Original anecdotes, commentary, rumination, and occasional pontification.
DECEMBER 11, 2019 – Yesterday at 5:30 p.m. while I shivered at my bus stop, I checked the temperature on my phone: 4F. To my relief, the 5:35 bus appeared right on time. The commute the evening before had been a different story. Through new snow, buses on Nicollet Mall in downtown Minneapolis had crawled …
DECEMBER 1, 2019 – Yesterday evening while my poor wife coughed at home, I ventured to Pantages Theater in Minneapolis for Garrison Keillor’s A Prairie Home Christmas. It was a brilliant show: Rich Dworsky at the piano, with the Guy’s All-Star Shoe Band; Tim Russell and Sue Scott as “the voices”; Fred Newman at sound …
NOVEMBER 29, 2019 – When I first heard Art Garfunkel’s song, “(What a) Wonderful World,” I thought the lyrics were kind of dumb. Now that the aging process has introduced me to my own (multiple forms of) dumbness, I realize that in a back-handed, unintentional way, the song serves as a kind of paean to …
NOVEMBER 27, 2019 – Less than a month ’til Christmas. Given the overnight blizzard, Thanksgiving in these parts, at least, will be a white one. Oops! I hear disapproving groans over “Christmas” in place of “December 25” and “Thanksgiving” instead of “Genocide Memorial Day.” Know that my own relationship with religion (and revisionist history?) is …
NOVEMBER 23, 2019 – If you’ve read any of my previous three posts, you know I’ve been “up north” tending to my trees—a kind of rehab operation for a veritable, and once incorrigible political junkie. The retreet—I mean retreat—involved 48 hours of sequestration from the woes of civilization and quality time among a few hundred …
NOVEMBER 22, 2019 – I remember the fall day decades ago. It was just before noon as I walked from my office building—the First National Bank Building in downtown St. Paul—to the St. Paul Athletic Club, where I launched my daily (running) workout. Next to the club was a parking lot, and standing there were …
NOVEMBER 18, 2019 – I wonder what my father, an arch conservative who died in 2010, would’ve thought about Trump. Dad never ever voted for a Democrat. I’m sure he wouldn’t have voted for Hillary in 2016, and I know he would’ve dismissed out of hand, every Democrat seeking the presidency in 2020. However, I …
NOVEMBER 13, 2019 – My friends who support Trump offer the following reasons: Tax cuts; Deregulation; Court appointees; Attempted invasion by illegal immigrants; Democrats are so corrupt. Among my Trumpster friends, their pick of the foregoing reasons outweighs Trump’s “unlikability.” Meanwhile, friends who share my disdain for Trump struggle to explain his support. The most …
NOVEMBER 10, 2019 – I’m angered, saddened, humored, flummoxed, flabbergasted, and fascinated by Facebook. To roil me further, someone reminded me recently that “What you see on Facebook is not the same as what I see on Facebook.” Compared to most active FB users, I don’t have a lot of friends (383, according to FB, …
NOVEMBER 7, 2019 – I’m lucky to have traveled round the globe, literally, crisscrossing oceans, continents, the equator, the Arctic Circle, the Tropic of Cancer, the Tropic of Capricorn. Whenever possible I’ve looked out the window of car, train, ship, and plane. On foot, bike or skis, I’ve peered as far and wide as I …
Blogger’s Note: Of 182 posts to date, this is the first to exceed the self-imposed cap of 500 words. It will remain the exception. In the writer’s opinion, slavish adherence to the rule, even via serialization, would detract from the story. NOVEMBER 4, 2019 – This past weekend up at the Red Cabin, I sifted …
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 …