Archive for the ‘Claverack’ Category
March 6, 2016
Winston Churchill used to say he was chased by the “black dog,” depression. It chased him his whole life and he ran, mostly successfully, from it his whole life. Sometimes, when the “black dog” felt particularly close, Winston would sometimes go off to Morocco and paint, drink and think and probably write. He wrote more than Dickens and Shakespeare combined.
He may well have been a manic-depressive. During the war he was followed around by his personal physician, Lord Moran, who prescribed upper and downers to manage the moods of the great man.
He was black dogged by depression and I was thinking about that last night as I rode home on the train, black dogged myself. I had gone down to the city yesterday, had a full day of appointments and when I stepped on the train last night I was exhausted and felt the old black dog nipping at my heels.
When I got home, I went to bed almost immediately and fell asleep early watching an episode of “Doc Martin,” about an English doctor only marginally more cranky than I was last night.
When the morning broke, I was my usual sunny self and, while sipping tea, worked on next week’s lectures. The day was spent on that and the Saturday chores. Young Nick was here and we did things that needed to be done, mounting a light fixture, cleaning, sorting, rearranging, bringing in wood and dealing with the trash. The things we do on Saturday.
Going down to the Dot, I welcomed Alana back from three weeks in Costa Rica and then, after an omelet and a Bloody Mary, came home to write my letter, which often is one of the most pleasurable times in the day.
Turning on the floodlights so the creek is illuminated, I sorted through the last couple of days.
The rise of Trump has been a constant cause for conversation though as I returned home, I discovered Ted Cruz had won the Kansas caucuses and he is at least as frightening to me as Trump. Both of them seem to me to be wack-a-doodles from some other dimension. This earns me no points with my conservative friends but it’s true; it’s how I feel.
Caitlin Jenner wants to be Ted Cruz’s “trans ambassador.” I am not sure he’s interested in having one.
Popular comedian Louis CK has implored his fans not to vote for Trump, likening him to Hitler. Trump, not necessarily looking to support Louis CK’s view of him, announced he would increase the use of torture if he were President.
“Downtown Abbey” ends tomorrow night. I have already seen the last episode as I subscribed to the feed through iTunes. Let’s tip a hat to Alistair Bruce, who was in charge of making sure it was historically accurate. He did a magnificent job.
A fire is burning in the stove; I’ve rearranged some lights in the house. I like the effect as I sit here at the dining room table, the creek lit in front of me, jazz playing and my thoughts running.
Four nuns and twelve others were killed in Yemen during an attack. Gunmen entered the building, handcuffed the victims and then shot them. It’s not yet clear who carried out the attack. The Pope has decried it; the nuns were members of the order founded by Mother Theresa.
Boko Haram, the scourge of Nigeria, is suffering from a food crisis. With all the people who have fled them, no is left to grow crops or herd animals and they are beginning to starve. Hungry and desperate, they are ruthlessly raiding which, I suspect, will only increase the cycle they have created.
And in my cycle, I am going to sign off for tonight. I need to be up in the morning, work on my lectures and then to church. I signed up to do coffee hour on Easter Sunday, not quite realizing that it was a major, major thing and I am now expected to come up with something quite spectacular. Cookbooks are out. Recipes are being reconnoitered.
I have a meeting about this tomorrow at 12:30. I think I may have over stretched and I will rise to the challenge.
Tags:Alistair Bruce, Boko Haram, Claverack, Cruz, depression, Dickens, Donald Trump, Downton Abbey, Easter, Hudson, Lord Moran, Louis CK, Mat Tombers, Mathew Tombers, Pope Francis, Red Dot, Shakespeare, The Black Dog, Winston Churchill
Posted in 2016 Election, Boko Haram, Civil Rights, Claverack, Columbia County, depression, Elections, Entertainment, Hudson New York, Life, Literature, Mat Tombers, Mathew Tombers, Media, Nazis, Political Commentary, Pope Francis, Social Commentary, Television, Trump, Uncategorized | Leave a Comment »
March 4, 2016
Chet Baker’s “Jazz in Paris” plays while I am typing, courtesy of Amazon Prime, the service I am learning it is hard to live without. It pays for itself with free shipping around Christmas not to mention being able to find things there I can’t find easily in stores. I mean it seems like everything is there. They have just released a new device, Amazon Tap, that works with their Echo. Have to learn more about that…
When I woke this morning, it was chill but bright and light speckled on the creek as I looked out the window waiting for my electric kettle to boil the water for my tea.
It was an easy day. I spent the morning in the annual great American adventure, preparing information for my taxes for the accountant who does both my business and my personal returns. Finishing that, I went to Hudson and had lunch with my friend Dena Moran, who has moved her shop, Olde Hudson, into larger digs. Afterwards, I had my oil changed and then came home and gathered the piles of receipts and prepared for them to be stored away.
While we were at lunch, Dena and I both checked out what Mitt Romney said about Donald Trump. While I was doing taxes, Mitt was skewering The Donald, calling him a “phony,” “a fraud” and many other things. Good for Mitt… It’s the most I have respected him in years.
