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The 2026 Adventure, Part II: Where the Pictures Fly Through the Air
(Continued from Part I.) Lower Manhattan is much as I remember it from last year’s visit. Unfortunately, check-in at my hotel is, too. As with last year, I’m at the M Social Hotel (the former Millenium Hilton – and that’s not a typo; it was intentionally spelled with one “n”) across from the World Trade…
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The 2026 Adventure, Part I: Savannah, via Baltimore
With the school year over comes the gift of time, at last. Unfortunately, by the time the school year is over, you barely have the ability to rub two brain cells together, let alone plan some kind of adventure. It doesn’t help that I like to do as much as I can during May and…
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The sepia tones of nostalgia
My friend Mitchell Hadley, one of the best writers I know, published an interesting piece yesterday about looking back on your own past. In an instance of uncanny timing, he published it right as I remembered something from my own past: that 31 years ago that day, I graduated college. My first thought: “Holy cats!…
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Endings, beginnings and the in-between
It’s over now. The school year, that is. The last two weeks have been a whirlwind, full of demands of all sorts: not just final projects, exams and all the other work you’d think of, but meetings (it seems like every committee you’re on always wants to have one more meeting) and celebrations and all…
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The final round
Today is the final round of the Masters tournament. As I do each year, I’ll spend much of the afternoon watching. It’s the only time of the year I watch golf. I have nothing against the game, but it’s never been something I’ve done. Instead, it’s the tradition. The Masters takes place in Augusta, and…
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This old truck
About seven years ago I was at a family get-together at my parents’ house. When everybody else had left, and it was my folks and I at the kitchen table, my dad acted the way he does when he wants to talk business. There was this old pickup truck he’d bought nearly 20 years before…
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Paid in full
A few days ago I did something I’ve been looking forward to for a long time. I made the last payment on my car. How I got here was an adventure in itself. My first two cars were hand-me-downs. When Dad bought a used Oldsmobile as the new family car, I got the slightly younger…
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Time capsule: December 26, 1982
At Christmas 1982 I got a very special present. The year before, Santa had brought my brother a Sears stereo that had a cassette recorder with microphone jacks. I’d driven him crazy by staying in his room and using the recorder to make my own tapes. It was a way for me to channel the…
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My time in Eden
Music and I have had a strange relationship. I’ve always loved it, but music hasn’t always loved me back. For one, I have no musical ability of my own. I’ve always wanted to learn how to play guitar or piano or something, but where others make music I ended up making noise. Aside from the…
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Take a break, Driver 8
For those of us in the teaching business, so many things not related to teaching have to wait until the summer months. Even then, some things we do have some relationship to work. Since the semester ended in mid-May, I’ve been in motion just about every week, and so much of it has had to…