Original anecdotes, commentary, rumination, and occasional pontification.
MAY 9, 2023 – Late this month, Brown University will confer honorary doctorate degrees on six Americans of distinction. Among them will be the inimitable Ruth Oppenheim. I first met Ruth during college. Her son, Jeff, a close friend of mine, had invited me to stay with the family in Barrington, Rhode Island over Thanksgiving …
MAY 6, 2023 – I’ll never forget the humiliation. Three of my college buddies and I were watching ABC’s Wide World of Sports on the eminently portable black-and-white TV in the common area of our dorm suite. On that particularly memorable occasion, it was a slow day for Jim McKay: the featured spectacle was the …
APRIL 28, 2023 – To catch up on my continuing legal education credits, lately I’ve been attending web-based seminars featuring a bevy of lawyers talking about the finer points of one sub-set or another of . . . the law. I shouldn’t be surprised that many of them speak with a very strong Minnesota accent; …
APRIL 26, 2023 – I’ve always been jarred by our cultural norm of breaking the conversational ice with a person in a non-business setting. “What do you do?” we ask, or if the person’s retired, “What did you do before retirement?” If the question elicits useful information, in most settings the answer provides only a …
APRIL 25, 2023 – Rumor had it—actually a local newspaper reported it in an article about my dad and our family when at 32 he was appointed to the public servant job he’d have for the rest of his working days. “It” was my mother’s notion that parents should always use positive language when framing …
APRIL 1, 2023 – My grandpa Nilsson, a violinist, launched my three sisters on their own careers as violinists. He and they were in perfect synch: he was a serious teacher, and they were serious students. In my case, he practically stood on his head trying first to get me to practice, and when that …
MARCH 13, 2023 – My sincere apologies, Despite a whole litany of noteworthy encounters and experiences in my little world today, I choose to dwell yet again on the dismal science. But hear me—read me—out. Today I received several generic email from investment firms reassuring me that the banking system was sound. Our son who’s …
MARCH 6, 2023 – (Cont.) It was known as the “McCauley Mansion,” built by a member of the McCauley clan, who’d made tidy money during the early days of the lumbering town. But all had gone to wreck and ruin by the time Harriet McCauley, inheritor of the home, had reached her 50s. By 1960, …
MARCH 5, 2023 – (Cont.) Then one day late last fall I saw a “NOTICE” taped to the side door of the house. The city was finally taking action. But if St. Paul is slow to plow its streets after a snowstorm, the city’s even slower about addressing troubled properties. Only last week was the …
FEBRUARY 28, 2023 – (Cont.) Almost all of my cases pled out. The public defenders were masters at their trade. One was always about to bust out of his shirt; an obvious body-builder, who, I suspected, was still caught in an adolescent need to compensate for the fact he was shorter than average. His dedication …
FEBRUARY 27, 2023 – (Cont.) By a classic Socratic exchange with us students, Pirsig revealed how the defense could most effectively cross-examine the cop. It added up to this: DEFENSE COUNSEL: So it’s your testimony that when you turned your flashlight on the car window, you saw a naked man? COP: Yes. DEFENSE COUNSEL: You’re …
FEBRUARY 26, 2023 – Eventually, everyone with a law degree is asked about the accused in some recent, sensational crime, “Do you think he’s guilty [nine times out of 10 it’s a “he”]?” and “How could you defend someone you know is guilty?” These two questions assume that the person with the law degree knows …
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 17, 2023 – Last night I experienced an unusual dream segment. It was connected to a long, diverse chain of dreams; a seemingly endless train like the one that ambles past a crossing on my way to downtown St. Paul whenever I’m running late. With several acquaintances, I was standing in a hallway somewhere. …
FEBRUARY 1, 2023 – This afternoon just before sunset, I arrived at the head of our narrow, twisting drive to the Red Cabin. The last time I’d driven it, I’d summoned insufficient momentum for the sharp incline at the end. The car slid backward down the hill and into a snowbank. What ensued was our …
JANUARY 24, 2023 – Yesterday I experienced sticker shock. I wasn’t reacting to the average U.S. house sale price in 2022 ($507,800) or the price of a 2023 Beamer – 520i ($76,995) or . . . room, board and tuition at Harvey Mudd College, the most expensive private college in America ($77,449). No, I was …
JANUARY 20, 2023 – When I was a kid, I couldn’t bear being inside on a nice day, especially in the summer. That was half the reason I hated the violin. Whether Mother was nagging me to practice or Dad was dragging me to a Saturday lesson, I couldn’t stand being indoors when I could be …
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 …
JANUARY 3, 2023 – When it came to games at our family cabin, my two older sisters led the way, as they did in most endeavors. From an early age, I lost to my smarter elders at War, Go to the Dump, regular checkers, and Chinese checkers—the games of choice, because they were the only …
DECEMBER 24, 2022 – Grandpa Nilsson was a fairly serious guy, though he often kidded my sisters and me and laughed at his own jokes. At Christmas he injected a bit of scatological levity into the spirit of things. “’Twas the night before Christmas,” he’d say, “when all through the house, not a creature was …
DECEMBER 8, 2022 – I’m not a religious person, but I like Christmas for all its traditions, religious and secular. My personal Christmas music traditions are: 1. Playing by ear on the piano, four or five traditional carols; and 2. While working on my laptop, listening to various YouTube versions of Handel’s Messiah. I know …
DECEMBER 2, 2022 – It was inevitable: becoming my parents. Though we boomers like to deny it, “becoming our parents” isn’t an isolated phenomenon. If you think otherwise, search YouTube for “Progressive commercials on becoming your parents.” Before you know it, you’ll watch and laugh so hard at half a dozen of the ads, you’ll …
NOVEMBER 30, 2022 – (Cont.) Once we’d landed on the island, Dad and I started pulling gear out of the canoe. No map. We pulled more stuff out. Still no map. I don’t remember Dad swearing out loud over the missing map, but I was bracing myself for a “damn!”—the one expletive I’d heard him …
NOVEMBER 29, 2022 – (Cont.) Dad put extra peanut butter in our sandwiches, since our rained-out breakfast had left us hungry. I remember walking around, eating my sandwich and holding a cookie, as I admired the lofty Norway pines that encircled our landing spot. In the short time of our lunch break, however, a breeze …
NOVEMBER 28, 2022 – (Cont.) Twenty-five years later—in 1957—Dad returned to the Boundary Waters with Mother and two friends, Carl and Doris Sand. My younger sister, Jenny, went along for the ride. From the single photograph I remember of the expedition, Mother and Jenny, at least, wore a life jacket—the same one: Mother was six …