Trump responded in The Donald’s way. He looked back on 2012 when he said Mitt would have dropped to his knees to have The Donald’s endorsement. That’s not a pretty picture… According to The Donald, Mitt’s a failed candidate and the only person who “chokes” more than Mitt is Marco Rubio.
Does anyone get tired of this?
Shockingly, among Muslims who vote Republican, he’s the most popular candidate. What? Not something I understand but it’s real. It seems they think once elected, he’ll become pragmatic and work on economic issues, which is their greatest concern, and forgot all the anti-Muslim rhetoric. There is a part of me that suspects they are delusional, rather like Jews who couldn’t really believe Hitler was serious.
Caitlyn Jenner is supporting Ted Cruz, which seems as crazy to me as Muslims supporting The Donald.
In other happy news, Kim Jong Un of North Korea has ordered his military to be ready to use nuclear weapons at any time. Perhaps preemptively, as the UN voted in the most severe sanctions in twenty years against his country. The pudgy young man is determined, desperately determined, the world give him respect. I suspect bad parenting.
In Syria, the fragile truce has given some respite to the desperate inhabitants of that poor country. Thinking about them helped me realize how grateful I am to be here, poised above the Claverack Creek where sun speckles in the morning on the water, where I can listen to jazz and think about the issues of the world while not dodging mortar fire or bombs from above.
Tags:Caitlyn Jenner, Chet Baker, Claverack, Claverack Creek, Donald Trump, Hudson, jazz in Paris, Kim Jong - Un, Mat Tombers, Mathew Tombers, Mitt Romney, New York, Olde Hudson, Syria
Posted in 2016 Election, Airstrikes, Claverack, Columbia County, Hollywood, Hudson New York, Mat Tombers, Mathew Tombers, Media, Political Commentary, Politics, Social Commentary, Syria, Syrian Refugee Crisis, Television, Trump, Uncategorized | Leave a Comment »
March 3, 2016
On the nights before the days I teach, not only do I set my iPhone alarm, I also set my clock radio. I want to be sure I am up in plenty of time to get myself centered, caffeinated and to gather everything I need for class.
Since I taught today, the clock radio went off, loudly, and the very first thing I heard this morning was “Trump.” Loudly, gratingly, irritatingly… The moment I heard his name I knew he had won big last night and I shuddered, hit the snooze alarm and buried myself underneath my pillow.
Trump did win big last night. On the way to class I purchased copies of the New York Times, The New York Post, The Albany Times Union and our local Register-Star. I broke the class up into four groups, giving each group a copy of the four papers and asked them to judge them against the points that Rex Smith had made about the ethics of journalism.
Not surprisingly, perhaps, the New York Times got the best reviews for objectivity, followed by the Albany Times – Union. One of the students pointed out that in the New York Post, owned by Rupert Murdoch, that all the coverage of the Republicans was in color and had more pages than they gave for the Democrats, whose coverage was all in black and white. Very interesting…
The poor Register Star didn’t really even register. It had almost no coverage of Super Tuesday.
Hillary Clinton won but not as decisively as her supporters would have liked. She battered Bernie but didn’t knock him out. Yesterday did make his march to the nomination more difficult and possibly impossible. Hillary won Massachusetts, which had been expected to go to Bernie.
Mitt Romney, the 2012 Republican candidate, is expected to give a speech shortly about the 2016 race. He has been very hard on Trump in his Twitter feed of late. It will be interesting to hear what he has to say on Thursday. I didn’t much like him as the Republican nominee as it seemed, to me, that he had no center which I had once thought he did. Perhaps now that he is finished with running he will have returned to the center and will say things from his heart.
Ben Carson has signaled he may be ending his candidacy. Ted Cruz is positioning himself as the only one who could possible beat Trump. Rubio won Minnesota, my home state, last night. I think they thought of him as the least of all evils.
Aubrey McClendon, an energy entrepreneur in Oklahoma, died today in a fiery crash while he was speeding down a road. Yesterday, he had been indicted. Today he is dead. It will take two weeks to figure out what really happened. He was fifty-six. He was accused of rigging bids.
Astronaut Scott Kelly returned to earth today after nearly a year in orbit. He has an identical twin brother, also an astronaut, and NASA is attempting to find out just what a year in space does to a person. They are thinking toward Mars. Pretty amazing, don’t you think?
The UN has imposed the severest sanctions on North Korea in twenty years as a result of its continuing to develop nuclear weapons and delivery systems. From what I have observed and certainly I am not a foreign policy expert, it’s the people of North Korea who will suffer and there is no way I can see they will push for a regime change. The pudgy little dictator of North Korea will still find ways to get his delicacies while his people resume eating grass.
The Pentagon has begun using Special Forces to capture IS leaders. They have had one success and aim for more. But the Pentagon doesn’t want to get back into the prisoner business so after questioning, the IS individual will be turned over to the Iraqis.
The evening is coming to a close. The dryer has just buzzed, announcing that the last load of clothes has been finished. The only sound I hear now is the ticking of an old clock that my parents had which one of their parents had. I think of it as the heart of the house, ticking time away, each moment taking us further into the future, which none of us can know.
