(Top left, a 1990 view of the spire of the Church of the Nativity, a creation of the 3rd Century anno domini. Below left is where the rental car was parked with a few others on the Square that day. At the upper right is the antechamber below the Church designed to accommodate many more people […]

(This is Grandma’s House in Massillon, Ohio. She loved it almost as much as she loved us). It is Christmas Day. We are in the new condo in Big Pink, and shivering as that big blue air mass slides across the midsection of this nation. We had some of the old files open to see […]

24 December 1977 Merry Christmas! We ran across this image this week. It brought back memories about the old Christmas Card Production ritual. Remember? The gathering of the clan, the photo-taking, address lists, writing the letter, printing at the photo-shop downtown, and finally the trip to the Post Office. Given the enormous changes in our world, […]

The title this morning came from a minor disagreement out on the balcony at Big Pink just before dawn. There is plenty of stuff to get excited about, and word from the Chairman’s staff was to “keep it upbeat and celebrate the season.” We are in favor of that, but that gentle management admonition turned […]

Joy for the holidays! The to-do list is virtually complete. Except we are running out of ‘gates’ to use. We did the Water-one a long while ago, and everything else after that has been tried. Russia was popular for a while. This morning we are trying “Qatar” and “Morocco,” even if we were not certain […]

02 February 2009 (Middle and right: Mac and John, 2009). “If the Army and the Navy Ever look on Heaven’s Scenes They will find the streets well-guarded by The United States Marines.” There is a big Canadian blast of cold air coming our way on this approach of the holidays. As our title this morning […]

As you know, there has been another war in Eastern Europe going on for over ten months now. I was a remote participant in the one before that, and our pal Mac Showers had been there for one of the key moments in post-World War II history. I was writing a book on Mac’s remarkable […]