While we were rounding Cape Hirn last month, Viking showed the movie Master and Commander, starring Russel Crowe as the captain of a British Naval vessel who is chasing a Spanish galleon through the Southern Ocean waters, trying to capture its prize trade booty before peace got declared back home between their two nations. The concept of rushing to justify larceny rather than anticipating peace was somehow portrayed as noble and manly in an era…
I had an interesting conversation this morning with Mike & Melisa. We are of a like mind about how we each want to maintain the aesthetic “curb appeal” of our homes. Neither of us is trying to sell our properties and neither of us are located on our streets in places that get tons of passerby traffic. So, I think its fair to say that we care about how our properties look for our own…
Jimmy Buffett’s “Margaritaville” is one of the most iconic songs in popular culture, often associated with a carefree, beach-focused lifestyle. The song itself has its own cultural impact that has been substantial and multi-faceted. It defines the “Island Escapism” Lifestyle, crystallizing a specific American fantasy – escaping the rat race for a laid-back tropical paradise where worries melt away with frozen drinks and ocean breezes. In keeping with yesterday’s story, it is, perhaps, the best…
“Of Mice and Men” is a novella written by John Steinbeck and published in 1937. It is set during the Great Depression in the agricultural fields of Northern California, where it follows two migrant ranch workers, George Milton and Lennie Small, who move from place to place in search of job opportunities. They are the real Americans in the heartland during the worst of the Great Depression. That Great Depression was caused by a complex…
You know how some days are just hard to figure out? Are they good days or bad days? I’m a little confused about today, so let me explain. First of all it’s Friday, probably the most popular day of the week because the work week has ended and yet the household chores of Saturday have not begun. I know that young people are starting to push into Thursday night as the big “date night” of…
I started college in August 1971. That was almost after the main protest years of the 1960s had ended…. almost but not quite. The turbulent protest years that characterized the prior decade had peaked in 1969. I always think of the Kent State massacre as that moment. But during the fall of 1971 and the spring of 1972, ostensibly throughout my freshman year, there were still plenty of anti-war protests. As a guy who had…
It’s a rainy day here on the hilltop. It’s been raining steadily all day and without stop, which is unusual. It took a few days to get over my travel drudge, but starting yesterday I have been at full strength and ready to dig into my next projects. Yesterday was about the movies and dinner, but today was supposed to be about getting things done. But instead, I’ve chosen to be prudent and avoid the…
The era of globalization doesn’t have a single, universally agreed-upon starting point, as it evolved gradually through several phases. There was the early globalization (1500s-1800s) that some historians trace to the beginnings to the Age of Exploration and the establishment of maritime trade routes connecting Europe, Asia, Africa, and the Americas. There was also the Columbian Exchange of goods, people, and ideas between hemispheres, marking an early form of global interconnection. The Columbian Exchange was…
I just spent an hour this morning sorting out my folded shirt collection. For the last thirty years (or at least the thirty before I moved out here five years ago) I had all my suits and all my collared. shirts custom-made. This had little to do with an affectation and everything to do with the inability to buy suitable and proper-fitting clothes off the rack. For casual clothes I could find a growing selection…
When I write these stories, I always start with a title and then go rom there. The title is a reflection of what is on my mind and what resonates and sounds “catchy”. Having written 2,400 such stories over the past six and a half years, I have stumbled onto the same title more often than I care to admit. It’s a bit like seeing the edge of your imagination when it happens, but I…