Today is Halloween. Down at my coffee place, Caribou Coffee in Woodbury, the trivia question of the day was this: The tradition of Jack-o-Lantern to ward off spirits is thousands of years old. Which vegetable were they originally made? a) squash b) pumpkin c) turnip d) melons I guessed correctly and got my 10 cent […]
The “filing cabinet” for Minnesota Orchestra matters is found at August 30, 2013, here. This post also appears in the Blog Cabin Roundup of MinnPost for Nov. 1, 2013 A friend in Chicago area wrote today about the Minnesota Orchestra situation: “WHAT A TRAGIC TURN OF EVENTS for all concerned!!” Along with her note came […]
About a year ago I decided to translate my college years (1958-61) to a blogpost for posterity. The results can be seen here. Initially, my intent was to send my musings around to a few people I remembered from those long ago days, and certainly there was no intent for the post to be as […]
Friday evening my 88 year old Uncle and I went down the hall to visit his sister and my aunt in the Memory Care unit at the Nursing Home/Assisted Living facility in a small rural North Dakota community. It was a short trip, under a single roof. My Aunt, at 93, is most likely not […]
Last night I was returning from a meeting and happened across a portion of a speech President John F. Kennedy had given on this date, 50 years ago, one month before his death. The 24 minute speech, to the National Academy of Science, is archived on YouTube, accessible here. This is worth a reflective listen. […]
The ten days between Friday, October 11, and Monday, October 21, were fascinating ones for this, yes, “old-timer”. (I put those words in quotations because it’s all relative: the day I pass on, at whatever age that happens to be, there’ll be somebody who will have just said “he was just a kid”; on the […]
UPDATE Oct. 23, 2013: There are a half dozen comments to this post. They are included at the end. As I noted to one reader, I could have gone on at much greater length about this aspect, or that, of this most complicated topic, but chose to keep my thoughts somewhat brief. As is also […]
PRE-NOTES: Directly related to the below post is this one published two days ago, on “Conversation”. Overnight came a long and excellent rendering of what is happening in Washington now. The first three paragraphs of the post catch the essence. * “You cannot negotiate with people who say what’s mine is mine and what’s yours […]
Long-time journalist on politics, Eric Black, published a most interesting column in the October 7 MinnPost. Mr. Black has built a very strong positive reputation over many years as a reporter on politics in this region. He continues writing in retirement. Succinctly, Black watched the 14 minute interview of John Boehner by George Stephanopoulos Sunday, […]
NOTE: Permanent “file cabinet” on the Orchestra issue is here. Twenty-four hours before I found my seat at the Ted Mann Concert Hall Saturday evening October 5, I was at the closing reception at the Will Steger Exhibit at the Minnesota College of Art and Design. I was fascinated by the artifacts, and at 7:20 […]