Category Archives: Uncategorized

My high school classmate Walt, a lifelong Vicksburger, sent me this video about Ann Arbor (1), asking me if this was False or Russian disinformation.  I reviewed the 11-minute video, which I mostly liked.  Always interesting to get an outsider’s perspective on your hometown.  My response: Thanks Walt.  I really enjoyed watching that.  Guess theContinue reading “tree town”

It’s high season for peaches here in the mitten.  Joy!  And better yet, the freestones are here, with Bellaires leading the way.  The beauties in the peck I bought at the farmers’ market yesterday morning are already stripped, sliced, and put up.  A ritual I thoroughly enjoy.  But every time I gaze on a bowlContinue reading ““pretty as a peach””

Yes, we’ve moved on.  Masks are off (except for a few Hiroo Onadas (1)) and we’re dancing cheek-to-cheek.  I’d sworn off writing about Mr. Corona, but I just saw this 13 minute video which encapsulates so well my frustrations with how things went (2).  There’s talk we should have an “amnesty” about those times, andContinue reading “not more COVID!”

Nathan Wei, MD (b8/10/49 NYC d3/27/18 Washington D.C.) was a ground-breaking rheumatologist practicing in Frederick, Maryland, about an hour southwest of D.C.  We became fast friends on our first meeting in the early 80s, as we shared an interest in what Bill Kelley called “certain technical procedures appropriate to our specialty” (1).  No one pushedContinue reading “Wei to go”

On this day, 105 years ago, Dirk and Dena Ike of Johnson Street in Grand Rapids – less than nine years off the boat from Groningen – welcomed their third boy into the world, little Dickie. He wouldn’t shed that name till he left for school, over shadowed by his big brothers Bowenus (Bob)(1), theContinue reading “8/8/18”

Might I have a future as a songwriter? All songwriters need inspiration and mine came from good ol’ Barnes buddy Dave, a.k.a. Stick, a.k.a. Chappelletti. We were the two tallest in our class, and competed for biggest renegade. He practices in Marin County and I decided a few years back I should look him upContinue reading “tin pan alley?”

In my enthusiasm yesterday to tell you about the wonder of alliums at the Ann Arbor farmers’ market and the great soup I’d just made with them (1), I omitted an important ingredient from the recipe! Without the juice of those three lemons right at the end, you don’t cut the pungency of the alliumsContinue reading “lily oops!”

The good Lord is really beginning to show his bounty in these parts.  Trips to our farmers’ markets no longer target just one or two acts, punctuated by some hydroponic greens.  Those treasured early seasons – rhubarb, asparagus, strawberries – have come and gone but now we get a real show.  There are those precious,Continue reading “elephant lily”

Dr. West’s Medicine Show and Jug Band had their biggest hit with 1967’s “The Eggplant that Ate Chicago”, describing a mutated alien vegetable that put civilization at risk (1).  Norman Greenbaum, who wrote and sang the song, would later do the 1970 classic, “Spirit in the Sky”, a staple of boomer funerals everywhere (2).  WhenContinue reading “that shal-lot´!”

79 years ago today, George W. Frayne IV was born in Boise, son of 2 artists headed to New York.  He earned a B.F.A and M.F.A. from U of M, getting tangled up in some frat bands that evolved to become the Lost Planet Airmen.  You may know him better as Commander Cody. I celebrateContinue reading “Happy Birthday, George!”