Original anecdotes, commentary, rumination, and occasional pontification.
MARCH 26, 2023 -Yesterday’s post expressed anxiety if not pessimism about the nation’s current heading. Today a burst of spring weather, including uninterrupted sunshine accompanied by snowmelt off the back roof, helped temper yesterday’s worry. But what better assuaged my concern was another 50 pages (thus far today) of Inferno by Max Hastings (see 3/16, …
MARCH 23, 2023 – A few posts ago I mentioned Inferno, a brilliant survey of WW II by the British journalist and military historian, Max Hastings. I’m now several hundred pages deeper into the conflict and to borrow a phrase that George W. Bush deployed in hubris when we invaded Iraq 20 years ago this …
MARCH 20, 2023 – Today I was ant on a hill. Nothing revelatory about that. Gazing up at the stars on a clear night or looking down at the earth on a clear day from 36,000 feet reminds me that each of us is . . . an ant, or more precisely, something far less …
MARCH 15, 2023 – If you want to check out from the woes of the world, spend a couple of days with a first-grader at a snowbound cabin in the Northwoods. That’s the formula that my wife and I followed starting Tuesday evening. After our seven-year-old granddaughter’s swimming class at the “Y,” the three of …
MARCH 12, 2023 – Sorry, back to the dismal science, because truthfully, I’m fascinated by dismal science and . . . of all the immediate and intermediate things for us good people to worry about, the economy ought to be front and center. If a light breeze now carries our excursion vessel—full lunch buffet included—around …
MARCH 11, 2023 – Today I have much to write about—thoughts, delights, reactions, encounters, contemplations. But as the weekly snowfall quietly accumulates outside our windows, possible topics are subsumed by the pleasant memory of afternoon’s trip to “Little Switzerland”—ski day no. 96 of the season. According to my basement-wall-tally system, out of 29 years of …
MARCH 9, 2023 – At the outset of last year’s personally notable medical expedition, I experienced unusual anxiety. Physically, I was feeling, well, not so well. The worst occurred when my side of the earth was turned away from our local star, and the worst of the worst was when I climbed into bed each …
MARCH 8, 2023 – (Cont.) Brother Abraham’s letter is entitled, “My Favorite Things,” which is as innocuous as his first sentence is predictable: “Life in a monastery is designed to give the monks and guests constant reminders of the centrality of God.” Brother Abraham then mentions the seven daily corporate prayer sessions in the Abbey …
MARCH 7, 2023 – My mother was heavily involved with her branch of Christianity—the Episcopal Church. Over decades, she was church organist, youth choir director, Sunday school teacher, vestry member, Bible study leader, building committee member, chief informal advisor to the rector, head of this committee and that . . . not to mention a …
MARCH 2, 2023 – (Cont.) Despite my career as a lawyer, I’m not a legal geek, but as I explained in my previous six posts, I got sucked into following the trial, then the broader Faulknarian story of the Murdaugh murders. Now that the trial is over, I can close the book, return it to …
FEBRUARY 23, 2023 – As is other headliner news, the full derailment story is a Venn diagram of causes and effects. In an authoritarian society, the diagram would be obscured by a giant ax falling on the necks of people whose survival threatens the hand that wields the ax. In our fractious democracy, the diagram …
FEBRUARY 22, 2023 – Today, as any school kid of my generation could tell the teacher, is George Washington’s birthday. It wasn’t a hard thing to forget when in the first few years of grade school, February 22 featured some prominent reminder: cherry cupcakes for lunch; a story reading by the teacher; an art project …
FEBRUARY 21, 2023 – For the next several days, our region is under a winter storm warning, with the threat—or promise?—of 20 inches of new snow. We desperately need something to cover the ubiquitous ice that threatens every one of us with a takedown faster than you can think, “banana peel.” (For the record, when …
FEBRUARY 14, 2023 – Michaela, the smart, cheerful nurse who administers the study I’m in, understands me well. That’s partly a result of the trouble I caused at the outset by asking questions to which she replied, “I’ll have to get back to you on that.” By regular injections of humor, however, I was able …
FEBRUARY 13, 2023 – Amidst the day’s stresses, missteps, mishaps, curveballs, roadblocks, news headlines and yes, ice-canyons in the alleyway, the sun smiled—when I looked up long enough to notice. Plus, there were the gems—my monthly, uplifting appointment with my hero, Dr. Kolla; a walk with a friend and scintillating conversation about the study of …
FEBRUARY 10, 2023 – Much has been made of the Chinese surveillance balloon that recently floated across the United States and was finally shot down over the coast of South Carolina. Most—though my no means all—of the “hullaballoon” was launched by indignant Republicans and their official megaphones. Why not? After all, they had what appeared …
FEBRUARY 9, 2023 – Blogger’s note: I apologize for the length of this post, but it’s nothing in contrast with the duration of suffering that will prevail in Turkey-Syria long after fading from our headlines. Yesterday I sat for my deposition by two New Jersey attorneys. In the prep session the day before, my lawyer …
FEBRUARY 7, 2023 – In a hurry, I lugged things that partly define me: in a small backpack, The Overstory, a gift from my oldest sister, and a fresh set of clothes I hadn’t had time to change into; in my right hand, a plastic bag of trash and best set of x-c skis; in …
JANUARY 30, 2023 – The other day I attended to some light “work-work” against the backdrop of a recording by Itzhak Perlman performing Sergei Prokofiev’s Violin Concerto No. 1 in D. I hadn’t heard the piece in a while, and it evoked many memories; nothing specific, just remembrances of how great music has edified my …
JANUARY 28, 2023 – For many years I encountered no clients, lawyers or other parties whose mother tongue wasn’t English. Oops. I must amend that. There were two brothers with whom I tangled; real estate developers of Venetian origin, who spoke Italian first and English second—or maybe it was fourth or fifth, given their cosmopolitan …
JANUARY 26, 2023 – Today in these parts, the temperature was mild—20s Fahrenheit—with sunshine. By this weekend, the daytime highs will be in the “lower single digits,” euphemistic lingo used by local TV meteorologists to describe “cold.” Overnight lows will fall below zero. There’s no euphemism for “bitterly cold.” Ahead of the “cold” and “bitterly …
JANUARY 18, 2023 – This morning I took a quick look at the latest “news”: arraignment of a Massachusetts man indicted on charger of killing his wife and moving the body; another shoot-’em-up in [fill in one (or several) of the 50 states]; compulsive liar accused of more lies and given Congressional committee assignments; another …
JANUARY 16, 2023 – Of all our national shortcomings, the legacy of our Original Sin remains the most persistent contradiction of our basic stated operating principles; a contradiction with real, hard, extensive, corrosive consequences for all of us. The sine qua non of redemption is acknowledgment, yet many Americans still actively resist hearing, reading or …
JANUARY 15, 2023 – Today the weather gods smiled, and gave a taste of spring-skiing. As I skated down the ski track, up and down dale, I noticed a number of weekenders on the course—friends on a lark; parents with young kids; older folks, gliding along slowly but surely. Citizen racers were few. Doubtless they …
JANUARY 14, 2023 – Memory: I’m fascinated by the details it holds amidst a vast ocean of time, images, encounters and impressions. Take for example, the exact words of Mr. Cavanaugh in social studies class my freshman year of high school: “If you analyze people, you lose them.” More details: He wore a tweed jacket …