I don’t know if Eddie-the-Shaman and his companion Shary managed to fix anything for me on the Sprit Path. I do feel more energy, that is for sure. I assume that is where the path of enlightenment lies, someplace in the North Woods. It seems reasonable.   Driving from the airport down in Traverse City […]

I forget if I gave up anything on Ash Wednesday back in February. Easter is almost here and I could go back to doing something important right after that. There is a lot on the plate now that I am back in the self-important city. We have to lean on the Chinese to revalue their […]

(Delta Canadair CRJ200 regional jet, operated by Pinnacle with the last Detroit Snow) I am back here, back in the city, back in the early Spring, back where there is some distance and perspective to the tumult of the travel. If the Eddie-the-shaman is right, there is new energy in the air. Something, somewhere is […]

  I have to tell you, the turn of the season in the Northland is something pretty remarkable. There were still pockets of snow in the shadows of the trees, here and there, and deep in the pines and second-growth scrub, but I didn’t wear a jacket and the strange ethereal nature of Hemmingway’s blue […]

I am still in Michigan, more than a little stunned by the missing day. I had finished packing and cleaning up the guest cottage and went down to Mom’s library to print my boarding pass for the flight out and saw I had made the reservation for the 30th, not the 29th. The car was […]

Travel today; so I was up early, with visions.   Standing on the little deck outside the back-door to The Big Top apartment on top of the garage on the compound in Michigan to see the bright rich full moon settle into the waters of the bay near Nine Mile Point, precisely where the sun […]

  There is a Greek guy named Charlie Vergos who ran the best damned rib place in Memphis, which is a pretty amazing piece of turf to stake out. He operated the restaurant he named “Rendezvous” off Second Street since 1948, or at least he did until his keen mind and unfailing work ethic made […]

It is tax time, if you hadn’t noticed, which is going to be increasingly onerous in the years to come. I jetted up from the Capital to help out on that and other things, since Mom is confronting that, and with it the growing cloud of uncertainty here in the little town by the bay. […]

  I didn’t come up with the term “Radical Center.” That belongs to Tom Friedman, and bless him for it. We need some sanity here.   He noted that President Obama’s recent success is “both exhilarating and sobering.” I agree it is certainly it is a historic achievement, but what had to be done to […]

    I am traveling this weekend, up to the Wolverine state for a short visit with the folks.   Mom and Dad are in their mid-80s now, and that caused me to do a little math. See, the Social Security Trust did something it hasn’t done before this month. Outlays exceeded income from the […]