(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 […]

I feel a little divorced from reality this morning- suspended in air, if you will. I could chalk it up to aphelion, the longest point out there of the elliptical orbit of the earth around the sun. It is one of those paradoxical facts that it is going to be the hottest week of the […]

An alert pal commented yesterday on the topic of numbers. They are all wrong, as you are probably aware. Well, they are saying this is going to be the hottest week of the year, and I do have a relative confidence in the sweat factor of Northern Virginia. But specifically, Mr. Bernanke at the Federal […]

I have been wasting my time on a piece I am not going to do anything with, since the Big Pink 2013 Pool Party was last night, and we were drinking tequila and making merry. I came up from the farm to attend- I am the pool deck mayor emeritus, after all, and this is […]

The Weber Genesis Grill is up and running at Refuge Farm, a triumph of proven American technology. Like the Zippo lighter and the Harely-Davidson motorcycle, it is a design for the ages. It is the last capital improvement for Refuge Farm. The old grill, heaved over the railing, was one of those Charmglow pieces of […]