I have some friends who live down in the Caribbean. I am tempted to ask them what it would take for me to go there should Trump become President.
Tags:Albany Times Union, Aubrey McClendon, Ben Carson, Bernie Sanders, Claverack, Donald Trump, Hillary Clinton, IS, Marco Rubio, Mat Tombers, Mathew Tombers, Mitt Romney, NASA, New York, North Korea, Register Star, Rupert Murdoch, Scott Kelly, Ted Cruz
Posted in 2016 Election, Claverack, Columbia County, Entertainment, European Refugee Crisis, Hollywood, Hudson New York, IS, Mat Tombers, Mathew Tombers, Media, Mideast, Political Commentary, Politics, Social Commentary, Television, Trump, Uncategorized | 2 Comments »
February 23, 2016
Outside, the world is dark, though the moon is full and bright and big overhead. It has been a clear, sunny day with temps in the mid-40’s, pretty perfect for the 22nd of February.
Yesterday, I went to church and then to Albany and by the time I got home, the stuffing had been knocked out of me and I tumbled into bed about five and ended up falling asleep somewhere around nine. Going to a party up there exhausted me. Carrying a crockpot up a small hill was nearly impossible. I felt old and fragile and I was not happy.
Today, I woke up early and it has been the most active day I’ve had since I was out of the hospital. I was doing just fine and then, about twenty minutes ago, the wall was hit and I sank back into bed.
My sister, the nurse, has been telling me to listen to my body and I have been. When it says rest, I do. I stretched too far yesterday.
So here I am, propped up in bed in my sweats, jazz playing and my laptop in my lap.
It was a good day. Good class. Isaac Phillips, a young entrepreneur, Skyped in from Mexico City where he is working on an app for the Latin American market. This sounds promising. Ads delivered to your phone in exchange for your data bill being paid.
Isaac is a really good young man. And he is not much older [and younger than some] of my students. He spoke about following your passion also meant suffering for your passion. It was a great dose of reality about what it takes to make it in the high tech world.
I also showed a short film about the history of media which featured a poster of “The Jazz Singer,” the first talkie. A lifetime ago I had lunch with May McAvoy, who was the female lead in “The Jazz Singer.” She and three other stars of the era talked of the ’20’s as if they were yesterday and were a window into a world that was gone.
One of the other stars that was there that day was Leatrice Joy, who was divorced by John Gilbert so he could marry Greta Garbo, who left him at the altar. She was one of my mother’s favorites.
Esther Ralston was another, top billed over Gary Cooper in her day, who talked about having to beat off her husband with her umbrella when he tried to push her into the Grand Canyon after the stock market crash so he could collect the insurance.
These were women who had lived and were still seizing life when I met them.
On Twitter, I posted an article about the controversy between Apple and the Feds over unlocking a phone used by the terrorist couple in Riverside who killed fourteen and wounded many more. Apple is not wanting to do it; the Feds are demanding it and everyone is thinking about it. I have made no decision about it and was a bit surprised when my post brought forth strong comments on both sides of the issue.
And then I realized it was really important and how we decide this is going to be important going forward. How does a free society remain free in a time of terror? I don’t have the answers but appreciate the questions being asked.
Meanwhile, Ted Cruz has fired his spokesman for a tweet, inaccurate, about Rubio. Cruz is getting a slimy reputation and he is trying to shake it. He’s not shady but he hires people who are… Excuse me?
Jeb Bush spent $130,000,000 running for President and has now bowed out of the race. I actually thought he would be the candidate; it seemed logical. My friend, Jeff Cole, picked Rubio. I think Jeff is smarter than I am.
In Kalamazoo, Michigan an Uber driver shot eight people, killing six and picking up rides between the killings. Officials are describing it as “unexplainable” and it is but then so much is “unexplainable.”
Russia and the US have agreed to help implement a ceasefire in Syria, which is great if it works though it doesn’t include the Nursa Front or IS so who knows what actually will happen. Hopefully, some relief for the tortured souls living there…
Also tortured, but not as viscerally as Syria, is Yahoo, a tech giant who has lost its way. In 1999, it was the Google of its day. Now it’s not and there is lots of talk about dismembering the company, selling it off in pieces. Marissa Meyers may well be its last CEO.
And that’s the last I can do for today. I am worn out. Need to quit now and allow myself to fall asleep watching something good, start tomorrow all over, hopefully as fresh as I felt today.
Tags:Apple, Claverack, Esther Ralston, Gary Cooper, Greta Garbo, Hudson, IS, Isaac Phillips, Isis, John Gilbert, Leatrice Joy, Mat Tombers, Mathew Tombers, May McAvoy, Melissa Meyers, New York, Putin, Russia, Syria, Ted Cruz, The Jazz Singer, Yahoo
Posted in 2016 Election, Claverack, Columbia County, Entertainment, Hollywood, Hudson New York, Mat Tombers, Mathew Tombers, Media, Mideast, Political Commentary, Putin, Russia, Social Commentary, Syria, Syrian Refugee Crisis, Television, Uncategorized | Leave a Comment »
February 21, 2016
It’s a wild Saturday night here in Claverack. The creek is illuminated with floodlights. I am having one of the first martinis since I got out of the hospital, now almost two weeks ago. My body is working very hard to be normal; I am not as tired as I was and while there are still some tests to be done I think Dr. Paolino was right: I was sick and now I am better.
