Atlanta, GAMay 4, 2019 “Uh, oh. We better be careful…he’s probably going to editorialize about this evening.” “Don’t worry”, I assured George as we left last night, “I wouldn’t do that…” Much like you should never finalize a deal while riding on the other person’s yacht, you should never take seriously anything uttered after 10pm […]
St. Louis, MOMay 1, 2019 Like a terminal patient who learns he has 90 days to get his affairs in order, but that the prognosis was post-marked three months earlier…you’ll be grateful for the silver lining that I have nothing to write about, but mortified by the cloud bringing you this note anyway. Many of […]
Atlanta, GAMarch 24, 2019 “Do you want to stay?” “Are you kidding me?”, replied my incredulous wife to her dorkish husband. “This is the best part. People ordinarily spend hundreds of dollars to see him.” “Oh.” At that moment, the lights dimmed, fireworks erupted, and Steve Harvey introduced Bruno Mars. I can’t recall the last […]
St Louis, MOMarch 7, 2018 Last week we celebrated the birthdays of two younger members of our clan…and tomorrow honor one who, somehow, while no one was looking, joined the ranks of the older ones. Alexander has turned 18…and Isla, finishing her first year a couple days later, will do so before her weary parents […]
St Louis, MOJanuary 29, 2019 The snow is snowing, the wind is blowing, but I can weather the storm. – Irving Berlin, 1937 Lining the retreat from our arrival gate at Lambert Field, like artillery regiments on the Plains of Abraham, was a cavalcade of jackhammers reverberating with the intensity of amateur archeologists seeking relics of Lewis […]
Atlanta, GADecember 25, 2018 The phantom approached slowly, solemnly, and somberly…its black garment concealing its figure, face, and form. The woman in the bed…visions of sugar plums dancing in her head…heard, felt, and saw nothing. Her middle-aged husband, struggling thru a partial, fitful sleep, woke with a start…and questioned the intruder. “Who are you? Why […]
Chicago, IL December 10, 2018 Some are apparently under the misapprehension that I tend to wield sesquipedalian words and arcane historical references to chop logical weeds from overgrown philosophical paths. Knowing not the source of this baseless charge, I recall Augustus revitalizing Rome, and press ahead, Festina lente, making haste slowly. I am sometimes accused of […]
Chicago, ILDecember 9, 2018 Yesterday almost didn’t happen. Or, better said, it almost didn’t happen yesterday. After having gone years without attending a family wedding, we have now enjoyed two within five months. The first, in San Francisco in July, between Brett and Jennifer, was marvelous in its setting, its convivial atmosphere, and in how […]
St Louis, MONovember 7, 2018 Her own mother, who by all accounts was in the room three score and ten years ago, always acted as if November 10 was the date my mother was born. Official records and embedded tradition favor the 8th. Following established convention, and our impatience to wait two additional days, so […]
Walla Walla, WAJuly 25, 2018 “I am sorry to hear that,” said the insurance agent. “Is everyone OK?” “Yes, everyone is fine. Thank you for asking. We just backed into a pole, so there is damage to the rear bumper and the door to the trunk.” “In which city and state did the accident occur?” […]