Entries by dickbernard

Dec. 7, 1941 & The World Is My Country

I begin Pearl Harbor Day with a commentary entitled “This Particular Civil War”.  Read it later, but please read it, and think about its implications for all of us. This Dec. 7, I ask readers to watch a movie, and think about how it applies to all of us, in the present day. * This […]

A Million Copies

Two years ago today was not a usual day.  I spent it mostly unconscious, in open heart surgery at Fairview Hospital in Edina MN.  There are endless veterans of similar experiences.  We survive, or don’t; there is a long period of recovery which works or doesn’t. I’m two years older; I think my surgery worked […]

Technology

One year ago this time of year, was one of the worst times of my life.  I usedcomputer a lot, innocently, and I was maliciously and viciously hacked.  It wasn’t till the end of January 2020 that I was back in business, older and hopefully wiser. It is not easy to be ‘wiser’.  Most recently, […]

Travels

Related posts Nov. 22 and 26. Today is the return trip after Thanksgiving.  Despite warnings around Covid-19, many travelled, now returning home.  This seems a good day to reconstruct some travel in the old days, and this U.S. map, in a ca 1941 Shell Oil road map of Iowa, show the U.S. in those days […]

Gatherings

At my Thanksgiving post a couple of days ago, my brother, John asked me a family history question in the comments section.  I answered the question as best I could.  Thinking about this business of family and Thanksgiving got me to thinking about family gatherings generally in the old days. Luckily, the families from which I […]

Thanksgiving 2020

I’m an ordinary citizen.  At this difficult time, there are so many people who support, in a great many ways, my own life and those of every one of us.  All of them deserve our profound thanks.  Let that suffice.  Happy Thanksgiving.  With gratitude. Friend Molly periodically sends favorite poetry to a list of friends, […]

Lifetime

Today as part of my daily drive I went by Lifetime Fitness, which had been my daily haunt till Covid-19 closed it in mid-March. I took a photo. The parking lot was active this day, though Lifetime will again close as of midnight.  Like other businesses it was closed a few months and then reopened […]

Tonight (Wed 11/18) 7-9 p.m.

How do we know Fascism when we see it?. Tonight. Online, no cost. A program of the Weisman Art Museum at the University of Minnesota.   I have commented on this before, here. This is an appropriate topic of interest today, and this is reflected in the media. Sunday afternoon I saw a long program on […]

First Thoughts after the 2020 Election: “Team USA”?

This is the first of what will likely be several followup posts on Election 2020 and the future.  Previous post here. First, a commentary and several on-line events, all open to the public and I highly recommend: This morning, a hard-hitting, easy read, here. Recently, a. highly respected group I’m part of, Fresh Energy, had […]

Armistice Day

Directly related post here. * Wednesday, Nov. 11, became Armistice Day when the end of World War I was declared as the 11th hour of the 11th day of the 11th month Nov. 11, 1918.  In the United States, in 1954, it was renamed “Veterans Day”. My mother, in her memories of the North Dakota […]