(Presidential Press Spokesman Jay Carney, who apparently has no problems sleeping. It is part of his six-step program. Photo AP) Most of my pals have stopped making jokes about the NSA Internet surveillance program, even as Congress got around to narrowly permitting it to continue yesterday. For a while we were including a wave to […]

(This Thanksgiving’s dinner walking by Natasha’s kitchen window. Photo Natasha). “I am the first one to admit I am no farmer,” I said, taking a sip of happy Hour White. “I don’t even have a tractor.” Boats looked pensive. “You have not even defined your requirements,” he said. “Do you really need a tractor? What […]

(This is the team from the Rustico Restaurant. I saw somethings that would have got my vote immediately. I was in Hoosierland for the BRGR Battle Cook-off in Ballston. Photo Willow.) It is summertime, and the living is easy. Well, sort of. I received a pair of troubling notes yesterday. The first was the announcement […]

The guys were in the truck somewhere behind me on Route 29. I stopped at the ATM at the local bank so I could tip them once the load of crap was distributed and the hold-baggage matter was resolved. I sometimes wish I was a turtle, so I could just carry my whole house on […]

(Noel Coward, urbane composer of the classic “Just One of Those Things.”) “There are influential people out there who would like you to believe that Detroit’s demise is fundamentally a tale of fiscal irresponsibility and/or greedy public employees. It isn’t. For the most part, it’s just one of those things that happens now and then […]

(The Side Table at the AMO banquet last night. My Hoosier pals the Fougerousse’s are left, with Mayor Norm and the Harrington’s to his right.) I woke in Indiana this morning, and there are several hundred miles between me and the Big Pink pool, so perforce, I will be brief before I commence to flogging […]

  I did not know where I was this morning when I woke. Nothing unusual there, since now that Refuge Farm has become a legitimate alternate location it is quite normal to have the daily routine turned quite on its head. I am near Detroit- Life is good out here, away from Kevin Orr and […]

  I have to drive west to attend a Rambler car show in the Hoosier State- a strange thing, but I will explain tomorrow. I am going to wave to Detroit as I go by. It will be another hot day, and I am taking the last of a dozen eggs to fry on the hood of […]

(Natashas’s first pickles of the season, from garden to Ball Jar in less than an hour). This unemployed thing is way too busy for me. I got a fabulous swim in the sparkling blue Big Pink pool in the afternoon. It was a sunny day in the soggy mid-90s. I got in a run to […]

  (People of a certain age who have- or had- internet accounts at AOL.) If you have even a passing interest in the ongoing circus that is America these days, you probably have heard of the massive cyber assault by the Chinese on just about every aspect of our pubic life. It is much cheaper […]