St Louis, MO and Atlanta, GAMarch 21, 2019 I apparently have my own personal driver. Or, at least it seems I do. Stepping from the lobby of the Ritz, I was for the third consecutive morning greeted by the same Lyft driver. Eric, like many residents of this venerable Midwestern city, has lived in St […]
St Louis, MO March 19, 2019 The last couple weeks we reflected how quickly our sons have grown. We acknowledged that one is now a legal adult. He can refuse to abide his parents’ restrictive regulations and, like a feisty 19th century European colony, shed the shackles (and support) of the Mother country…and try to […]
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 […]
New Orleans, LA February 20, 2019 The drive from Paris to Onzain takes just under two hours, but provides a wonderful…albeit superfluous…excuse to stop for an afternoon in the delightful town of Orléans. Eighteen years ago, on an excursion among the grand châteaux of the Valois, Rita and I were almost there much longer than that. […]
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, GAJanuary 1, 2019 We look back at 2018 with apprehension and a whiff of disdain, but only briefly…like glancing over our shoulder to change lanes in heavy traffic…before hitting the gas and leaving it in the dust. Not that 2018 was without it’s moments. Amid the squalls, buoyant waves periodically raised us from an […]
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IL December 10, 2018 Some are apparently under the misapprehension that I tend to wield sesquipedalian words and arcane historical references to chop logical weeds from overgrown philosophical paths.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 […]
Atlanta, GA November 22, 2018 Our Senior Vice President of International Finance scrolled the résumé, flipped the page, continued her futile scanning, then looked up at me quizzically. “I am looking for your Spanish skills.” “Oh…well…I admit I’m not fluent, but do know some and am able to learn. Meanwhile, I am fully capable of […]