Wynken, Blynken, and Nod In 1889, poet Eugene Field, “the poet of childhood” and a man of letters wrote the poem, Wynken, Blynken, and Nod. Field was from a somewhat storied family in Missouri as his father, an attorney, famously represented Dred Scott in his failed attempt to litigate for his and his immediate family’s freedom in 1857. This led to the infamous Dred Scott Decision wherein the Supreme Court ruled 7-2 that he was…
Secret Gardens As I’ve mentioned recently, I characterize my property as having 30 or so separate gardens. Perhaps that’s just a reflection of how easily I can, or cannot, manage the scope of my gardening. But nonetheless, I do attack my gardening in segments that reflect my thinking or at least my aesthetic interests of the moment. I have always thought that compared to many people I have a pretty good three dimensional sensibility about…
The Bestselling of America I just saw this week’s New York Times listing of the top Bestsellers in the non-fiction category in America. The top four books on the list were all pretty much newcomers with three having only one week on the list and the fourth having been on for only its second week. I’m not sure whether that’s normal or unusual, but what does strike me about the top four books is that…
The Birkenstock Dream This evening we are watching a movie we know that we have seen before, but which is less than fully memorable to us since so much of it is subtitled. It is the 2022 film called The Swimmers, and it is a real story about two Syrian girls that are trained Olympic swimmers. It tells the harrowing tale of their escape from war-torn Damascus, leaving their family behind for the time being,…
Feeling Better In my morning review of my normal news feeds, I happened upon an article in Apple News about a 77-year-old bodybuilder named Joan. It seems that she has become somewhat of an Instagram influencer under the heading “trainwithjoan”. Apparently, back when she was 70 or so, she was a bit of a physical mess, declining rapidly into old age and decrepitude…like us all. That was when her daughter, who is a fitness buff,…
Vaxxed Up It’s that time of year again as we head into the Fourth Quarter. There are lots of things that start up at this time of year, but arguably the most important thing to pay attention to is that its time to update all our vaccinations. This year has been a little different than in the past. The last few years its been about getting that damn COVID vaccine and the booster as soon…
Medieval Times When we recently went east for my son Thomas’ wedding, my cousin-in-law Nancy brought me a book she had salvaged from my Ithaca house last year before everything either went out to the estate auction house or the trash. I have worked hard for two years now to get over the circumstances of my exit from that house of mine for 26 years, and I think I am mostly there. But every once…
Generational Warfare I first became aware of the Middle East tensions in 1968. I was on an Italian Line ocean liner heading to Rome to live, and the ship was packed with Americans returning to the region after their summer home leaves or whatnot. The region I refer to was entirety of the Mediterranean area and most of the Middle East and North Africa. Remember that in 1968 the U.S. burgeoning multinational corporations were heavily…
The Big Lie You have to hand it to Donald Trump, he has a habit of always aspiring to be at the top of whatever hill he chooses to climb. Of course, the more accurate way to characterize that would be to say that he always aspires to declare that he is at the top of whatever hill he chooses to say he has climbed. I’m sure the subtlety of what I’m differentiating there is…