On Pandora is Hipster Cocktail Music, a channel I added by accident but thought I would try out. What I am discovering is I’m not a hipster. Probably time to change to another channel soon. An interesting experiment.
Life is an interesting experiment. Cooking certainly is. I have been cooking for the last three hours, prepping dishes for an off the train, train party. Those of you who know me, know that our train community is tight knit and we party off and on the train. Tomorrow, Loretta, who is one of the conductors is throwing a party that will include her family and friends, which includes those of us from the train.
In the slow cooker, I have BBQ ribs cooking and I have in the oven something I have never attempted before, a casserole. Never in my long life have I cooked one so I thought I would attempt one. This one is ham and rice and vegetables and who knows whether it will work out or not.
All of these have been diversions from the real world. Or what we think of as “the real world.” Hillary has narrowly won Nevada, which she needed to do and Trump, God Help Us, has won South Carolina. He is now in for the long haul.
Trump may very well win the Republican nomination. I suspect it will be as catastrophic as Goldwater was in 1964 but in this campaign, all bets are off. Everyone I know is, as the Brits would say, “gob smacked.” I know I am. Like many others I thought Trump would burn out by end of summer but here he is, stronger than ever.
Spring is on us. [It was 63 degrees here in Claverack today. No need for the winter coat I wore when I left the house. People were in shorts.] And Trump is with us more than he ever was.
Look, it’s Saturday night and people are out celebrating whatever they do on Saturday night while I am tucked away in the cottage writing and thinking about world events.
And while I am sitting here, still listening to Hipster Cocktail Music, I noticed that the last survivor of Treblinka, a Nazi concentration camp, has died. His name was Samuel Willenberg, a man who said he survived “by chance.” They are leaving us, the witnesses to that incredible, horrible time that was World War II. The unspeakable horrors of that time are being resurrected in these days, with IS and its atrocities.
While they boggle our mind, they continue. There is no World War to stop them. All is fractious politics in the Mideast.
It is sweet to be here in the cottage, my dining room table a mess of papers from my teaching, the lights illuminating the creek, music on Pandora, the hum of my dishwasher in the background, plans to redo my bathroom.
All the lucky things I enjoy because of the moment in time and place in which I was born, coupled with the luckiness that my life provided me. When I wake in the morning, I work to take time to say my mantra: thank you for this day in which I find myself, thank you for the resources to live through this day and thank you for the luck that has brought me to this place, cozied in my cottage, surrounded by friends and living a magical life.
Tags:Claverack, Donald Trump, Hillary Clinton, Hudson, IS, Mat Tombers, Mathew Tombers, Obama
Posted in 2016 Election, Claverack, Columbia County, Entertainment, European Refugee Crisis, Greene County New York, Hollywood, Hudson New York, Mathew Tombers, Media, Mideast, Nazis, Obama, Political Commentary, Social Commentary, Syria, Trump, Uncategorized, World War II | Leave a Comment »
February 18, 2016
Since being in the hospital, I have developed a taste for tea. No coffee has passed my lips since my release from the hospital. My fellow patient, Anthony, called what they served “jail coffee” and I think he spoke from experience. It certainly tasted like the only place they would serve it was somewhere where you were for punishment.
I get up in the morning, brew a cup of tea and crawl back into bed to sip it and read the NY Times on my phone. Very civilized, I think.
Today, I taught. Larry Divney, an old, old friend who was my boss for about forty- five minutes at A&E, gave a guest lecture today. Almost as soon as I began reporting to him, he left for the Comedy Channel which then merged with Ha! and became Comedy Central. The rest is history. He became Comedy Central’s President and then retired. That lasted four months. The he “un-retired” and became President of Ad Sales for all of MTV Networks and after a few years of that, he actually did retire.
We reconnected when our mutual friend, Chuck Bachrach, told each of us one day we must be close to each other because, I mean, how big was Columbia County and we were both there? That day, we ran into each other at Walmart and have celebrated most Thanksgivings and some Christmases together.
He spoke today about his career and how he dealt with people, with honesty and integrity, which he always has and he inspired some of the people in my class. It was great to watch him do the Divney magic with my class.
Honesty and integrity – so important, no matter what you’re doing and occasionally not always in the forefront of people’s minds and actions. They always were for Larry and I like to think for me, too, when I marched through the world of business.
This morning in something I read there was an exegesis of Hillary’s relationship with Kissinger which she has been touting recently. It has made me think less of her. Kissinger was/is a bad apple. He didn’t, as far as I can tell, play honestly or with integrity. He was an opportunist of the worst sort.
