A life’s gallery

Pics from Long Ago

Bringing two poems into the digital age

Presenting two poems into the realm of cyberspace is my good deed for the day.

A story I couldn’t make up

A high school classmate of mine passed away suddenly over the weekend, and the shock of hearing this news made we want to do something. But the question is what, exactly? My first instinct, in good times and in bad, is to look for a story to share. But the story I want to share

Farewell to CPS

17 years 5 schools 2 girls 1 family that’s ready to move on. Thanks for the memories!

Stuck in the Middle with Bruce

The Super Bowl, in earlier days, was as much about consumerism as it was about football. With the largest TV audience of the year watching, the network airing the game could charge millions of dollars for a 30-second spot. And the companies who were paying these top-dollar rates spared no expense to put the WOW

This should be an interesting matchup (but actually, it really wasn’t)

I haven’t cared about the Super Bowl in a long time, but I’ll probably never get away from watching it. And this year, there’s the truth of an old saying that will be tested out: “Age and treachery will overcome youth and skill.” On the Age side is Tom Brady, who could become just the

More Incalculability in 2021

Does anyone remember this cover of the New York Times? I sure do. The precise date that COVID-19 arrived on these shores might never be known, but the first known death from the virus occured on February 6, not quite one year ago. At that time, our government was busy telling us that everything was

Choosing my new icon

According to Mirriam-Webster, there are several definitions of the word “icon.” I bring this up because WordPress gave me the opportunity to change the icon associated with this blog yesterday, when I decided to change the theme for the first time in several years. I don’t know what the theme was called. or what the

Meeting the Moment

In the terrible disaster that has befallen this nation since early 2020–and continues unabated to this day–there have been moments of hope. For me, a moment of hope comes each Thursday night, when I gather with friends from both the real and virtual worlds to share poetic selections with each other on Zoom. Poetry was

Why there was more than just a “riot” on January 6

The Capitol dome in Washington D.C is a place that every American needs to see for themselves. And as one who has seen it, the scenes of mayhem from inside the building are all the more unsettling. The entire scope of American history–the whole of this nation’s collective experience, really–are found within those walls. It’s

The Peppermint Patty solution, and why it won’t work this time

There’s a cocktail of despair and outrage that has been building inside of me since January 6. And with each passing day, that mix becomes more potent. The video above was posted onto Parler on the day that it happened, and was somehow retreived from the archives. I won’t pretend to know about the technology

What a mobocracy means for this nation

Abraham Lincoln served a single, two-year term in Congress, as a representative who opposed the war with Mexico. He was in the minority who realized that the addition of vast new amounts of land would lead to problems over what to do with slavery in that territory. By the time he returned to the nation’s

Haiku for the Insurrection

President Lame Duck Incited an ugly mob And must be removed Last summer I wrote a limerick in response to the clearing of Lafayette Square, when Donald Trump held up a Bible and glared at the cameras. And I truly believed that was rock bottom, for him and our country. But since then, he’s shown

The Modern Confederacy Has Failed

If you’re a Republican who doesn’t support Trump, and especially if you do, this one’s for you: It’s over. That is all. Once upon a time, I would have spent an hour or more going on about this subject, but at this stage in life I realize how futile that is. Whatever therapeutic effect I

Tails and Legs and “Fraudulent” Presidential Elections

There’s no single subject I’ve written about more often on this blog, in the nine years I’ve been doing this, than Abraham Lincoln. Perhaps that’s because time and again, examples from Lincoln’s life and times bear a striking relevance to our own. The disputed (by some) presidential election of 2020 reminds me of a story

Dancin’ in the street

At my age, any new experience is something to savor. And when the term “dancing in the street” actually comes to life, it’s damn year impossible to resist. Such was my experience on Saturday, November 7, 2020. When the AP called Pennsylvania, and thus the presidential election, for Joe Biden and Kamala Harris, a wave

Farewell to the King

The avocado test

Saturday night, 9 PM I had dropped off my little one at a friend’s house, and was picking up a few items on my way home. The ALDI store that I stopped at didn’t have any baskets available (due to COVID, perhaps?) and I wasn’t getting enough items to justify using a cart. This will

What Trump’s really offering is thirty pieces of silver

As I’ve stated here on many occasions, I was raised Catholic and attended Catholic school through the end of high school. The teachings of the Church didn’t match my worldview, and it’s been decades since I attended a church service that wasn’t a wedding, a baptism, or a funeral. But some of the stories from

The cruel certainties of 2020

The year 2020 started off in the typical fashion: champagne toasts and fireworks at midnight, together with untold numbers of resolutions to be different—and better, if at all possible—in the coming 12 months. On New Year’s Day, which happened on a Wednesday and was therefore smack dab in the middle of the workweek, my family

Down goes Columbus!

I grew up in a world where Christopher Columbus was seen as a brave man who took great risks. But that world doesn’t exist anymore. And I’m glad that it doesn’t. The first time I ever really had an idea that Columbus wasn’t universally loved was at a parade in New York City in the

Try a little kindness

In the winding road that my life has taken, I’ve held a variety of jobs. The old story about someone who worked for the same company for forty years and then retired with a watch died a long time ago, and the result is that all of us are career nomads, moving from one place

He deserved better

Today I witnessed a retirement send-off for several people who gave decades of their life to an organization. At this stage of the 21st century, anyone who has worked for the same outfit since back in the 20th century either loves what they do, or has just been mailing it in to collect a paycheck

Dear Mr. President

I fully expect you won’t ever actually read this. It’s clear to me that you don’t read much of anything, really. I’m writing this for myself, more than anything else, so here goes: You don’t know me, and don’t want to know me, either. But you’ll demonize me, in an abstract sense, as a “radical”