Category: History
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Midnight Thoughts of Venice
[San Giorgio Maggiore in the distance. Photo is mine.] Venice has been said to be the most romantic city in the world. I can think of one famous resident who certainly thought so, Giacomo Girolamo Casanova (b. 1725). He should know a thing or two about romance. He claimed to have slept with at least…
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Dear Greg
[Greg (R) and myself on some forgotten peak in the Keene Valley Region of the Adirondacks. NY. Date: 1970’s. Photo is mine.] It’s coming up on a year now since you left me on the trail. You needed to climb one more mountain…at the time, I didn’t want another summit, but you had other thoughts.…
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A Dialectical Critique of “Teenager in Love”
[Dion. Photo probably taken in the 1960’s. Source: Mancrushes.com] If you ask me, far too many words have been written about the hidden meanings and subtleties of Bertolt Brecht’s Mack the Knife or Pirate Jenny. Granted the Weimar Era in Germany (1918-1933) were pretty wacky times. But lyrics like: “You gentlemen can watch while I’m…
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It’s All Over Now, Baby Blue
“How lucky I am to have something that makes saying goodbye so hard.” ~~A.A.Milne (Winnie-the-Pooh So, what brought you back to me, Moxie? I watched you wandering around the pool, and you looked intent. You found me back here among the palms, in the cool air. The sun was getting too intense for me. And…
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Coal For Christmas
[Another year. Another Christmas. I republish this every holiday season with a tweak here and there. This story is true and I am passing it down to new readers and my two children and my grandson. Every story from our own lives or the lives of those we once loved…every story is worth telling. There…
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A Brief History of Kimonos
To be fully alive is to have an aesthetic perception of life because a major part of the world’s goodness lies in its often unspeakable beauty. ~~Yukitaka Yamamoto [An old triptych of three women wearing kimonos. Source: Google Search.] Recently, my wife and I spent an afternoon at the Metropolitan Museum of Art (MET). She…
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Local Boy Does Good
“Home is a place you grow up wanting to leave, and grow old wanting to get back to.” –Anon. [Source: Pintrest] It was mid-October. The forecast called for clouds and drizzle. The chilly air and the leaves along the sidewalks brought back memories of Halloweens past. I never saw so many pumpkins. I usually had…
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The Lost Mausoleum
“Reader beware as you pass by. As you are now so once was I. As I am now so you will be. Therefore, prepare to follow me.” –Tombstone Inscription [Source: Pintrest] This is a true story. It does not involve ghosts but it has potential. It takes place in Owego, NY, my hometown. Yes, it…
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Dorset of My Dreams
“Oh, to be in England…” –Robert Browning It all started on a late winter morning of 1984. I was walking to my office at King & Low-Heywood Thomas School (KLHT) in Stamford, Connecticut. Walking with me was a teacher/administrator. She was going through her teacher-mail regarding microscope sales and Petri dish discounts. She held on…
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A Young Man’s Backpack
“To travel, to experience and learn: that is to live.” –Tenzing Norgay Stuff has to go. Lots of stuff has to go. When you relocate from a 3-bedroom lakeside house to a 1-bedroom apartment on Riverside Drive in New York, you soon realize how easy it was to gather stuff. And now, much of the…