Once, in New Delhi, I was in a restaurant, Bukhara, then considered the best restaurant in the city. Might still be. He was there with Nancy, close enough I could almost touch him. We were all laughing and enjoying ourselves but there was a heaviness to his part of the room. It was darker than where we were. I still remember thinking about that, even now, all these years later.
He is not a good man. And Hillary hurts herself with her association of herself with him. He has the blood of many from the Vietnam War era on his hands. He could have forestalled their deaths but I don’t think that mattered to him. It was all politics.
My friend, Greg Harrigan, was one of those who died in Vietnam who might not have had to if Kissinger had not fiddled with the peace process.
Am I bitter about what I know about the past? Yes, a little…
Things did not have to be the way they were if men like Kissinger and Nixon had been men of integrity and honesty.
My friend, Bruce Braun, messaged me on Facebook; all politicians have been cut from the same cloth, all the way back to the Romans. I responded: further back. There were Egyptian politicians, Babylonian ones. All of them about what was “necessary.” And “necessary” did not always mean what was honest but what was expedient for those who held power.
I’m getting old now and there will be a moment when I pass away and I will think: I made it through. My god, but I made it through this interesting thing called life.
However, I am still here and will be for awhile longer and since I haven’t quite made it through yet, I will still write and think and postulate about life and the future.
Today, in the Times, there was a report about the fact that while it is all quite wretched out there what with IS and Syria and Iraq and everything else, it is still so much better than it has been. We are rising from the darkness more than we have ever been despite the horrors of the world. Fewer people are in abject poverty. Technology is empowering us. We have not had the nuclear destruction of the world we feared during the Cold War.
Our better angels seem to be speaking, despite all the horrors that surround us…
Tags:Bruce Braun, Bukhara, Claverack, Comedy Central, Hillary Clinton, IS, Kissinger, Larry Divney, Mat Tombers, Mathew Tombers, New Delhi, Syria
Posted in 2016 Election, Afghanistan, Claverack, Columbia County, Hudson New York, Mat Tombers, Mathew Tombers, Media, Mideast, Political Commentary, Social Commentary, Trump, Uncategorized | Leave a Comment »
February 16, 2016
Columbia County Ben Franklin Pandora Antonin Scalia Obama Mitch McConnell Oil Prices Saturday Night Live Cruz Rubio Trump
Outside, a light snow is falling and I am sequestered in the cottage, where I have been all day. It’s very chill though tomorrow we are supposed to hit the low fifties. We are all rolling our eyes about this winter which seems unlike any winter I have experienced since I’ve been up in Columbia County. For the most part, it’s been like a long, chill fall and not like winter.
There is a fire in the Franklin Stove though I have the door closed. I am not after aesthetics tonight, I am after heat. There has been a chill to the cottage all day and I am seeking to counter it with the stove, which could almost heat the house when I keep it stocked with logs and the door closed. Good old Ben Franklin; a fount of inventions…
Jazz is playing on Pandora. I am getting better so I am no longer feeling the need for silence. It is the first day I haven’t spoken to my sister since this began. I’m healing but am still so tired; I sleep a deep sleep every night and usually for nine to eleven hours. Ah, “sleep that knits up the raveled sleeve of care…” My sleeve has been raveled and needs knitting up…
Several friends have called today to check on the state of my health and after I have assured them I am on the mend, our talk seems to go to politics and all express a dismay at the political world we are living in. Scalia is dead and McConnell has sworn to delay an appointment until we have a new President. And, frankly, I rolled my eyes at that. Somehow, it seems the Republicans think of Obama as an eight year constitutional crisis and I don’t understand that.
I haven’t always agreed with him and I don’t think he is a constitutional crisis personified. I have never understood what seems a pathological hatred for the man by Republicans.
After a discussion of Scalia, we immediately go to Trump who has caused the campaign for the Republican nomination to resemble a Saturday Night Live comedy sketch.
And yet it’s all very real. And the vitriol between the Republicans is so unseemly. I am appalled. But they are taking it very seriously. And that’s more than a little frightening… Cruz, Rubio, Trump are espousing the politics of fear and hatred from what I see. Where is hope? Belief in the future?
The rest of the world is ticking on. The Australians have uncovered a ring of drug smugglers using bras to carry meth. The WHO is working to figure out Zika. Ehud Olmert, a former Israeli Prime Minister, is off to prison while proclaiming his innocence. Gas is under $2.00 a gallon in most places.
The world is nuts. When hasn’t it been? It is just this is our nuts and we have to deal with it.
Tags:Antonin Scalia, Ben Franklin, Claverack, Donald Trump, Marco Rubio, Mat Tombers, Mathew Tombers, Mitch McConnel, Obama, Pandora, Saturday Night Live, Ted Cruz
Posted in 2016 Election, Afghanistan, Claverack, Columbia County, gas prices, Gay, Gay Liberation, Hudson New York, Mat Tombers, Mathew Tombers, Media, Putin, Russia, Social Commentary, Uncategorized | 2 Comments »
February 14, 2016
It is Saturday night and I am at the cottage. I have just lit a fire and have finished prepping for tomorrow; I am doing the coffee hour after the 10:30 service. Since it is Valentine’s Day I wanted to do something a little special. I think I have, once again, succumbed to my mother’s philosophy: too much is never enough.
