"At painful times, when composition is impossible and reading is not enough, grammars and dictionaries are excellent for distraction." - Elizabeth Barrett Browning Years ago, in the very early days of Comedy Central, I remember a program named Short Attention Span Theater. The setup was that they presented a series of short clips of stand-up comics talking about one topic or another, packed into a mere thirty minutes. I mean, how could anyone get their arms around something i

"These are the times that try men's souls." -Thomas Paine During this morning's predawn doom scroll, I came across a long Facebook post from Dan Carlin. Dan's one of my favorite people I've never met. We're about the same age, both from Southern California, both history nerds. His podcast Hard Core History is a staple for P and me on long car trips. We're in the eleventh hour of his series on the life of Alexander the Great, haltingly making our way through the Battle of Gran

What is it then between us? What is the count of the scores or hundreds of years between us? Whatever it is, it avails not—distance avails not, and place avails not, I too lived, Brooklyn of ample hills was mine, I too walk’d the streets of Manhattan island, and bathed in the waters around it, I too felt the curious abrupt questionings stir within me, In the day among crowds of people sometimes they came upon me, In my walks home late at night or as I lay in my bed they came

"I'm goin' down to the Greyhound Station, gonna get a ticket to ride Gonna find that lady with two or three kids and sit down by her side Ride 'til the sun comes up and down around me 'bout two or three times Smokin' cigarettes in the last seat Tryin' to hide my sorrow from the people I meet and get along with it all Go down where the people say "y'all" Feed the pigeons some clay, turn the night into day Start talkin' again when I know what to say" -Blaze Foley, Clay Pigeons

I've been everywhere, man I've been everywhere, man Crossed the deserts bare, man I've breathed the mountain air, man Of travel I've a-had my share, man I've been everywhere -Johnny Cash Back in NYC after a spring break that was an utter failure in terms of meeting any of my goals for this trip. I'd thought I would take advantage of a week with no classes to bill a little extra time, meet in person with folks in Florida who required hand-holding, catch up on my one online cla

O, Father dear, I often hear you speak of Erin's Isle, Her lofty scenes her valleys green, her mountains rude and wild You said it is a lovely place wherein a prince might dwell, Why have you then forsaken her, the reason to me tell? My son, I loved our native land with energy and pride Until a blight fell on my crops my and sheep and cattle died, The rents and taxes were too high, I could not them redeem, And that's the cruel reason why I left Old Skibbereen. It's well I do

"All things must pass None of life's strings can last So I must be on my way And face another day" -George Harrison Always sort of a sad moment, when it's time to leave Wyldswood and we're draining the hot tub. These last few days have been packed. We left NYC right after class on Thursday, brisk and rainy followed by brisk and snowy through rural New Jersey, then finally sunshine as we approached DC. The evening ended just before ten in Emporia, Virginia, where we gave up an

"I would rather a thousand times be a free soul in jail than to be a sycophant and coward in the streets." - Eugene V. Debs Went to see Oh Mary! last night. A dreadful play, by any measure, and a sign of the decadence that has settled over our culture. Mary Todd Lincoln as an alcoholic who hated her kids and had an affair with John Wilkes Booth? Abraham Lincoln getting fellated under the desk by one of his staff officers? Nothing shocks anymore, so if they were hoping to elic

"I am a fugitive and a vagabond, a sojourner seeking signs." - Annie Dillard This Friday marks the halfway point between the first and last day of classes. Tempus fugit. What have we learned so far? New York City is far easier and kinder than I anticipated. Running a law firm spending twenty hours a week instead of forty or fifty is as difficult as I figured. The practice is noticeably shrinking in this holding action. I wouldn't care, but for all these houses and planes and

So, I've been remiss in writing today, but between study, work, and Peg being functionally on vacation this week and yearning for adventures around town, there have been many, many demands on my time. A nice distraction from the war and the end of the world, anyway. And when it looks like this in New York in March, who has the discipline to sit in front of a computer all day? From a blizzard a little over a week ago to mid-70s and not a cloud in the sky today. It's springtime

