
AUGUST 1, 2024 – Among the first devices that a student meets in a creative writing class are the simile and the metaphor. Likewise, among the initial cognitive tactics taught in law school is thinking analogically. As a practical matter, very early on in my life I’d resorted to similes, metaphors, and analogies, not so …
JULY 25, 2024 – (Cont.) As she hobbled from the convent to the school building a hundred feet away, the good sister pointed out the exact spot where a few weeks back she’d stumbled, fallen and broken her hip. There she’d lain, wailing in agony until the associate pastor discovered her and called for an ambulance. After …
JULY 20, 2024 – Yesterday we earthlings woke up to the news that a multi-billion company few of us had ever heard of was responsible for a widespread snafu affecting computer systems the world over. In dual irony the company—CrowdStrike—produces cybersecurity software. A glitch in the way updated code interacted with Microsoft Windows is what …
JULY 17, 2024 – For the Fourth of July our neighbor John was kind enough to accommodate some of our guests by opening up one of the seldom-used cabins on his compound, which borders our land on the other side of the “swamp woods.” In one of the bedrooms was a chalkboard on which someone …
JULY 12, 2024 – After waking up this morning, I crept downstairs, and tiptoed into the dining where I’d left my “like new” MacBrook Pro overnight. It was on the dining room table and plugged in, but from six feet away I could see the charging light wasn’t on. Bad sign, and sure enough, when …
JULY 11, 2024 – The saga continues, but before I provide today’s installment, I have to comment on the word “saga.” It’s an old hardy Scandinavian word that has survived wars, plagues, famines, volcanoes (think “Iceland”), and modernity (so far). It means “story,” in old Norse, modern Scandinavian languages, and English, of course. In the …
JULY 8, 2024 – Among the innumerable micro-adventures of modern life is the smartphone, laptop or kindred device that up and dies—which is an odd idiom, since what thing, animate or inanimate, goes “up” then dies? I can think of things that either go down and die or die in place, but I’ve never heard …
JULY 6, 2024 – Through personal hell and high water, for nearly five years straight I’ve not missed a single day of posting on this blog . . . until the day before yesterday. I cannot erase this gap, but I can explain it. No remarkable circumstances caused the break, but the interruption produced “material” …
JULY 4, 2024 – On this Independence Day, it’s especially pertinent to assess where we now find ourselves as a nation. We live in contentious times, but nearly all times past have been filled with conflict. Have we forgotten that our nation was forged in the fire of upheaval and upon the anvil of war? …
JULY 2, 2024 – As another Independence Day approaches, should we be worried about the state of our country and its prospects? Some would say . . . Strike that; a lot of people would say we should be worried. Democrats, for example. And Republicans, but not for the same reasons that Democrats are worried. …
JUNE 14, 2024 – Aboard the train hurtling across the American countryside for two full days, I’d been drawn to immediate and fleeting surroundings as if they were a full life compressed into fast-motion review. The oft-repeating train whistle seemed to signal my interaction with others along the landscape of our integrated existence. I’ll never …
JUNE 5, 2024 – Back in the day when I was a compulsive runner and x-c skier, I didn’t think much during the thousands of hours I spent pounding the pavement or striding relentlessly down the track. The physical demands were too intense to allow for anything but focus on pace or . . . …
JUNE 4, 2024 – In search of a topic for today’s post, I first scanned the early morning news headlines, but all that came through was, “There is nothing new under the sun.” Then, while comfortably seated on our back porch, I happened to glance up from my cup of java just as a bird …
JUNE 2, 2024 – In ancient times I was involved in a case concerning a prominent piece of real estate in downtown St. Paul[1]. For years the matter consumed a plurality, sometimes a majority, of my billable hours at the firm. Other lawyers with the pertinent client relationship that predated my hiring had reeled the …
MAY 31, 2024 – What light was filtering through the thick overcast was now fading, and as I walked along the woodland path, I mistook the sound of rain—which I did not feel, being well-attired against mosquitoes—for wind until the shining leaves moved not in concert but individually, like a sea of uncoordinated bobble-heads plunked …
MAY 30, 2024 – In his recent commencement address at Brandeis University, Ken Burns imparted exceptional wisdom in prose that bordered on poetic. One pearl among the many reflected the famous documentarian’s relationship with nature. He encouraged the graduates to . . . Be in nature, which is always perfect and where nothing is binary. …
MAY 26, 2024 – I recognized the small, embossed leather pouch with its tidy snap-down cover and bearing the stylized initials “CPA.” The gold letters were undiminished by time, though long expunged from memory is the identity of the pouch’s original owner. I’d uncovered the object among an unorganized cluster of odd-lot keepsakes consigned to …
MARCH 24, 2024 – Today to distract myself from a continuously runny nose—for which over-the-counter antihistamines provide zero relief—and a continual cough (also resistant to all over-the-counter remedies), I devised various imaginary predicaments that were far worse than my actual circumstances. If nothing else, I got a few half-laughs out of the game. The first …
MARCH 23, 2024 – Last December I thought it would make a fun Christmas present to give my wife three tickets for a performance of the classic ballet, Giselle, starring Daniil Simkin and Skylar Brandt, at Northrop Auditorium 15 minutes from our house. My thought was that Beth and I could take our eight-year-old granddaughter, …
MARCH 22, 2024 – Today I watched and listened to the recording of a live performance by the Borodin Quartet, one of the oldest string quartets in the world. The 90-minute concert I listened to featured Borodin—surprise, surprise—along with Tchaikovsky (Andante cantabile from quartet no. 1, opus 11), and Schubert’s The Death and the Maiden. …
DECEMBER 27, 2023 – This day last year marked my 31st day of skiing in a record season of 128 ski days. I know these numbers because they’re recorded in tally form on our basement wall. This year’s total ski days to date: ZERO, thanks to the cold and snow of winter having so far …
DECEMBER 26, 2023 – In the context of a musical performance, my dad used to say that greatness lay in the details—not any single detail, he noted, but in the aggregate effect of all the details. “Therefore,” he said, “as a performer you have to get all the details right.” Dad’s musical refinement came as …
DECEMBER 25, 2023 – After Santa’s visit last night and in the calm before the Christmas celebration storm today, I heard an interview with a serious journalist, Garrett M. Graff, author of UFO: The Inside Story of the U.S. Government’s Search for Alien Life Here—And Out There. I’m not particularly interested in the science (or …
DECEMBER 17, 2023 – I see a close parallel between certain team sports and the infinite spectrum of world problems. If the analogy doesn’t provide solutions, at least it allows reconciliation of chronic frustration against persistent reality. I start, though, with a team sport that’s not parallel to battling issues of civilization: basketball. Played at …