Interesting

I married a woman I met in Latin class when she was 14 and I was 17.

Mimi married a man she knew in college.

Josh married a woman he met in law school.

Education is wondrous.

Shimer College and my life

As a junior in high school, I became enamored of Shimer College in Chicago. It was a 'great books' school, like St. John's College in Annapolis, Maryland, which was Mimi's second choice to the school she chose, Bennington College in Vermont. Shimer is now a part of North Central College in Naperville, IL.

Here was the problem--Shimer required at least one year of a foreign  language for admission. Gary High School was very small--99 people in my graduating class--and only offered two foreign language classes. My senior year it was French 2, which I obviously couldn't do, and Latin 1.

Latin 1 was mostly 9th and 10th grade students, except for me. Miss Sargent, a stern woman, was the teacher.

But here's the thing--if I hadn't had that class I would have never met 9th grader Bernadine Pisano, who became my girlfriend and then my wife when we were 23 and 20 and first lived together in Cambridge for my second year at Harvard Divinity School.

I didn't go to Shimer College, I went to WVU instead and Bern came for my senior year as a freshman. But without Shimer I wouldn't have taken Latin 1 and wouldn't have met her.

And our two children and four grand-daughters would have never been born.

Ponder, if you want to, the decisions that have shaped your lives.

If you hadn't done 'a', the 'b' and 'c' and 'd' and all through the alphabet wouldn't have happened.

Amazing how one decision can completely change and enhance your life.

Amazing how undoing 'a' would have made your life a totally different journey.

Amazing.

Truly amazing.

Thank God for Shimer College and Latin 1 all those years ago.

Really, thank God. My whole life rolled out from taking that Latin class for a college I never attended!

New Impeachment news

Stuff is coming out about e-mails about Ukraine's funds (approved by Congress) being withheld by the President and about the infamous Trump Tower meeting with Russians.

The President has been tweeting and talking about a 'Kangaroo Court' and if the Republican leadership doesn't allow witnesses and documents on the 'trial' in the Senate, then the whole definition of a 'Kangaroo Court will be fulfilled.

The s*** gets deeper and deeper.

Who has a shovel?

I know a lot of people support the President, but it becomes clearer and clearer that crimes were committed and must be addressed.

This horribly and deeply divided country is held hostage by a man who is, at best, a sociopath and narcissist.

Something has to happen.

My biggest fear is how to get him out of the White House if he is convicted and removed from office.

There are people who would take up arms to prevent that.

This  is as scared as I've ever been--and I'm one of those kids who were taught to hide under desks in the classroom (as if that would help!) in case of a nuclear attack.

That's how scared I am for our democracy and this country I so love.

Hoppin' John

As always, we had Hoppin' John for dinner tonight on New Year's Day. It's for good luck and propriety in the year to come.

Hoppin' John is black eyed peas, rice, pork and cooked greens of some kind.

The tradition began in the South in the 1800's.

Black eyed peas were brought to this country from Africa with the slaves. They symbolize coins and prosperity.

Pork symbolizes good luck and the greens also point to money.

Rice is just to hold everything together.

So, whether you had Hoppin' John or not, may you're new year bring you good luck and prosperity.

(One legend around the dish is that an ex-slave nicknamed Hoppin' John, sold peas and rice in the streets of Charleston, South Carolina. No proof of that.)

Happy New Year!

May 2020 bring us a new President!!!!

Happy New Year!

Good friends in New Haven have a New Year's Eve party we used to go to every year.

We don't any more.

We don't do New Year's Eve.

I don't want to drive with lots of folks with more than enough drink on the road.

Besides, Bern goes to be at 9 most nights and I go before 11.

We never watch the ball drop.

We're in bed--maybe reading instead of being asleep, but in bed none-the-less.

But Happy New Year to you, however you observe it.

2020.

Hope for the best....

Great Day for sports--for me!

West Virginia University, my undergraduate school, was ranked 22nd in the nation (not shabby!) going into Cleveland to play Ohio State #2 to Gonzaga. WVU won 67-59, holding OS to 22 points in the second half after trailing by 9.

Then the Chicago Bears (my favorite NFL team) beat arch-rival, Minnesota Vikings. I've loved the Bears since childhood, greatly admiring their uniforms. Minnesota is going to the playoffs and the Bears aren't, but the Vikings are going on with a black eye from the Bears.

Plus, the Patriots (my most hated NFL team) lost to the lowly Miami Dolphins. New England is going to the play-offs but not before being beaten by a team that ended the season 5-ll!

Why do I hate the Patriots so?

Bill Belichek, their coach, was supposed to coach the New York Giants but broke his contract to go to New England.

Plus, Tom Brady, the Patriots quarterback is just too arrogant and successful and good looking and married to a model to like at all....

A very good day for me, football and basketball wise.

Went to Brooklyn and back today

Went down to Brooklyn to see Mimi and Tim and Eleanor and 'give them their presents.

Josh, Cathy and the three Bradley girls were with us in Cheshire for the Eve and Day and Day After.

For the first time ever, I hit 60 mph on the New York Expressways to Brooklyn. The traffic in CT was worse!

It was great to see them--we love them so!

They live in a neighborhood of Brooklyn that boarders on Williamsburg so you see lots of Hasidic Jews with their fur hats and black clothes as you make your way back to the expressways.

On one block we saw several scantily dressed blond women (it wasn't very cold today) jogging past families of Jews all dressed in heavy black clothes. Quite a contrast of cultures.

The drive, back and forth in one day, tightens up my knees.

But it was worth it. Mimi and Tim and Eleanor live on the 13th floor of a lovely high-rise. The building doesn't even try to hide the unlucky 13th floor by calling it 14th.

Eleanor is a little over 3 !/2 and is into Barbie's. A little early, but she is exceptional.

Last year I gave everyone red Make America Great Again hats (JUST KIDDING! I gave them blue WE'RE STILL HERE hats designed by Michael Moore and Bill Mahar.

This year I gave Tee-shirts.

Josh's said: I'M NOT ARGUING, I'M EXPLAINING WHY I'M RIGHT. So Josh.

Mimi's said: I'VE TURNED PARENTING INTO A SCIENCE: EVERY DAY IS AN EXPERIMENT.

Hope you had a great Christmas with those you love, as we did.