Diary: Nature teaches beasts to know their friends
Title credit courtesy of Shakespeare (Coriolanus).
During The Edge’s and Bono’s recent Tiny Desk Concert at NPR, Bono introduced the U2 song "Stuck in a...
Make your own fun, but I will not carry a gun
I will not carry a gun, Frank. When I got thrown into this war I had a clear understanding with the Pentagon: no guns....
Diary: “The moral and aesthetic nightmare of Christmas,” by the late, great Christopher Hitchens
In 2021, I pleased the local powers-that-be by allowing the NA Confidential blog to run its course, and by doing so, liberated myself from...
Justin Brown is my preferred candidate for Floyd Circuit Court Judge
“All politics is local.”
So the legendary Boston ward heeler Tip O’Neill said, and in the main, he was right.
However, in recent years those big,...
A writing update: the beer book is underway (also, other projects)
I've been unable to disengage entirely from the Reyes wholesale beverage conglomerate ("Monarch" in archaic Indiana beer dialect) and still receive an e-mail each...
Them ominous vultures
Last week we went for a walk to the pharmacy on a day with clear skies and warmth in the air, too early for...
Diary: Endeavour Morse, Joseph Brodsky and coping with the darkness of the Open Air...
Back on October 27, 2019 at NA Confidential, I undertook to explain a reference I'd previously made to New Albany as the Open Air...
Diary for 21 July 2021: The artist’s name comes first
Can you name the Pope who commissioned Michelangelo to paint the Sistine Chapel?
Didn't think so. I had to look it up: Julius II.
While I'm...
Diary for 28 July 2021: “Craft” is especially nonsensical when tacked to “hard” seltzer
The point of these “diary” entries is to write as the mood strikes me, in the moment.
I'd suggest we piss on hard seltzer, but...
Diary: Brief reflections on professionalism, perception, arrogance and respect
“Professionalism” probably means different things to different people. The Internet yields this checklist, which I find reasonably accurate:
“The eight core characteristics of professionalism are:...
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The book that wasn’t, why it won’t be, and really, that’s all right with...
Today’s bullet point is borrowed from Groucho Marx in Animal Crackers (1930): “Hello, I must be going.”
Regular readers will recall that earlier this year, I...
R.I.P. Barry Sears, a friend since kindergarten who changed my life over lunch
(There is a story behind the featured photograph, and it comes at the end, so please read or scroll.)
My lifelong friend Barry Sears died...
Diary: The story of the Sladek (brewer/maltster) stone at Fairview Cemetery
We bought our house in downtown New Albany in 2003, and by the following spring casual neighborhood walks had become a regular weekend feature...
