Original anecdotes, commentary, rumination, and occasional pontification.
APRIL 12, 2024 – Perhaps my own vocational destiny was inevitable, given how well the law was represented at our end of the neighborhood. There was Judge Green next door, of course, and Dad himself, who was clerk of court, but then on the opposite corner of Rice and Green from our old house was …
APRIL 11, 2024 – (Cont.) Of all our neighbors, the first whom I observed close-up and most regularly was Judge Green, whose modest but well kempt home and lot were on the north side of our family’s original house and grounds at the corner of Rice and Green. As a little kid I assumed that …
APRIL 11, 2024 – (Cont.) When Mother and Dad built their dream house on the lot between our original house and Rathbuns, they asked the general contractor to hire ol’ John to do the plumbing. I remember well the evening when the contractor, John and several other sub-contractors appeared at our house so Dad could …
APRIL 9, 2024 – (Cont.) My daring ventures into Rathbuns’ house occurred over several times during my youngest years. Those were still the times when we could follow Mrs. Rathbun from the street all the way up the long driveway along the side of the house to the back and the only accessible entry. As …
APRIL 7, 2024 – Because they were our immediate neighbors, I observed much about the Rathbuns, but based on what I later learned about them, I wish I’d inquired more when I’d had the chance. Their intense non-conformity made our family look entirely normal. A quick drive-by revealed that much about the Rathbuns was actually …
APRIL 6, 2024 – I remember well that beautiful summer day between second and third grade—warm and filled with sunshine. Lyle Roeckers, two doors down, had recently acquired an airplane and was offering rides to our family. I say “rides,” plural, because there were more of us than there were seats in the plane, and …
APRIL 5, 2024 – One thing that happens as you approach an age involving a zero and the first whole number following six is that you turn reflexively 180 degrees to feast on memories. This is understandable, since what await in the opposite direction are far fewer years and much lower prospects than what filled …
APRIL 2, 2024 – (Cont.) I also remember the time just before Halloween when I was kicking around the tree farm while Dad worked. I noticed large tufts of long light brown grass that looked like the tops of Viking heads full of thick uncut hair. For the longest time I tried to figure out …
APRIL 4, 2024 – (Cont.) The crazy thing was that at around this same time, Dad bought another 120 acres of similar land near the scruffy town of Zimmerman deep into the next county. To get there we had to drive through Elk River, the county of seat of Sherburne County, and past the first …
MARCH 31, 2024 – Last night I experienced a beautiful dream in which I was looking up into the royal crowns of a grove of aspens. Their bright yellow and light orange leaves stood out against a deep blue sky. A gust of air suddenly blew through the trees, producing a loud, pleasing sound like …
MARCH 18, 2024 – (Cont.) There on the top shelf was a book in mint condition. On its dignified spine was the incongruous title, A Short History of Byzantium: what could be short about a history of an 1,100-year empire? Were they still among the living, my college history profs would be impressed that I …
MARCH 17, 2024 – This post—more likely, series of posts—is about pure Shakespeare at the same time it had nothing at all to do with the Bard. It has much more to do with books by way of an example of one . . . or perhaps three condensed into one. From an early age …
MARCH 15, 2024 – (Cont.) Once launched the book was on a roll. Our neighbor directly across the street happened to be building a business promoting local authors. She offered to help me gratis to enhance her resumé. She landed multiple signing events at area bookstores and appearances on locally popular talk shows. Before the …
MARCH 14, 2024 – (Cont.) When I emerged into the public space of the bookstore, I was flabbergasted. In implementing my marketing efforts for the signing event, I’d given no thought to crowd limitations imposed by the Minneapolis fire code. The entire downtown workforce seemed to have turned out. If half of them bought a …
MARCH 13, 2024 – (Cont.) Several months before my inaugural signing event at the Barnes & Nobles store in the heart of downtown Minneapolis, I happened to be in the store for another lawyer’s book debut. The book itself was flimsy in form and substance and smacked of a DYI project. I knew full well …
MARCH 12, 2024 (Cont.) It so happened that a year before I was fired, David, a member of the law department applied for an open position in my group. He made it to the final round and was scheduled to meet with me. We’d never even heard of each other before the job had been …
MARCH 11, 2024 – (Cont.) That evening I went for a long run—a very long run. As I circled Lake Como in St. Paul, a mile from our neighborhood, I resolved to see my firing as a positive event. Just as a Politburo member’s “catching a cold” had been laughable code for “falling from power,” …
MARCH 10, 2024 – (Cont.) Two weeks later, the newly anointed boss came to town to meet his former peers, now subordinates. He was as inscrutable as ever. I imagined that behind his back he carried a sharpened ax. From his perch in Dan’s old office, he began a series of one-on-one meetings with his …
MARCH 9, 2024 – (Cont.) As most of my peers and I had foreseen, the day arrived when Dan departed for a bigger and better job in the corporate empire of what was now Wells Fargo Bank. The merger had taken everyone by surprise, including the president of Norwest Bank, who reportedly was informed of …
MARCH 8, 2024 – (Cont.) If the copyright police in the law department had caught wind what I was up to, they would’ve wrecked the party. A few months before they’d come down on the “My Favorite Boss!” woman, who had bamboozled Dan into appointing her as head of marketing for the whole department. One …
MARCH 7, 2024 – (Cont.) About 18 months after he’d taken over the reins, Dan announced that he wanted us—his direct reports—to take turns leading the department’s periodic “business update” meetings. These had been all-department gatherings in the ballroom-turned-corporate meeting venue at a downtown hotel, led by our fearless leader and featuring the department’s year-to-date …
MARCH 6, 2024 – (Cont.) As Dan found his stride, his minions fell into line behind him, and we all landed “in the dough” thanks in large part to the Clinton Era economy. My own group was ringing the bell consistently from quarter to quarter. In a public company, however, there’s no rest for the …
MARCH 5, 2024 – (Cont.) In time Keith’s replacement, [Dan], was named. He had no background in corporate or even personal trust. In the wake of Keith’s tumultuous reign, we needed law and order, and Dan was the perfect man for the job. Orderly, cordial, even-keeled and disciplined, he lacked originality, but after Keith’s unchecked …
MARCH 4, 2024 – (Cont.) As the president plunged straight into his interrogation of me, what flashed across my memory was the chain of my career junctions, starting on a memorable day nearly a decade earlier. At that time I was in the middle of my second stint at First Bank, which later became USBank. …
MARCH 3, 2024 – (Cont.) I prepared meticulously for my interrogation, reviewing meticulously the record of my association with Keith from our very first encounter. I relied heavily on my daily journals covering the previous three years. A few minutes in advance of the appointed time I made my way to the C-suite. It was …