Rockin’ Around the Clock Big wall clocks are all the rage it seems. It used to be a somewhat novel thing to have on your wall as an adornment back when you had to root around to find them from some old train station and then figure out how to power them. But now they have been homogenized into a normal Wayfair or Overstock item of which you can choose among literally thousands of styles,…
Pushing the Season During this first trip to NYC in over 6 months, we are staying at the Cornell Club at 44th Street and Fifth Avenue. All the university clubs (except, of course, The University Club, which is further up Fifth Avenue) are on 44th Street between Vanderbilt and 6th Avenue (Avenue of the Americas, for you tourists). There are many notable attractions very close to here, but one of my favorites is Bryant Park.…
The Show Must Go On I am sitting on a redeye flight to New York, headed to a show tonight that Kim is singing in. She has been invited to sing at the Cabaret Convention at Rose Hall of Jazz at Lincoln Center. It’s only one song and its a duet with her pal Lennie (accompanied by Steven), which is a long-time flying configuration for her performances, but it is Lincoln Center and it doesn’t…
The Ebb and the Flow The tides, as we all know, are a direct result to the gravitational pull of the moon, but there is actually a lot more to that. The tides cycle from high to low twice per day even though the moon only passes over any given spot on the earth once per day, so what’s up with that? My earth science training reminds me that the tides are actually influenced by…
Rise and Shine For some strange reason, I have always liked post-apocalyptic movies. That surprises me since I consider myself such an optimistic person. I am also, quite decidedly, an early morning person, which implies that the morning after should be my best moments and not filled with dread. But an apocalypse and any inevitability associated with it cannot be considered anything other than a pessimistic outlook. I suppose you could argue that surviving an…
Being of Service When Kim joined the Hidden Meadows Women’s Club, she did so because she very much wanted to make more friends in the local community. She came back from the first meeting with a positive report that she felt there were many potential new friends to be had in the Club. One of the first things she did was to volunteer to have the next meeting of the group at our house. It…
A Prelude to War Frank Capra won an Academy Award in 1942 for his production of his Office of War Information documentary. It was used first to pump up the soldiers in the armed forces that were heading into the war effort after the attack at Pearl Harbor. And then it was shown widely to the American people so as to get everyone on the same page about exactly why we as Americans were doing…
The Boys Are Back in Town Unlike Fred MacMurray, I do not have three sons (aka My Three Sons, the Americana TV series that ran throughout the 1960’s), but I do have two sons and they are just about all I can handle. They are two dramatically different individuals separated by thirteen years and two separate mothers. I can triangulate a few traits that they each have based on their mothers’ characteristics, but I would…
The Plot Thickens I am going to tell a tall tale here that is, unfortunately, all too true, or as Madeline Kahn said in Blazing Saddles, “It’s Twue, it’s Twue!” As I take on my Fireside Theater/Nick Danger/Dashiell Hammett/Sam Spade persona, I can’t help but think of Woody Allen’s Manhattan Murder Mystery when he tells his wife (Diane Keaton) that if she doesn’t follow his orders to not go snooping in the neighbor’s apartment, he…
Seeing Beauty I like living in California. There are many reasons for that, not the least of which is that I like the politics of the state, which, while it has its fair share of less than liberal areas, is, for the most part, very liberal. I can’t imagine how hard it must be to live in a state that wants to suppress voting or is prepared to mandate things like abortion denial, not only…