Oh well, hopefully it will be fun and it is the first real thing I have done since being in the hospital. My primary care physician, Dr. Paolino, summed it up: You were sick and now you’re better. You still have to see your gastroenterologist but you are on the mend.
And I am, though I am still sleeping a lot and being very careful about what I eat. My body is working to be normal and I’m grateful. Amazing things these human bodies, they often heal themselves, sometimes with help but they are wondrous.
My brother is now in Honduras, where he goes at least once a year to provide medical care to the back of beyond, to places who only have medical care when teams like his arrive. I’m terribly proud of him. When he is there, I am concerned as Honduras has devolved into one of the most violent places in the hemisphere but every year he goes back, as he has for almost forty years now.
Lionel let me know that Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia passed away. I have mixed feelings about it as he spewed some hateful things these last years, particularly about gay rights and marriage equality. About six months ago, I read a speech he gave and was appalled at the intolerance, actually shocked. It seemed so bitter and unforgiving.
Still, may he rest in peace. As may we all rest in peace when our time comes.
Being ill and in the hospital, summoned intimations of my mortality, heightened by my old good friend, Tim Sparke, diagnosed some three or four years ago with a brain tumor, who is now in hospice, the cancer having spread through his body. He wrote me and told me he was now serene, something that I have heard comes to people in their last days if they are given the grace to know they are living their last days.
He is younger than me by a decade I think. Life plays itself out for each of us in its own cadence and only the universe understands it.
The Russian Premier, Medvedev, has declared we have slid into a new “cold war.” Yes, I suppose we have. I’m not sure quite how it happened but it’s been years in the making and lies, I think, largely in Putin’s lap as it serves him to prop up his power in Russia. They’re suffering from the collapse of oil prices probably as much or more than anyone with the possible exception of Venezuela.
Months ago, I read something about a dam in Iraq. It wasn’t being maintained and threatened a half million people with catastrophe. It’s back in the news and it is in bad shape. An Italian firm has been hired to repair it and, hopefully, repairs will happen in time or a half million people may drown. Think Katrina, exponentially worse.
True to form, The Donald is striking out. Apparently he has called Cruz “a pussy.” I had to Google it because polite press wouldn’t tell me exactly what Trump had said. I will need to read more about this but nothing Trump does surprises me.
Back in the olden days of the early Republic, politics was this nasty. Yes, it was. And now we have returned to it, thanks to the Donald. Ah, we shall see how this plays out. Not prettily I think.
It’s getting late. I’m off to bed. I have coffee hour tomorrow. May your tomorrow be good…
Tags:Claverack, Donald Trump, Hudson, IS, Mat Tombers, Mathew Tombers, New York, Obama, Putin, Syria
Posted in 2016 Election, Claverack, Elections, Entertainment, Gay, Gay Liberation, Hudson New York, Mat Tombers, Mathew Tombers, Media, Political Commentary, Politics, Putin, Social Commentary, Syrian Refugee Crisis, Television, Trump, Uncategorized | Leave a Comment »
February 11, 2016
Amtrak Hudson River Gary and Angel Koven The Knot Bernie Sanders Donald Trump Hillary Clinton Einstein Theory of Relativity Oregon Standoff Ammon Bundy NATO Syria Russia Secretary Kerry Lavrov Saudi Arabia
As I start this, I am riding south on Amtrak, heading into the city to see my primary care physician, who is in the city, to bring him up to date on my medical adventures.
The Hudson is a steely grey, occasionally looking like burnished silver when the sun breaks through the heavy cloud cover. My friend, James Linkin, is sitting beside me, happy to see me up and walking.
The river is choppy, not surprising as the wind is up and biting, making it feel much colder than the temperature. I am tired as I often am these days though grateful to be up and out of bed and on the move.
My world feels altered in some way by my sojourn in the hospital. My friends often describe me as thoughtful and I am more so right now. The last few days, I have lived in quiet, without my usual jazz playing in the background. I’ve started to turn it on and then decided against it, preferring silence as my solace.
Tonight, I will have dinner with my friends Gary and Angel. They have been married now for four + years and I was at their wedding. Today their love for each other is as incandescent as it was the day they married. I recommended them for a shoot for the 20th anniversary of The Knot, a website devoted to marriage. One of the crew told me they were his favorite couple.
While I have been recovering, Bernie Sanders and Donald Trump won their respective races in New Hampshire. Headlines wonder whether Hillary’s campaign is about to implode and I wonder about the future of the country. The Trump juggernaut continues and that scares the hell out of me.
I’m sure I’m not the only one. The Daily News had scathing headlines about his victory saying zombies had come out to vote. One wonders…
Scientists are wondering less since they have found gravitational waves which fit into Einstein’s Theory of Relativity. Great scientific excitement and my friend, James, was particularly excited. He’s a fan of the physicist and shares his birthday with Einstein.
