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November 7th, 2024 A famous quote has been lodged in my mind all day, and I will present it at the end of this essay (Hey, always keep your reader engaged!) Just before the election, a parade of would-be experts was repeating the same encouraging prediction. Political celebs like Michael Moore and James Carville, former Missouri Senator Claire McCaskill, various columnists for the liberal media that I gobbled up beca

November 3, 2024 The weekend has brought a few glimmers of encouraging news about the upcoming election. Several reports claim that undecided voters are breaking for Kamala Harris. A poll out of Iowa—until now considered a safe state for all Republicans—shows Harris up by 3 points. Pennsylvania might be swinging her way, too. Yet oddly enough, the moment that lifted my spirits the most was Harris’ appearance on

I can explain away Donald Trump (borderline psychopath) and his various minions (cowardly sycophants, gullible idiots.) But the bloc of six on the Supreme Court, and their brethren in the Federalist Society, what do we make of them? Their rock-ribbed conviction looks like religious zealotry, albeit their justification comes not from a conventional bible but from Project 2025, or perhaps some related but secret manife

UPDATE 9/4: Thank you all who visited the installation. Below are photos. End of August, 2024. You stand resolutely on the evaporated bed of Lake Lahontan in northern Nevada, staring across the trash fence. You observe the local sun, inexhaustible and insufferable, and the reason why sensible living things skedaddle to points elsewhere. You observe the wind whip up dust clouds that will anoint you on their arrival, a

We meet Mr. Conspiracy (which, um, is not his real name) in the motel lobby. I speak with him only briefly, while my wife soldiers onward for well over an hour. Mr. C. is likely my age but looks a lot older, with a ring of white puffy hair circling a chrome dome and a pasty face and lively eyes. He speaks quickly and enthusiastically with many hand gestures. We learn that he hails from New Jersey by way of northern V

I am the sixth man on the six-person chairlift. The other riders are a family of five. To my right is Mom, to her right are the three young children, with Dad on the end. Ms. Mom is chipper and talkative. She asks me where I am from and how I am enjoying my day. Mr. Dad is focused on the children, directing their attention to the trail map, conveniently printed on the safety bar in front of us. He wants them to ident

Her name is Phoenix, as in the city, as stated on the tag on her shirt. Within five minutes we learn all sorts of details about each other. She asks for and receives my demographics of age, height, weight, home address, and skiing ability—which is advanced intermediate. I also volunteer the reason why I’m renting—United Airlines lost my ski bag—and she sympathizes. I learn that Phoenix has lived her entire life in ne

Driving west on the Massachusetts Turnpike, I notice the taillights on the SUV ahead of me. Each light is a thin vertical bar with a horizontal bar jutting out, two-thirds up from the bottom, the bar jutting to the left on the left light and to the right on the right light. The overall effect is a Christian cross that has been divided in half lengthwise, then the halves pulled to opposite sides. I find the image very

Be ready for lots of juvenile references. I’m now at the tail end of a long Thanksgiving weekend. My wife and our college-age son took the opportunity for a retreat/adventure together in Ithaca, New York, leaving me in charge of the 6-year old and the rest of the household. We had an afternoon at the bowling lanes, with a stop for donuts on the way home. We ran foot races around the house. We played board games, card