Original anecdotes, commentary, rumination, and occasional pontification.
MAY 24, 2026 – My parents, bless their souls, were philhellenes and to a lesser extent, Romanophiles—lesser because as I remember my dad explaining when I was quite young, for the most part, the Ancient Romans were “copycats,” the Ancient Greeks having been the source of so much that later evolved in the hands and …
MAY 23, 2026 – I remember asking my mother one evening when I was young, “Would you rather be great or famous?” Without answering it, Mother turned the question around. “What would you rather be?” “Great,” I said. Of course mother had to ask why. “Because . . . Anything can make a person famous if …
MAY 16, 2026 – A year ago, I worked myself to exhaustion planting Norway pine and white spruce seedlings, mostly in the tree garden of Björnholm. As is the case this spring, the ground then was so dry, a walk through the woods mimicked the Kellogg’s Rice Krispies jingle—snap, crackle, pop. After planting the seedlings, …
MAY 13, 2026 – Yesterday evening my wife and I joined a third of the population of the Twin Cities, it seemed, inside a middle school gymnasium for . . . an orchestra concert. The performers were fourth-through-sixth grade string players from each of the district’s half-dozen elementary schools. Included among the fourth-grade violinists was …
MAY 10, 2026 – Rarely do we find pleasure in facing our abject failures—let alone in talking out loud about them. I think this aspect of the human condition is a survival instinct. If we were to dwell on our defeats, we’d sink further into a quagmire of hopelessness, endangering our very continuation as a …
MAY 6, 2026 – Today’s edition of The Times carried a guest essay entitled, “Give us the Aliens” by my favorite scientist, Neil deGrasse Tyson. In his usual jocular style, he poked fun at our enduring perception of aliens as very human-like in appearance—a torso to which are attached, two arms (each with a hand), …
APRIL 28, 2026 – Some time ago I wrote here about my directional disorientation during a family trip to Korea in 2000. I constantly confused the east coast of the Korean Peninsula with the west coast. Whenever I saw or heard mention of one side or the other, my brain would confuse it with the …
APRIL 21, 2026 – (Cont.) Illiana took great interest in the photographs as I displayed them one by one. Many were of her father and uncle when they were young kids, and they brought many fond memories to life. The best of the lot captured the two brothers on the beach by the Sand Bar …
APRIL 20, 2026 – One of the countless wonders of life on earth is that each human being is its own universe. Since the species first appeared, roughly 200,000 years ago—give or take a few millennia—an estimated 117 billion of us have roamed the earth in one state of confusion or another. (According to the …
APRIL 14, 2026 – (Cont.) In many ways, the movie is a celluloid wonder. It had three directors, featured a real live buffalo stampede filmed in Custer State Park, South Dakota and attracted a long roster of the day’s stars: Jimmy Stuart, Peter Fonda, Debbie Reynolds, Gregory Peck, Karl Malden, Richard Widmar, George Peppard, Thelma …
APRIL 13, 2026 – By the time I entered third grade, I was already deep into cowboy and Indian territory—as was the typical white kid view of the Wild West, given the cultural biases that surrounded us back in the early 1960s. This interest arose not from TV shows such as Gunsmoke or The Rifleman, …
APRIL 5, 2026 – For the first time after days of meteorological dread, we in this part of the world awoke to bright sunshine with all its redemptive promise. By force of culture, tradition and upbringing, I thought of Easter—at least until I looked out the window of our reading room and saw a neighbor …
APRIL 2, 2026 – By the giddy chatter of TV reporters covering yesterday’s launch of Artemis II, viewers could’ve been excused for thinking that Neil Armstrong’s “One small step for [a] man . . .”[1] and the five subsequent manned lunar landings were figments of our collective imagination. “Historic,” “Never accomplished before,” and other “firsts” …
MARCH 31, 2026 – Yesterday our son Cory sent me a mid-day text seeking confirmation that I was planning to pick up our fourth-grader granddaughter from school. I replied immediately with a “thumbs up” emoji. At my stage of life, few things could give me greater delight than time with Illiana, starting with the 15-minute …
MARCH 22, 2026 – I’m not making up the name—Derward Badger. If I were writing a novel, however, set in the remote reaches of Vermont (admittedly redundant, given that the entire Green Mountain State is relatively isolated) featuring a seemingly odd and inscrutable character, a veritable old Vermonter whose appearances are minor and scattered but …
MARCH 15, 2026 – (Cont.) Think and say what you will about Harry S. Truman, but he was a George Washington next to what now passes for a president. Although I have yet to read David McCullough’s definitive biography of Truman, I know enough about our 33rd president to shape a reasonably well-informed opinion of …
MARCH 15, 2026 – Somewhere along the line of my secondary education John Hersey’s book, Hiroshima was required reading. As our nation’s foolhardy leader drags us into yet another war, Hersey’s account of six survivors of the blast that was “brighter than a thousand suns” should again be required reading. The “book” was an article …
MARCH 12, 2026 – This past Monday’s post was entitled, “Why I Went to College.” Today I learned “Why I went to high school,” or more precisely as regards the latter, “Why I went to a particular high school.” Long-time subscribers to this blog are familiar with my connection to the Green Mountain State; specifically, …
MARCH 10, 2026 – I’m nearly laughing out loud—“LOL” in the vernacular of The Text. Earlier today I struggled mightily in my role as a remote writing mentor for a couple of high school students. In each case it was a classic matter of, “Where do I start?” I don’t mean to disparage my mentees. …
MARCH 9, 2026 – It’s a question with multiple answers—broad and narrow: “Why did I go to college?” As is the case with the same basic question in other contexts, the answers can be approached from either side of the subject experience. For example, “Why did I go to Paris?” The “pre-answer”: “To see the …
MARCH 7, 2026 – Lately I’ve been in what I’d describe as a “knowledge-informational funk.” Part of the problem appears to be the shortage of storage space inside my cranium. If part of my brain is a storage room with floor-to-ceiling shelving, all the available space is metaphorically crammed with exposure to issues acute in …
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 …