Cornell University, which has one of the most highly regarded food science programs in the United States, is our group’s school of choice, As I mentioned yesterday, six of us attended Cornell, my mother also attended and I was a member of the faculty for ten years as a Clinical Professor. Cornell’s College of Agriculture and Life Sciences houses their Department of Food Science, which is indeed considered among the top food science programs globally.…
Gibberish refers to speech or writing that is meaningless, incomprehensible, or nonsensical. It’s language that sounds like it might mean something but actually doesn’t convey any real information or message. There is technical gibberish, which is when someone uses complex jargon or technical terms incorrectly or excessively, making their speech incomprehensible to others. Like throwing around buzzwords without substance. Then there is baby talk or developmental gibberish, which is babbling sounds infants make before they…
Marijuana usage has been a part of my consciousness ever since I was about fifteen. That was, after all, the peak of the hippie countercultural movement of the late 60s. For one reason or another, in my family, the impact fell very little on me or my oldest sister Kathy (we are only three years apart), but fell very heavily on my middle sister, Barbara. All of her friends were heavily into drugs where none…
I am sitting here in my garden on my hilltop in the middle of summer of my 71st year. I can hear some distant traffic noises but mostly I’m in the quiet of the garden with all sorts of birds chirping and singing and generally going about their morning routines. I have come down to the lower garden with my vinegar sprayer to beat back the incessant arrival of weeds. It’s what I would call…
I am two days away from going to San Diego Airport to pick up my daughter Carolyn, her husband, John, and our two granddaughters, Charlotte and Evelyn. They will be with us out here on the hilltop for the month of July, as they have for the two prior summers. The trauma of my separation from my property on the edge of the Cornell campus (a tale of woe I have long since explained and…
If you Google or AI the word “Gubins”, it will tell you that it must be a proper noun or slang since there is no known definition in any recognizable language. I like the sound of that. I have been using the name Gubins for my dear and yet-to-be-able-to-reason charges. That means my kids, my grandkids and now, Buddy. For some reason, I have always found calling some little irrational beast a Gubins suited the…
When I was in school 50+ years ago, we all adhered to the notion that Ithaca was the second least sunny city in America behind Seattle. We all acknowledged that Ithaca was lovely in the summer, but most of us were busy elsewhere during that glorious season. So, to most of us, being in Ithaca meant we hunkered down to our studies and expected nothing of the weather to contribute to our enjoyment of life.…
Today is our day in Brooklyn. We stopped here to see our two granddaughters and my daughter Carolyn and husband John. They live a short walk from our hotel in Red Hook, so after breakfast in the hotel dining room, we headed over with a small suitcase of laundry in tow to do. It was like the prodigal son returning home from college with his dirty laundry, only this time it was the prodigal father…
We are heading into the last few days of our trip. We’ve made the crossing without incident and will spend a day in Brooklyn to see the granddaughters and daughter Carolyn and John. We’ve booked a local hotel within walking distance from their duplex and will launch our roadtrip to Ithaca on Thursday. I’m going up for my 50th undergraduate reunion and will spend several days communing with all my college friends. The inner circle…
Way back in the last Millennium, I had the good fortune to get introduced to an opportunity to invest in a young start-up company that was raising money. The introducer was my long-time banking partner, Bruce, who may be one of the smartest finance professionals I ever met. The 1990s for me were the years of banking wine and roses. I was a partner and member of the management committee of one of the most…