The Oregon Standoff is over. Bundy, Sr. has been arrested, following son Ammon to jail. And other standoff chapter is finished and this time, thankfully, without mass deaths.
NATO is sending warships into the Aegean to see if it can stem the flow of refugees, many being transported by human traffickers. The seas are rough, dozens are dying and the fighting rages back in Syria.
Saudi Arabia is said to have made a “final” decision to send troops to Syria. That is not going to uncomplicate things.
And while they might be sending troops, they’re not taking in their brethren, rather letting them suffer their fate on water than let them into their own lands.
Russia’s Foreign Minister, Lavrov, says this will result in an terminable, never ending war with the possibility of a new world war at the end of the game. Loverly.
The Saudis might make their move in concert with the Turks, who have been engaged in verbal hostilities with Russia ever since they downed a Russian jet before the New Year.
Secretary Kerry is desperately trying to get the Peace Talks going but it seems hard to get the sides into the same building not to mention the same room. Well, actually, they have no intention of being in the same room. If there is any dialogue, it will be through messengers shuttling between rooms. Could cost a lot of shoe leather but if there is progress, it would be worth it.
The Mideast already seems mired in that “interminable war.” 470,000 have died in Syria since the outbreak of protests against Assad five years ago. Millions of Syrians are in camps and desperate to get out to a better life, somewhere.
The day has faded. I am sitting in a deli in the city, sipping a cup of black coffee [I’m not allowed cream yet], looking out into the night that has fallen, the bright lights of cars heading down 7th Avenue, people scurrying from the cold.
All peaceful here. But for how long?
Tags:Ammon Bundy, Amtrak, Bernie Sanders, Donald Trump, Einstein, Gary and Angel Koven, Hillary Clinton, Hudson River, Kerry, Lavrov, NATO, Oregon Standoff, Russia, Saudi Arabia, Syria, The Knot, Theory of Relativity
Posted in 2016 Election, Airstrikes, Claverack, Columbia County, Entertainment, Mat Tombers, Mathew Tombers, Mideast, Political Commentary, Politics, Putin, Russia, Social Commentary, Syria, Syrian Refugee Crisis, Trump, Uncategorized | Leave a Comment »
February 2, 2016
Nick Stuart Tickety boo James Green Hillary Clinton Bernie Sanders Marco Rubio Jeb Bush Zika Virus Brazil Olympics WHO Apple Google Alphabet Yahoo Melissa Mayer IS Boko Haram Assad American Airlines United
When I drove into the drive of the cottage, behind me was a brilliant rose gold sunset illuminating the western sky. After spending the afternoon running a variety of errands, I was grateful to be home.
My very English friend, Nick Stuart, if he is concerned about either my physical or mental well being, will text me a message that says, “Everything tickety boo?”
And tonight, not everything is tickety boo.
I have been headachy and achy since about noon today and so, once the errands were accomplished, I slid home and lit a fire, changed into comfortable clothes, also warm, and began to rest.
I don’t want to get sick. I have class on Wednesday; my friend James Green is Skyping in to discuss digital advertising. It is not possible to get sick; the show must go on!
The show that is going on right now, as I write, is the Iowa caucuses and the let the games begin. The first “showdown” is happening. Hillary and Bernie are neck and neck. Trump has a lead over everyone. Marco Rubio is desperately hoping he will come in third in Iowa.
I am worn to a frazzle by all this. This campaign will go down in history, I hope, as the longest election campaign in the country’s history. I can’t imagine anything longer than this. Shouldn’t the elections be next Tuesday so we can get this all over with? We have something like another 280 days of all of them slugging it out.
As the caucuses begin, Jeb Bush is on his way to New Hampshire where he hopes to do better. Once the wind was in his sails and now he finds himself becalmed. The son of a President, the brother of another, he seemed anointed. Not so much now…
While we are bemoaning the campaign cycle [or at least I am], the Zika virus has become worse than originally thought. Brazil is harder hit than first thought. The World Health Organization has declared an emergency. And the world will be traveling to Brazil this year for the Olympics. Bring lots of mosquito repellant and use birth control while there and afterwards until you’re sure you don’t have it…
For three years now Apple has been the most valuable company in the world. Today Google became more valuable. Alphabet, the holding company for Google and its other enterprises, rose sharply as there has been a renaissance in its advertising. Ah, heavy is the head that wears the crown…
Yahoo, which once wore that crown, is now shedding 15% of its workforce. Ms. Mayer has not turned the corner.
Oil prices continue to slump and there is a slowdown in manufacturing both in China and the US. Worrisome. Pundits are wondering if we are in for another recession. Say it not so…
IS is working its wrath upon the world. Boko Haram, which has declared its loyalty to IS, killed 70 in a suicide bombing attack in Nigeria. Not to mention the trouble in Syria; 3500 have fled into Turkey as Assad’s forces advance. The Taliban have killed twenty in Kabul.
And my oh my… Free snacks have returned to American and Untied. Is this an alternative universe? Free snacks on planes? Have I been transported back to the 1990’s? No, don’t think so. Not until they make the seats bigger. I’m not big and the seats are a challenge to me. To get a good seat in economy one must upgrade to Economy Plus, which I usually do.
