For the last ten years I have been driving into An American Garage that had never been painted. Yes, there was 20 year old dry wall which had been taped when it was built but it was, you know, a garage. We don’t live in the garage. I finally reached the ‘tipping point’ – got […]
It’s Saturday evening, September 11, 2010. A few hours ago, looking for something to watch on TV, I happened across the Weather Channel, which at the time was playing a program about the evacuation of Dunkirk, France, May 27 – June 3, 1940. It was an incredible rescue, thanks to a nine-day break in often […]
Today is September 11. 9-11. Why the title “September 16 and 20, 2001”? September 11, 2001, was a Tuesday, and by the next Sunday, September 16, the initial shock had largely worn off, though confusion reigned. (A good illustration of what was happening comes from a chart I’d seen many years earlier, where a normal […]
When I was growing up in the 1940s and 50s, we would occasionally go to visit my Dad’s parents in Grafton ND. While there, one of the certain trips was to the city park, Leistikow Park, on the bank of the Park River. It was an awesome place in the eyes of small town kids […]
Last night on the national news of one of the Big Three (CBS, NBC, ABC) I watched a reporter contextualize for viewers the conflict over allowing 2000-era federal tax cuts to sunset (expire) for those earning over $250,000 a year. The over-$250,000 group is said to represent about 2% of American taxpayers. For the rest […]
Today – September 8, 2010 – Rene Collette of Lemon Grove CA is 90. These days, 90 is “just like a kid” in some contexts, another year hardly worthy of notice. Rene is definitely worthy of notice, any year, any time. The family invitation says “Rene [as in the French pronunciation wren-a] chose not to […]
Most Sundays the patrons of “my” local coffee shop will hear a somewhat odd trio in conversation along the east (street side) wall. Commanding one table is a retired middle manager of a major international corporation, someone who was fairly high up in the food chain in an important division of his company. At the […]
Related post Nov. 14, 2010 here. The abundant insanity (that’s what it is – insanity) around the proposed (and approved) Islamic Center in lower Manhattan caused me to revisit a significant time in my youth. In the summer of 1953 I was about to enter 8th grade. We had moved to the tiny village of […]
A couple of national surveys in the past week have caused me to think back to a conversation in Minneapolis in mid-December, 2009. I had gone to the premiere business club in Minneapolis to hear a panel discussion on Minnesota politics. It was a breakfast meeting, and I sat down. Presently, someone joined me. The […]
Two years ago today – it was the day after Labor Day, 2008 – eight of us got up very early, and made our way over to Concordia University in St. Paul, to make final preparations for, and open, the Peace Island Conference, sponsored by the Minnesota Alliance of Peacemakers. It turned out to be […]