George Washington, we are told by Ken Burns’s latest documentary series, was a (mostly) great man and a terrible general. He was inspiring, yes, but an awful tactician. Oh, and unforgivably he was a slaveholder.
When I was small, living on a small farm near a college town, my father fell for an idea proffered by the Ralston Purina Company of Checkerboard Square in St. Louis.
“Best Of Both Worlds,” part 1 was the Star Trek: The Next Generation episode that concluded its third season, and its heart — the capture of Jean-Luc Picard by the Borg, and his transformation into “Locutus” — is resolved in Season 4’s opening part 2. But the next episode, “Family,” in essence is the third part of the episode, and deserves to be remembered as such.
It was the day that I stopped forever my weekly visit to Kroger.
The COVID-19 epidemic was underway, and we were advised to stay away from each other. It was cold, and the forecast was that an ice storm would hit about sundown (made an hour earlier each year for no good reason by the switch to standard time).
It reflects me as much as him. But isn’t family truly the shared experience of knowing and enjoying one another? He likes Gracie Abrams, so I put “That’s So True” on the list, because I like it, too. She’s like a Jewish Taylor Swift; even to say it like that feels like a massive compliment. And I truly hope no one has lingering bitterness toward director J.J. Abrams; Gracie is his daughter.
The Temptations had a hit song 55 years ago, “Ball of Confusion (That’s What the World Is Today).” It feels as if it were a prediction of the last week around here.
When I wrote “The Democrats Who Cried Wolf,” mentally, this was the next column. Alas, life. You have been in good hands, I know.
Cold water, applied suddenly, can be inspirational. I was reminded of this Friday morning when, mid-shower and all lathered and shampooed, the gas ran out. It wasn’t a matter of jumping out of the shower, either. I had to rinse it all off first. So I wasn’t just surprised by the icy blast. I had then to deliberately submit to it.
For as long as people have had fears, we have been afraid of things falling from the sky. Palentologists of comedy tell us that this particular danger may have been discovered by a researcher named Og, a colleague of the late Thag Simmons, when a flock of prehistoric pigeons flew over on a day he was late to an important meeting, though if challenged they admit that this is surmise.