My fire is burning happily. I am happy and feeling better, more “tickety boo.” The flood lights illuminate the creek and I am more ready than ever to crawl into my great queen sized bed and pull the covers up to my neck, watch a little video and head off to sleep. I need it.
The show must go on!
Tags:Alphabet, American Airlines, Apple, Assad, Boko Haram, Brazil Olympics, Claverack, Google, IS, James Green, Mat Tombers, Mathew Tombers, Melissa Mayers, Nick Stuart, Obama, United Airlines, WHO, Yahoo, Zika Virus
Posted in 2016 Election, Afghanistan, China stock market rout, Claverack, Entertainment, European Refugee Crisis, Hudson New York, Mat Tombers, Mathew Tombers, Media, Mideast, Nigeria, Obama, Political Commentary, Social Commentary, Syrian Refugee Crisis, Trump, Uncategorized | 2 Comments »
Letter from the Vineyard 
Letter From New York 03 05 2016 From Churchill to Yemen…
March 6, 2016Winston Churchill used to say he was chased by the “black dog,” depression. It chased him his whole life and he ran, mostly successfully, from it his whole life. Sometimes, when the “black dog” felt particularly close, Winston would sometimes go off to Morocco and paint, drink and think and probably write. He wrote more than Dickens and Shakespeare combined.
He may well have been a manic-depressive. During the war he was followed around by his personal physician, Lord Moran, who prescribed upper and downers to manage the moods of the great man.
He was black dogged by depression and I was thinking about that last night as I rode home on the train, black dogged myself. I had gone down to the city yesterday, had a full day of appointments and when I stepped on the train last night I was exhausted and felt the old black dog nipping at my heels.
When I got home, I went to bed almost immediately and fell asleep early watching an episode of “Doc Martin,” about an English doctor only marginally more cranky than I was last night.
When the morning broke, I was my usual sunny self and, while sipping tea, worked on next week’s lectures. The day was spent on that and the Saturday chores. Young Nick was here and we did things that needed to be done, mounting a light fixture, cleaning, sorting, rearranging, bringing in wood and dealing with the trash. The things we do on Saturday.
Going down to the Dot, I welcomed Alana back from three weeks in Costa Rica and then, after an omelet and a Bloody Mary, came home to write my letter, which often is one of the most pleasurable times in the day.
Turning on the floodlights so the creek is illuminated, I sorted through the last couple of days.
The rise of Trump has been a constant cause for conversation though as I returned home, I discovered Ted Cruz had won the Kansas caucuses and he is at least as frightening to me as Trump. Both of them seem to me to be wack-a-doodles from some other dimension. This earns me no points with my conservative friends but it’s true; it’s how I feel.
Caitlin Jenner wants to be Ted Cruz’s “trans ambassador.” I am not sure he’s interested in having one.
Popular comedian Louis CK has implored his fans not to vote for Trump, likening him to Hitler. Trump, not necessarily looking to support Louis CK’s view of him, announced he would increase the use of torture if he were President.
“Downtown Abbey” ends tomorrow night. I have already seen the last episode as I subscribed to the feed through iTunes. Let’s tip a hat to Alistair Bruce, who was in charge of making sure it was historically accurate. He did a magnificent job.
A fire is burning in the stove; I’ve rearranged some lights in the house. I like the effect as I sit here at the dining room table, the creek lit in front of me, jazz playing and my thoughts running.
Four nuns and twelve others were killed in Yemen during an attack. Gunmen entered the building, handcuffed the victims and then shot them. It’s not yet clear who carried out the attack. The Pope has decried it; the nuns were members of the order founded by Mother Theresa.
Boko Haram, the scourge of Nigeria, is suffering from a food crisis. With all the people who have fled them, no is left to grow crops or herd animals and they are beginning to starve. Hungry and desperate, they are ruthlessly raiding which, I suspect, will only increase the cycle they have created.
And in my cycle, I am going to sign off for tonight. I need to be up in the morning, work on my lectures and then to church. I signed up to do coffee hour on Easter Sunday, not quite realizing that it was a major, major thing and I am now expected to come up with something quite spectacular. Cookbooks are out. Recipes are being reconnoitered.
I have a meeting about this tomorrow at 12:30. I think I may have over stretched and I will rise to the challenge.
Tags:Alistair Bruce, Boko Haram, Claverack, Cruz, depression, Dickens, Donald Trump, Downton Abbey, Easter, Hudson, Lord Moran, Louis CK, Mat Tombers, Mathew Tombers, Pope Francis, Red Dot, Shakespeare, The Black Dog, Winston Churchill
Posted in 2016 Election, Boko Haram, Civil Rights, Claverack, Columbia County, depression, Elections, Entertainment, Hudson New York, Life, Literature, Mat Tombers, Mathew Tombers, Media, Nazis, Political Commentary, Pope Francis, Social Commentary, Television, Trump, Uncategorized | Leave a Comment »