I turned 74 on this most recent  European trip. I also became even more introspective, well, because I could, given the pleasant hours spent with little more to do than stare blankly into the fast moving French and Italian countryside rolling by me on a high speed train.    In the final analysis, it occurred to […]

   It’s been my first solo trip since 2018. Because it’s occurring on the weekend of Carol’s and my third wedding anniversary as well as Valentine’s Day, one might expect a fevered explanation regarding timing. But suffice it to say, this was all Carol’s idea, so the why’s and wherefore’s hardly seem to matter, even […]

Carol’s eldest daughter sat down next to me at a recent family dinner, where I’d been maintaining both a stoic and blissful silence. “I know you don’t like conversation, but I understand your next trip is to Portugal.” Now when most people are quizzed about an upcoming European adventure, there is generally an expectation you’ll […]

   I have a new superhero. His name is Otto. As Otto makes clear in the eponymous movie starring Tom Hanks, he is more non-social, rather than anti-social. (He affirms that for me in the scene with the UPS driver, where Otto emphasizes his animosity to the “brown trucks” has nothing to do with race.) […]

   I grew up believing the MLK maxim that the arc of the universe bends toward justice. When the Supreme Court overturned Roe, though, I had another thought. The arc of the universe is actually a sine wave, not an arc. It oscillates back and forth, not bending to anywhere. It might be better in the […]

   Volts divided by watts equals amps. I’ve learned that now, even though I wouldn’t know a watt from a volt or an amp, were one to suddenly jump out of a wall and bite me in the…    I’d learned this tidy bit of electrical math as a result of a fried electrical outlet. We don’t […]

   Carol was explaining to her daughter a recent couch move in our living room. Pointing toward the end of the couch where I’m normally found and happened to be at that moment, she said, “This one sags.” Mind you, I was wearing a shirt which color matched that of the couch, a shirt that clings […]

   My mother grew up in an orphanage, and my father grew up in the bayous of Louisiana. Both their childhoods spanned the Great Depression. That harshness of that experience did not fade as they slowly clawed their way into a materially sufficient lower middle class. Not wanting their children to go without the way they’d […]

   Carol came into the living room smiling. “I just won $10 tickets to Hamilton for next Thursday.” You might think that direct quote should have been punctuated with an exclamation point. I mean it’s Hamilton, not Guys and Dolls, The Fantastics or Cats. I’ve seen it twice on stage myself and still can’t get enough. […]

  The Sunday Morning show on CBS ended with images of Britain’s New Forest, historically the first Royal Hunting Ground founded in 1079. What wasn’t  stated was that designating a Royal hunting ground meant that land was now off limits to commoners who had previously used the forest as a source of fuel for heat and […]