Das Boat Narrative nonfiction is a particularly pleasing form of writing to me. Many people would agree that there are more than enough true stories to fill our imaginations and that we don’t need fiction to lift our hearts. I have never been particularly good at writing fiction. I don’t think its a lack of imagination, but rather a lack of interest in factionalizing from scratch. I have been known to embellish a story to…
Breaking Bad I am fifteen years behind in finally watching Breaking Bad, but I have now done it over the past few weeks and I see what all the fuss was about since it was a riveting series. I am a big fan of strong titling and I must admit that this title always intrigued me because it was never clear form the outside exactly what it meant. The implication was that someone (presumably Walter…
The McRib Mystery I first met McDonalds in 1961 in Madison, Wisconsin, where they had been present since 1957. There were only 150 McDonalds outlets then and they were mostly in the Midwest given Ray Kroc’s home in the suburbs of Chicago. Of course, as most of us know, the franchise actual began in San Bernardino, California where the McDonald brothers first set up shop. I distinctly remember going to McDonalds with my mother and…
Living to 100 My mother was born in 1916 and died in early 2017. She made it to 100 and six months. This week, I noted that Henry Kissinger died at the age of 100 and six months. I recently watched a recent interview with Kissinger and with all due respect to my mother, who remained intellectually sharp until only a few years before her death, I must say that Kissinger at 100 seemed as…
Goodbye Beauregard Cartier Two months ago when Betty left us, I was certain on only one thing and that was that we would sooner or later get another dog to replace her. When Cecil left us it took Kim about two months to deicide she wanted to go in search of a new dog, and that’s when Betty came along. This time we were not inclined to act so fast because we are going on…
Fire And Ice Kim had her annual gala for Singnasium, the New York based cabaret singing school of which she is the founding and now outgoing President of the Board. I have told her dozens of times that as the head of the Board and not an employee, she should not be the President but rather the Chairperson of the Board, but that has all fallen on deaf ears. These are cabaret people after all…
Cold To The Bone After leaving the tropics in 1961, weeks moved to Madison Wisconsin, where in the early weeks of winter that year, the temperature got down to a frigid 40 degrees below zero. That was a rude awakening for a kid that was used to going on summer holiday in December and struggled to bother to wear shoes. Wisconsin is in that frozen upper Midwest region where cold is a way of life.…
Extravaganza Yesterday, after our family gathering at Morton’s in midtown Manhattan (the Cornell Club private rooms were not available on a Sunday), we took most of the assembled masses to Radio City Music Hall for the Christmas Spectacular Show extravaganza. We don’t go to the show there every year, but have gone many times over the years. This show, or a form of it, has been playing in Radio City Music Hall since 1933. They…
Urban Gentility I am in the least friendly place of my life when it comes to Cornell University. The wounds of my ouster from my 25-year home on the edge of campus in Ithaca have pretty much faded, even though I get the occasional blast from the past. Recently I heard that my long-time neighbor and friend with the unique name of Clover Drinkwater has gotten crosswise with the current inhabitants due to an AirBnB…
Time Travel I have never been a fan of movies that deal with the issue of time travel. The old standard of H.G. Well’s The Time Machine was OK and I must admit I enjoyed the Back to the Future series, but by the time The Terminator came around, I found it was all getting too hard to suspend disbelief. The one that really pushed me over the edge was The Curious Case of Benjamin…