Category: Everything Else

America’s Front Yard

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Reflections on the National Mall

A Flashback

I ran across a piece someone wrote a few days ago that mentioned in passing the National Mall, in the heart of Washington, DC. For some reason, it brought back a flood of memories I thought worth sharing. It is one of those places easily put into the mental background and forgotten or taken for granted. The Mall deserves better, for several reasons we shall discuss momentarily. As a symbol and as a gathering place, it offers us much.

My First Attentive Look at the Mall

Like many people,

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Welcome to the Rogue’s Gallery

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Six “Winners” Who Merit Our Disdain

Highlighting a Few People That Are Disappointments to Civilization

As we all know, the world has at least its share of less than laudable souls walking the Earth. We might even feel that we are way over our quota of such people in recent years.

Still, even in this category of n’er-do-wells some people stand out as exceptional wastes of oxygen. Today, we call out six of them worthy of our highest scorn and our lowest esteem.

The Latest Trump Indictment Gives Us Two Such Individuals

One,

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June 6, 2023

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A Mixed Collection Today: Celebrate Some, Worry Some

Today is D-Day

On this date in 1944, the Allies bet it all on an important event that could be the beginning of the end for the war in Europe. And so it was to be. A good date, perhaps, to reflect on what assaults and defenses we need to mount in the common interest. A few events and mindsets rise to the surface.

Some Good News to Share & Reflect Upon

How The Country is Doing: By almost any measure (economy, alliances and security,

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Hey, Is Anyone Else Writing Some Good Stuff?

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Yes, Indeed. Today We Share a Sample of Worthwhile Reading

A Lot of People Are Writing Well, About Important (and/or Fun) Matters

I invest more time than I probably should reading the work of other writers, particularly bloggers and columnists. Part of this is a desire to learn more, part of it is admiration of good writing. Some readings are like a hot fudge sundae – completely satisfying.

I thought you might enjoy a few of such outstanding examples that have come across my computer screen in recent days. I hope you enjoy them and learn from them as much as did I.

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The “What Makes You Feel Good” Parade – Part II

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More of the Good Stuff – A Bit Deeper

Now, Where Were We?

We started this conversation back in March with a short list of things that make one feel good. The plan is to divide that list into three levels – the easy everyday stuff, which was titled The Light Stuff. You may recall that my Light Stuff list included an eclectic but not unusual mix. It included:

  • A perfect baguette
  • A walk in the woods
  • Time in a hardware store
  • A really good cheese platter
  • Being up early enough to wait for the sun
  • Serious red wine
  • Being in a baseball park before the game

Many of you wrote to concur with parts of that list,

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Money, Politics, Electronics, and the Courts

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What Could Possibly Go Wrong?

What’s Up?

Today we take a short look at four subjects very much in the headlines these days. Some connect to each other in obvious ways, others are more stand-alone. All have our attention of late.

Money

This one is actually a good mix of financial matters and politics – the national debt. This is being written about five days before you read it, as I will be on travel for several days, so it is possible the logjam on the debt will break before you read this. I would be delighted if this segment of today’s blog was out of date and the problem resolved.

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Assorted Odds and Ends

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Nature’s Metaphor

We had a remarkably mild winter in my area of the Smoky Mountains. We had one cold snap, around Christmas and New Year’s Day. It was a short but ferocious cold snap. A lot of trees, shrubs, and small critters did not make it. It led me to a hard late winter. In short order, an early spring seemed to arrive. But too late for those who could not survive the earlier snap. In a sense, that is a metaphor for life more broadly. Expect the unexpected and be prepared to deal with challenges that seemed unimaginable just days earlier.

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Three Conspiracies, Three Observations

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Six Unrelated Thoughts to Share

First, the Conspiracies

We live in an era of unbridled conspiracy theories. Fanned by alienation, fed and spread by social media, they are like barnacles on the ship of society. They make it ever harder to unite as a people or to find common ground, even in finding truth.

But hey, it seems everyone has one and they have fun with them, so today – my turn. Here are three conspiracy theories that occur to me as entirely logical and at least somewhat likely. See what you think. I know,

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Joining the “What Makes You Feel Good” Parade

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A Short Break from Politics, Social Irritants, and Bad News

Who Said That?

I have recently read two blogs, one a national blog, one done by a respected friend; both hit on similar themes. They asked what made them feel good. The former was on more general topics, the later (in a two part series) talked about things invented in our state of North Carolina.

The more general discussion of this fun area of focus was written by Steven Beschloss, someone well recognized as an historian, but someone who is also an astute observer of life right now.

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March 28, 2023

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An Assortment of News and Views of the Day

The Passing of a Founding Father

Gordon Moore, as in Moore’s Law, has died at the age of 94. Moore posited the theory, way back in the 1960’s that computer circuits would double the number of transistors in such a unit every 18 months. Many thought that was absurd and would run out of possibilities shortly.

Moore was, of course, more than right. When he wrote his idea, the best circuit around had 50 transistors. Today they have billions. And we are not done yet.

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