The Week of Living Dangerously In 1965 he was your foreign correspondent in Jakarta covering the political machinations of a desperate dictatorship in decline. He looked a lot like Mad Max back then and his squeeze, Sigourney, was his reminder of the power and yet fleeting nature of empire as she tried to use the British Embassy as her base station. Those were the days when you had a whole year to play out…
Triangulating Friendships Last night Kim and I had drinks and dinner with an unusual kluge of friends. They themselves are not unusual, but the connections are a bit complicated. Tricia worked for me in 1981 in the early days of Bankers Trust. She was fresh out of school and both impressionable and eager to learn about the world. Her husband Sam, who came along years after Tricia and I had parted ways, came to…
Suffering Succotash My first recollection when I thought of this title was Snagglepuss, the pink, high-falutin, well-dressed cat who thinks of himself as a great thespian (Thay that with a listhp). But Snagglepuss was the cartoon character who most often said, “Heavens to Murgatroyd!”, with a slight Bronx accent. And who can forget his stage-craft with the phrase I find I use all the time, “Exit, stage left!” But Snagglepuss had no appetite for lima…
Hiding in the Dark This morning I did my usual few hours of work on my computer in our study, which is an interior room without windows. I work in the bowels of the building where little can disturb my concentration and I stare at the screen or the wall (albeit I am listening to MSNC on the TV in the corner, but that is hardly a distraction any more, more like an oxygen hose…
Getting Smaller I was watching an obscure little film from 1993 called Indian Summer. It had a great cast with Alan Arkin, Diane Lane, Matt Craven, Bill Paxton (RIP) and Kevin Pollak. It is another Big Chill movie with a summer camp twist. I am sure many can relate to the ensemble of characters and roles, not to mention the reminiscences of summer camp summers past. At one point in the story, there is a…
Edgy Ageism Week Two of the Grand Hibernian Tour is underway. What distinguished this week from last is that the participants are, for the most part, from my wife Kim’s side of the ledger. Siblings, friends from Wabash, Indiana (the ancestral spawning-ground of the Grogg Clan), Theater friends (Showboat, State Fair, Gypsy and Lennie’s Wild Mouse Ride) and a googly-eyed nephew and his beloved Ashley. My friends on this voyage, besides all the befriending I…
Flags of the Realm In case you haven’t been paying attention, we are in Ireland for a few weeks. The length of a vacation is a tricky thing. It seems like the biggest risk is to under-book and leave yourself wishing you had a few more days wherever you are off to. That is certainly less than ideal since fulfillment versus being left wanting does help soothe the demons within. I went a lot to…
The Keogh Connection The Keogh family of Killarney is a long-standing part of County Kerry and has had great influence on all of Ireland and, indeed, all of modern civilization. Its descendants include a young lass, Fancy Nancy, who hails from Ithaca, New York, and who has come back to Ireland and County Kerry in search of her roots. Of course the irony in all of that is that her roots are firmly entrenched in…
Tir na nOg In the land of Tir na nOg there lived a faery that wore size 14W Adventure Crocs. Some would call him an ogre and some would call him Grumpy Gramps. What was clear was that he enjoyed feasting on the stories of the realm of the Otherworld, the place where the faeries lived and heroes visited on quests of honor. Tir an nOg was a place just outside the realm of man,…
Virgin Slave Ship I begin by acknowledging that I will never evoke one gram of sympathy for the plight I will be describing in this story. I am officially on vacation as of three hours ago. We are on our way to Ireland for two weeks with all sorts of family and friends. I booked this trip and the house we have rented nine months ago and made a point of booking the flights at…