Free Nelson Mandela Free free Free free free Nelson Mandela Free Nelson Mandela 21 years in captivity Shoes too small to fit his feet His body abused, but his mind is still free You’re so blind that you cannot see Free Nelson Mandela Visited the causes at the AMC Only one man in a large […]

Well, I blew off some steam this morning with a flash of exchanges with the usual suspects, starting long before dawn. I will not burden you with the spleen. Catharsis is good, though I have found it is not necessarily good for reading. Anyway, there is a story on which I am working that is […]

I have taken a certain solace in writing about things that have nothing whatsoever to do with politics, but when you hang around a place that is all politics all the time, it is hard to avoid tripping over it. You have heard the talking points already this week. I was talking about it with […]

During the time I was doing the 800 mile round trips to Petoskey, I began to get muscle memory of little places like Cranberry, PA, and Strongsville and Elyria, OH, as refuges from the Turnpike. It was always a relief to get clear of those pesky low Appalachian mountains, punching through Hole in the Wall […]

There was a time in my life, a long time ago, when I thought I might have a talent for stratigraphy. It was a lower-level geology course in which the concept was introduced to us through analysis of sedimentary and layered volcanic rocks. Looking at the folds and thrusts in the rock was like being […]

Cattywampus: ADV. Performed in a non-straightforward manner; approached from an unexpected angle; askew; askance. “Poets may go at the big truths a little cattywampus, but sometimes they do get to them” (Ted Kooser writing in The Poetry Home Repair Manual, University of Nebraska Press, 2005. 141) (Ready for the snap in a game between arch […]

I got a very thoughtful response to my brief appreciation of Bum Wine yesterday, after I got back from Willow. My vast array of correspondents demonstrate a variety of interests and passions that is humbling. I spent much of Black Friday not rioting down at the WalMart, but chasing rabbits of thought down into the […]

(Tex the sommelier enjoys a Henry the VIII moment as the crowd thins out at Willlow’s Thanksgiving. Photo Chanteuse Mary.) “Our Vision is To Elevate Life With Every Glass Raised.” – Constellation Brands corporate mission statement “ARRRRGH.” – That guy with the cardboard sign on the traffic island with the long light at Fairfax Drive […]

(This is an old pal, captured in another place and time. Friends are the very essence of what it is to be human- and alive. Can you guess who it might be?) It is way to early for a retrospective on this astonishing year. We have covered many of the events that are, by turns, […]

(My mouth started watering last night, thinking of left-overs.) I got home from Willow, a contemplative evening with the staff, Old Jim, and Rebekka-with-two-Cs who was sitting in my accustomed place when I arrived a little late. The early night had been so dark, and the pedestrians clad in dark clothes almost completely invisible. I […]