"In the Spring, I have counted 136 different kinds of weather inside of 24 hours." - Mark Twain 3.9.26 Class cancelled this morning for no reason given. A little less pressure on a Monday, after a couple days of goofing around up in Corning and Canandaigua. Although the calendar shows that we're very much in the tailings of a fairly brutal winter, all signs now point to spring. Look down there in the median on Houston Street this morning. No, not the blowing trash in the tree

"If I had to be shot down, I'm pleased that it should have been by so good a man" -Captain R.E. Wilson (on being shot down by Oswald Boelcke), 1916 Since I last posted about it a couple days ago, the story of the three Strike Eagles shot down in Kuwait has changed. Now we're being told they were destroyed by a Kuwaiti F-18 as they returned from a mission in Iran. The first F-15s ever to have been downed by another airplane, after over fifty years of service. And it was fratri

"A place to stay, enough to eat Somewhere, old heroes shuffle safely down the street Where you can speak out loud about your doubts and fears And what's more, no one ever disappears You never hear their standard issue kicking in your door You can relax on both sides of the tracks And maniacs don't blow holes in bandsmen by remote control And everyone has recourse to the law And no one kills the children anymore No one kills the children anymore" -Roger Waters, The Gunner's Dr

" You will hear of wars and rumors of wars, but see to it that you are not alarmed. Such things must happen, but the end is still to come." -Matthew 24:6 This sleep deprivation thing is getting to be a real problem. Eyes wide open at two, flop around and play on my phone (the worst possible response) until five or 5:30, then back asleep until seven. I've written about what social media intuits I'd like to see in the wee small hours--classic cars, short video clips from Billbo

" “The Supreme Folly Is To Think That War Can Be Stopped By War.” -Karl Barth A lot to say on this chilly, 22 degree morning in Manhattan. As one might expect, events in Iran have dragged me back into a lot of not great places over the weekend. First there was the rage and frustration over sending airmen into harm's way in an illegal, discretionary war. Then the disgust at my R friends who think this is all a good thing, that the ends justify the means although no one seems

"Writing about a writer's block is better than not writing at all." - Charles Bukowski Sitting here scrambled in my thoughts after an acrimonious Zoom meeting. I have to admit I always find myself in these scrums trying to bring "peace into the room", as a mediator-author acquaintance of mine put it years ago. Crawling into my own head, I figure this is a vestige of growing up in an alcoholic household where, as the oldest child, I was constantly trying to head off confrontat

It's a sign that this is going to be a bit dashed off that I couldn't think of a title and settled for today's date. Class is in fourteen minutes. This one is probably the most challenging of the four, with massive reading assignments and some pretty complicated concepts related to taxation of commercial real estate transactions. I haven't finished the readings, but hope I can hum a few bars. The prof is pretty good about not putting people on the spot. No Professor Kingsfiel

"That is the issue that will continue in this country when these poor tongues of Judge Douglas and myself shall be silent. It is the eternal struggle between these two principles -- right and wrong -- throughout the world. They are the two principles that have stood face to face from the beginning of time, and will ever continue to struggle. The one is the common right of humanity and the other the divine right of kings." -Abraham Lincoln, October 15, 1858 Debate at Alton, Il

A beautiful day out there, after nearly twenty inches of snow fell between midday Sunday and yesterday afternoon. No post yesterday, and nearly no post today. Too much going on. I have a hearing in forty-five minutes, and I'm still sitting here in pajama bottoms. I was up at three a.m. reading emails about typos in drafts I circulated, from clients pounding on the door because they want their *whatever* last week and why is it taking so long? Accounts receivable are starting

"You can cut all the flowers but you cannot keep spring from coming." - Pablo Neruda I missed yesterday's post. Thursdays have become my most difficult point on the calendar--the midday class is among the most challenging, with a couple hundred pages of reading a week. By Thursday my paying work has piled up, as has my homework, to the point that from the moment I roll out of bed I'm hustling to get everything done so we can drive back to Corning after class. It doesn't leave