The Toothless Lion Over the course of my drive to Ithaca, I listened to an audio book called River of the Gods by Candice Millard. It is the story of the search for the headwaters of the Nile River in the mid-Nineteenth Century. It was a fascinating book that focused on two explorers I had never heard of before. The main protagonist was Captain Richard Burton and his assistant and nemesis was John Speke. We…
Heading Out to the Rogue’s Harbor This has been the first day of of the grandkids here in Ithaca. While I spent my day getting the carriage house finished from my purge of memorabilia and ready for son Thomas’ arrival tomorrow night, Kim did what Kim loves to do, which is go out and shop for miscellaneous things we need for the weekend. We will have sixteen for the bulk of the holiday weekend, so…
Let ‘Em All Go To Hell Except Cave 76 Do you remember comedy albums? I guess they have been replaced by Comedy Podcasts or Sirius Comedy Radio or maybe the regular Comedy Central not-so-special Specials. Like a good cartoon in my youth that got played over and over again to our glee (Beep! Beep!), where the themes were simple and easy to grasp and the key to most of the humor came in the repetition…
Paging Doctor Cohen with an Assist by Cliff Davis We are spending the weekend at Camp Davis on Lake Ariel in the Poconos, the lovely vacation home of our dear friends Cliff and Linda. I met Cliff and Linda fifty-one years ago on the second floor of University Halls Dormitory number Four (called U-Hall 4 by its denizens). The greatest difference between this U-Hall and the other five identical cinderblock post-WWII buildings was that unlike…
Ten-Digit Dialing I got an interesting notice yesterday from my mobile phone service provider, which happens to be Spectrum (since they offer the Verizon system without the added Verizon cost structure and smarmy, cheating ways as documented in previous stories). The notice was intended for their customers to inform them that from now on there is no such thing as “local calling” and that all calls must heretofore be placed with a full ten-digit number…
The Dead Never Call Yesterday, while driving from Kansas City to Kim’s home town of Wabash, Indiana, I got an email from an old business school pal, Bob. To be fair, Bob has actually been more than a B-school pal, but that is where I first encountered him. I went to business school directly from undergraduate. I took several courses in the last semester of my senior year and then managed to get enough courses…
Big Tree I have written many times about my fascination with trees. Last year I read (or more accurately, listened to) several books about trees and their hidden lives through their root systems and through the fungi that help them communicate with one another. I also recently wrote about hiring a local Consulting Arborist to advise me about my various trees on my property and how best to care for them. I only had him…
Getting Out of Dodge Today we drove from Gallup, New Mexico to Dodge City, Kansas on our way to Kansas City tomorrow. You all remember Dodge City with Marshall Matt Dillon (James Arness), Doc (Millburn Stone), Chester (Dennis Weaver) and Miss Kitty (Amanda Blake) with her Long Branch Saloon. You might also remember the scruffy guy who seemed like a town bum, but would occasionally get deputized. That was Festus (Ken Curtis), who was not…
Rejection Angst Many of us guys have had a lifetime of experience with rejection and should presumably be somewhat immune to it as we reach our retirement years. Not really. It’s not that I fear rejection or anticipate it and thereby avoid situations where it might arise, but when it finds its way to me, I simply don’t like it. Who would? But I keep thinking that I am past needing external validation, and that…
The Day Before the Day Today is a perfect San Diego June day. The sun rose at 5:38am and there was no June Gloom marine layer of mist or fog. The high is projected to be 75 degrees with a humidity level of 50%. By the time the sun sets at 8pm, making today the longest daylight day of the San Diego year, we will be ready for our roadtrip. Technically, the longest day should…