November 2024
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I started playing chess online in earnest more than 25+ years ago. I remain a patzer. About 5 or 6 years ago I inexplicably stopped. Recently however, clearly in response to the election, I started playing again. I have lost whatever skills I may have had. But like books and baseball, chess helps keep my Read more
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I think I have mentioned here before that I have learned that I need time to internally process things before I write about them. Is two weeks enough time to try to process what is unprossessable? Two months? Two decades? I remain convinced that the purpose of government is to protect the weak from the Read more
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I used to go regularly to a coffee shop in South Minneapolis called Java Jacks that had a sign that read: “Fight the man, don’t buy corporate coffee!” I have generally followed that admonition. I avoid Starbucks and Caribou but admittedly have not been so good about avoiding Dunkin Donuts. What can I say, I Read more
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Today’s poem comes from Ted Kooser’s enjoyable little volume, Winter Morning Walks: one hundred postcards to Jim Harrison. The idea behind Winter Morning Walk is a simple one: a poetic journal of Kooser’s morning walks with his dog around his Nebraska home. The poems and the book are dedicated to poet/writer Jim Harrison. Each poem in the volume Read more
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As any reader knows, sometimes you just cannot connect to a book the first or second time you pick it up. Yet if you pick that same book up at a later date and start reading you may actually fall in love with it. I have noticed that music works the same way for me Read more
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Drifting in a sultry day on the sluggish waters of the pond, I almost cease to live and begin to be. A boatman stretched on the deck of his craft and dallying with the noon would be as apt an emblem of eternity for me as the serpent with his tail in his mouth. I Read more
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H. Rider Haggard wrote in the late 1800s. He is credited with inventing the lost civilization adventure. His most famous of books are: When I began my list of classic Adventure stories I had not read in their original, I included all four on my list. I could have started with any of them but Read more
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In the mornings, I often go walking before heading to work. This time of year at 6:15am, it is still quite dark and the sky, when it is not overcast, is bright with stars. Here is a small poem about stars… and much more. Enjoy! STARS, SONGS, AND FACES by Carl Sandburg Gather the stars Read more
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A few years ago I picked up a copy of Personae by Ezra Pound at ABE books. When I opened it up to start reading, I came across this note in pink on the inside cover. September 15, 1969 Jay, Happy Birthday Enjoy! Love, Sara Books are living things, with histories, lives of their own Read more
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“I have a love affair with coffee.” – Unknown I am lucky enough to live almost across the street from one of the best coffee shops in the Twin Cities, Smith Coffee & Cafe. It is located in an historic old railroad hotel and house in Eden Prairie, Minnesota. If you are ever in the Read more
ClimbingSky 