Periodically, I’ll get to the point where I’m almost incapable of writing new posts because every post idea I have is an old half-cooked one from two and a half weeks ago. And at the point at which there are…
Tag: But the Past Isn’t Done with Us
That Old East Wind’s a-Gonna Blow…
This morning dawned unseasonably warm and strangely lit, with a strong wind blowing in from the east. I don’t know about you, but I grew up especially cognizant of east winds. They represent a reversal of order, a wind of…
2008
Somewhere along the way, Time Magazine lost its way. Maybe it was the influence of AOL, long nicknamed “A-O-Hell” by my generation, which itself is somewhere between the nickname of “Generation Y” and “The Millennial Generation”. I’ll take either one,…
Western Civilization
On the train ride into work this morning, I wasn’t able to get a seat. The train was running just late enough to pick up enough stragglers to sell all the seats just before Downtown Berkeley. I had to stand…
Diminishing Temporal Returns
Despite how it may sound, this post is not about the stock market. At least, not directly. People often wonder why it seems like life is speeding up as they go, why it seems that an hour just doesn’t mean…
Walking on Broken Glass: Kristallnacht and Thanksgiving
Today is the 70th anniversary of the infamous Kristallnacht, the pogrom that history remembers as the opening salvo of the Holocaust. It was a gargantuan riot that killed 91, hauled 30,000 into concentration camps, and left thousands of synagogues and…
The Weight on One’s Shoulders
I used to have this crazy multi-colored backpack. It was some sort of plastic vinyl material and different sections of the outside were hued in vibrant Mexican restaurant shades – orange, green, purple, blue. The overall effect was one of…
Atonement
When I was young, my teeth were trying to teach me a lesson in peaceful coexistence. My adult teeth didn’t want to replace most of my baby teeth, forcing them out by coming straight down over the top of them.…
The End of Capitalism
It wasn’t long ago that I was talking to whoever would listen about a world without money. A world after money. I got the blank stares and befuddled looks of a generation that grew up in the Reagan years. Who…
The Winnebago Drove with its Propane Stove
“He lost his money in a geyser bank, Ho ho ho ho ho, First it floated and then it sank, Ho ho ho ho ho.” -Traditional Clayton Family Song, c. 1987 trip to Yellowstone My family used to write songs…