Eisenhower
I heard a piece on the radio about the Eisenhower memorial. He may be the most under-rated president in modern times. When the Russians launched Sputnik, there were several options we could have taken. We ...
A tip of the country hat.
There are a few people in this world who can brighten the mood of an entire room just by walking in the door. Not by being some overly excited false ray of sunshine, but simply ...
Love is love.
A year ago today, I posted the following; “Valentinus was arrested for performing forbidden weddings for soldiers, who were forbidden to marry. Claudius II feared that husbands could not also be soldiers but love is ...
Pete…
Pete and Toshi were married 6 years before Rodgers and Hammerstein jeopardized the production of “South Pacific” by insisting on including the lyrics “You’ve got to be taught to hate and fear/You’ve got to be ...
New Beginnings
I have never in my life taken the metaphor of a new year as literally as I have this year. I just walked away from one of the best jobs I have ever held. A ...
Christmas
When the song of the angel is stilled, When the star in the sky is gone, When the Kings and Princes are home, When the shepherds are back with their flocks The real work of ...
Cheap grace of a diffrent guise.
Get Your Fake Conscience Objections Off My Lawn | Lee’s Bookshelf The Green Family, owners of the Hobby Lobby chain of craft stores, has asked the US Supreme Court to grant them ‘conscience protection,’ exempting ...
Fixing the market
I was thinking about the long-term effects of the ACA (Obamacare), and there is one thing that strikes me as potentially very big, but I have not read much about it. One of the advantages ...
Lou Reed
When I was in college, a group of us were looking at influences on the music that influenced us. Velvet Underground kept on appearing over and over. The joke became that they were the most ...
Relearning old songs
Sometimes you hear something about the creative process that completely changes your relationship to, and understanding of, a piece of art. Doc. Pomus wrote an amazing number of songs. You know some of them, even ...
Shannon sent me to Costco with a shopping list today. She knows me well. Her list included landmarks that I could not help but find. “Head towards the light with the bad ballast. From there, ...
Conservation
This story is an interesting example of how the government in asking citizens to do something may have inadvertently triggered an opposite response. 1) Water main breaks. The city has 12 hours of clean water ...
The colors of life
There’s a remarkable thing that happens in the change of the seasons. We have a window of brilliant, in-your-face color that is fall. Then, a wind-storm comes by, and it’s all gone. But then the ...
The Government and the Market
Here is a perfect example of the externalities of Federal spending. The State of Utah is going to pay $1.67 million to the federal government to have federal parks within the state open for a ...
Tonight’s random lesson learned from putting the iPod on shuffle. The baseline for Metallica’s “Nothing Else Matters” is essentially the same as the baseline for Loreena McKennitt’s “Lady of Shallot.” This probably explains why both ...
There is one ridge of trees between the rest of the woods and my neighborhood. Whether it’s because the trees are sheltered in some way by the wind, or their roots spent the summer under ...
Pirate Pub Crawl
2 vignettes came from the walk from work to my car through the Pirate Pub Crawl. 1) A busker singing “Folsom Prison Blues” in an over-the-top Disney “Pirates of the Caribbean” accent (“I stabbed a ...
Lighting the Sky
We are getting to the magical time of year. Ice crystals form in the air, and create effects with lights that I understand rationally, but can’t grasp on any other level. Last night there was ...
The sounds we hear
20 years ago this fall my family was in Albania. “The place to be in ’93” was the tag from VOA Europe, the radio station which helpfully provided a soundtrack to our visit. You could ...
Shannon
A better poet might have the words to describe my love for you, A better painter might paint his canvass just the perfect hue. A dancer might set in motion the perfect scene to view ...
North Wind
This came from a writing prompt, it holds no indicators as to my present state of mind. The cold wind blows. That cold north wind, That wicked wind. The damp that cuts you to ...
Molly Malone Redux
A peddler from Dublin was she, And there never was fairer to see. As she pushed her wheelbarrow Through streets broad and narrow, Any man who had eyes would agree. She peddled her fish at ...
New to the fair
Sing to me an ancient song, Add modern words, I’ll sing along, We’ll dance a dance passed down through time, To the sound of our ancient, modern rhyme We’ll talk about our mutual friends An ...
New friends
As I climb into the spacious skis, Above the fruited plains I rise Fresh hellos, and sad goodbyes Old friendships born anew. An asphalt spider web below Stretches out too and fro, Street lights keep ...
Waking Up is Hard To Do!
Dawn do-be-do dawn dawn, it will soon be dawn do-be-do dawn dawn, it will soon be dawn do-be-do dawn dawn…. Waking up is hard to do. Don’t take my sleep away from me! Waking up ...
Song for Shannon
Sleep my love, in your dreams your dreams you must pursue Sleep my love, for your dreams will guide and shelter you. Do not fear what the world brings for tomorrow the world is born ...
Danny boy, by request…
Sing Danny Boy, the drunks, the drunks are calling. From pub to pub, my protests were denied. I protest hard, yet now I am complying Tis they that fill my hat so I abide. Call ...
The Wrecker
This boat was built by weathered hands and made of weathered wood. She’s taken men to sea for fish through bad times and through good. She’s fished the banks and sold her wears on both ...
Vertigo
For those of you who tend to read into my entries, don’t panic. I felt the need to write a song, and asked Sarah to give me a word. Sarah, dear Sarah gave me… vertigo. ...
Unsent Letter Home
Thanks go to Sarah N for help with collaboration, I maintain copyright to the song. I go to work early ‘fore the sun comes up The northern lights are shining as I warm up ...
Storm Surge
I’m in that kind of mood, I guess. Again, I retain copyright to this. I started writing this for a dear friend. I think, in the end, I wrote it for myself as well. The ...
Home
It goes without saying that I maintain a copyright on this and all my other poetry. This song is also less than an hour old. It is not a final product yet, so I welcome ...
Festival’s Over
The festival is over, the party’s at an end. Where we met mere days before, we now prepare to leave as friends, the cleaning crew is hard at work as I walk out the door, ...
Going Home
Home is where the heart is, or so the people say, I feel my blood pulse through my veins, my heart feels miles away. I do not wish to share your bed, nor wish to ...
Swan Song
There’s a barn swallows nest in the dimmer rack, the producer ran screaming and he ain’t coming back. I just heard a pop from the stage left stack, and the sound board op had a ...
Kevin’s Modern Fairy Tale
I was just out of college when I wrote this… I had a job sweeping a warehouse. My life was… not turning out exactly how I had planned. A knight’s care for a maiden ...