Punctuation doesn’t make the man. Typos happen. On the other hand, for the past eight years the Republicans have made a virtue out of stupid, so the political entrepreneurs in the McCain camp may simply have been following the RNC … Continue reading
There is an amusing article in the New York Times this morning entitled, “The Unwashed and the Upper Crust in Connecticut.” I often gripe when the Times does a piece about a place or an event I’m personally familiar with … Continue reading
I’ve managed to stupidize myself off Airport again and am back operating on the tether. This doesn’t affect actual writing, of course, but it inhibits those spurts of inspirational genius I so rely on. (Or, as Alan implies in his … Continue reading
We got back home from Minnesota to discover that our DSL modem had been fried in a thunderstorm. Nearby electronics shops had no modems to sell me…too many others had suffered the same fate and cleaned out every store in … Continue reading
Ivan Doig is often considered a regional writer. Forget that. He is simply one of the best American writers going. For his last book, 2006’s The Whistling Season, he did an interview for his publisher in which he said: “My … Continue reading
The Vesterheim Norwegian-American Museum in Decorah, which I wrote about a few days ago, had a display focused on this WWII outfit, which was made up of Norwegian speakers. The idea was that they would be useful in unconventional operations … Continue reading
H and I (and Jasper the Wonder Dog) went out for a little VS2 earlier this afternoon. We walked for 10-15 minutes, shuffled for about 5, then walked back home for perhaps 20. This was H’s first, gentle, attempt at … Continue reading
We began with B’s first trip to the library. I have a feeling it won’t be her last. The big celebration though, was in Lake City, 45 minutes or so east of Rochester, on a part of the Mississippi known … Continue reading
We’ve been in Decorah, Iowa, for the past few days. Decorah is home of the Seed Savers Exchange, a non-profit that collects, propagates, and sells heirloom vegetable, herb, and flower seeds from all over the world. We wandered around their … Continue reading
The Friends of the excellent Rochester Public Library have a very good used book store (though I must say that the Friends of the Woodbury Public Library have a bigger and better, if less elegantly housed, one), and we went … Continue reading