Entries by dickbernard

Sondergard and the Mn Orch

For years we’ve subscribed to short season (usually 6 concerts) of the Minnesota Orchestra, a magnificent band! This mornings Minneapolis Star Tribune, page one, featured the debut of a new conductor.  As the review in the Variety section headlines: “Thomas Sondergard makes an epic debut”. Here’s the front page photo: Here’s the program descriptor of […]

Vladivostok, and other things.

I’m ending this week with ‘miscellany’ – there’s far too much going on to write about everything.  Here goes: VLADIVOSTOK Earlier this week, Kim Jong Un and Vladimir Putin met near Vladivostok, Russia. I am a long-ago Geography Major.  Back then – the 50s – I would only have known it had to be a […]

9-11-01 revisited

POSTNOTE: Chuck W sent his own blog commentary, which can be accessed here. * Today is the 22nd anniversary of 9-11-01.  It was a Tuesday. Over the years, I have written often about aspects of 9-11 and its profound impact on me, personally, but I wondered, this year, why the attention?  It is, after all, […]

Rewiring America

An unwritten rule of the road in these parts is don’t mess with summer, which ends with Labor Day.  Makes sense to us. So, when we met J. Drake Hamilton of Fresh Energy on August 18, I said I wouldn’t pass information along till September.  By our Minnesota rule-of-thumb it’s now Fall. We’ve been a […]

School 2023-24

Yesterday, the day after Labor Day, was the first day of school here.  At my coffee place, the Blackboard had been cleaned and a question for the day appeared: The previous day, I’d stopped by the Middle School where my daughter is Principal, and gave her my more or less annual calendar taken at the […]

A New Flag for Minnesota?

PRE-NOTE: I have made additions to the posts for August 11 (Lahaina), August 22 (Ukraine) and August 24 (Stairs).  Access through archive at right on this page. * A current important issue in Minnesota is the design of the Minnesota state emblem.  More on that below. One week ago I was at Huot MN, a […]

The Stairs…1940

August 31 additions follow the photo.  Two earlier posts: Lahaina(8/11/23), and Ukraine (8/22/23), are available here.  Both solicit comments, and are thus incomplete. This is a work in progress – check back in a week.  The General topic of “The Stairs” is here, handwritten, brief: Dick B 1940.  As noted, this in the 1940th post […]

Ukraine Visitors

Added September 5, 2023: from Minneapolis Sunday Tribune September 3, 2023: Ukraine kids 2023 STrib 9 3 23 Added August 31, 2023: A few of us who visited with the Ukraine students added comments after the gathering.  Mine is the last one of this group. from Martha: The Hopkins t-shirt [ln one of the visitors?] […]

Lahaina, Maui, Hawaii

Added August 31, 2023: It has been three weeks since the catastrophic Lahaina fire.  It essentially has disappeared from news, replaced by the latest headline this morning “Idalia slams into Florida, Georgia”, and on the TV talk about how Congress may resist disaster relief – too expensive, too many.  And the narrative about climate change…or […]

August 6&9, 1945: Reflecting

Aug. 9, 1945 was Nagasaki – 78 years ago.  Today’s post reflects briefly on “78”. First, Speaking personally: war is insanity, period.  It is never a solution.   The winner of one war, can expect another war to follow.  The saying “What goes around, comes around” comes to mind.  Having said that, there have always […]