The Mouth of Truth During high school, there were several “low hanging fruit” ways we would do what young men all over the world try to do, which was to meet young women. When you are an expat living in Rome you have several distinct advantages. The first is that there are a constant year-round flow of American young women traveling either with or without their families around Europe, and no trip to Europe is…
Getting Pickled I am writing this story on Sunday night, knowing that it will publish on Wednesday morning. That timing is relevant since when most people read this, Kim and I will be off getting pickled. Couples in retirement have many different ways of operating. In general I think it is fair to say that most couples try to balance individual activities with couples activities. It’s really not good to operate like working couples who…
Day Labor Tomorrow I will start my day by driving over to Home Depot in San Marcos and hiring two day laborers to help me advance the ball on my Hobbit House project. Today, Handy Brad came over for an hour or so and we discussed what had to happen next. He thought we were going to carry the wall frames down and attach them to the railroad tie foundation. I knew that would probably…
The New Bicoastal My head is back on Staten Island all of a sudden. I want to be careful in what I say because for the most part, we were very well treated on Staten Island and we tried to be good citizens who engaged with the community for the three years we lived there. I don’t think those were our favorite times for many reasons, some which are intertwined with the Borough and some…
Words and Pictures I have stumbled on a movie tonight that has happened at a moment when I have realized that after being ahead of myself on these stories for a dry long time, I have run the kettle dry. I just published a story for tomorrow morning and have to get a jump on Saturday’s story and then Sunday’s, etcetera, etcetera. How unusual that I should stumble on this particular movie staring Clive Owen…
Tho Tho Thore Do you remember that old superhero joke about Thor, the God of lightning and thunder that wields his mighty hammer across the heavens? He wakes up after a drunken one-night stand somewhere on the other side of the tracks in Valhalla and has the familiar awkward issue of waking up in some unknown mere mortal’s boudoir. So, he stands up and does what a Germanic God of mythology is supposed to do,…
Ethical Dilemma As I prepare for my ethics course starting in a month, I am spending time thinking about the root issues of business ethics and how best to present and then teach that material to best effect. I’m fairly clear that the best method will be to force debates that engage the students and make them think through the issues I define for them. Obviously, I want to provide a framework and guidance on…
Back on the Hilltop We flew in from Florida yesterday and I cannot express how good it felt to get back home. I know that especially as we age, we become more inclined to being homebodies, but in addition to that and being around all my “stuff” (as the great George Carlin would say), I have also genuinely come to love the climate and environs of our San Diego hilltop. I have spent my life…
Life As I Know It It is the morning of January 6, 2022, so I am both keeping an eye on the news for any important developments, but at the same time I do not want to engross myself in the ongoing and continuous rehashing of the January 6th Insurrection that took place a year ago today. It is less that I don’t want to hear it or want to somehow ignore it, but rather…
On the Water Today we are spending the day with Frank and Barbara at their recently purchased home in Daytona Beach Shores. It has been explained to me that the Gulf Stream that hugs the Eastern Coast of Southern Florida, departs and heads out to the deep blue Atlantic somewhere around Jupiter, where I was a day ago. That means that the weather up here in Daytona is supposedly markedly cooler than it is down…