I swear, if I have to drive Up North in one shot again I will slit my wrists. I am getting too old for that, but don’t have enough time to make it a relaxed two-day trip with a stay in a dump motel in Elyria, Ohio in the middle. That is one reason why […]

(2005: The Renaissance Center, home of the 2011 IT conference, rises behind the ruins of the Detroit Screw Works factory. Built in the aftermath of the 1967 riots that finished off the central city, the original design featured a gigantic concrete berm that sealed the complex off from the anarchy of the streets. Photo DetroitYes.) […]

I wish I had some more time this morning. I would tell you how good it was to stumble upon Death Junior and Doctor D at Willow last night. They were taking a welcome break from the business of death over at Murphy’s Funeral Home, and were drinking something pink in large tumblers. I was […]

The big line of thunder-bumpers rolled through Arlington after I got home, followed by a cold front and night-time temperatures that hovered above freezing but at something less than cozy. When I checked the temperature this morning, it was just about dead-even with Stockholm. I sighed, filled with regret that I cannot tell all the […]

Eddie the Docent waved elegantly to the crowd of tourists, some covered in oil, who stood around the Hemingway dining table under the fine Venetian glass chandelier favored by Ernie’s second wife Pauline. “He won the Pulitzer Prize for The Old Man and the Sea,” part of a somewhat disjointed narrative caused by the linear […]

It was good to be back at Willow. Elisabeth-with-an-S was at her elegant and solicitous best; her movements graceful behind the bar as she topped off my first glass of happy Hour white. Old Jim was presiding at his accustomed spot at the corner of the L of the bar. The Johns- the one with […]

I could not have done it by myself. I have to thank S&M and key family members and business associates for their help. All of them are about the best that there is, in terms of pals, and I would have to thank the Government for getting me to the pastel palace of south Florida […]

Miami is not one of the places I would have thought about spending the day honoring Saint Patrick. I remember it traditionally as a raw early Spring day up north, with luck accompanied by some sun and a light jacket, and without luck, gray and wet both inside and out. In Chicago they have turned […]

They say what goes to Vegas ought to stay in Vegas. Normally, I am in complete sympathy with that approach. After all, the innocent should be protected, and the wicked should be left where they can be scourged on their own account. But this was innocent enough, and besides, you don’t know Tom, a swell […]

There are Ides of all the months, so unless you are Julius Caesar, I would not worry about it this morning. Or Muhamar Qaddafy, but he seems to have kept his self-esteem thing going pretty well, along with his attack helicopters and imported Taureg mercenaries. I worry a bit about the Libyan rebels, since I […]