One of my favorite ‘50s singers, Patsy Cline. In the early 1950s Midwest, along with lazy days, ice cream trucks, and DDT spraying, summer brought the ominous threat of polio. The specter of “infantile paralysis” showed up every summer, terrifying … Continue reading
Listen to Ella Fitzgerald singing New Year’s Eve by clicking on the post title. In January 2020, we worried about our traveling friends and the brushfires near Sydney, Australia, growing tensions between the U.S. and Iran, Britain’s upcoming Brexit, and … Continue reading
We’re on our second artificial Christmas tree. Our first one came from the Hillcrest Ace Hardware in San Diego and twinkled every Christmas for twenty years. But last year, expecting the usual, I opened the long tree box, found the … Continue reading
This gallery contains 9 photos.
John Lennon long insisted that Lucy in the Sky with Diamonds was not about LSD but was inspired by a painting his three-year-old son Julian made of Lucy O’Donnell, his classmate at Heath House nursery school. As Lennon said in … Continue reading
Listen to John Popper and the Blues Traveler by clicking on the post title. Walk on the wild side, walk like a man, a walk in the park, walking the walk, walk of fame, walk of shame—walking runs through our … Continue reading
Click on the post title to listen to Tigertown’s Lonely Cities. It’s dark by 4:00, there is no baseball, the virus is still raging, the election is still raging—what to do? Make soup. Soup is the ultimate comfort food: cream … Continue reading
For no good reason, here’s Tusk, with a young Fleetwood Mac and the 1979 USC marching band. Click on the post title to listen to the video. While browsing for wildflower tips, the Sweetie came across Dan Hinkley’s book, Windcliff, and … Continue reading
ABBA, Dancing Queen http://www.youtube.com/embed/xFrGuyw1V8s In 1989, the Sweetie and I bought my Aunt Normie’s house on Vashon. The house sat back from the road on a high-bank waterfront with a view of Quartermaster Harbor, the Yacht Club, and Mt. Rainier. … Continue reading
John Fogerty, Centerfield On the day I was born, my dad was still smarting from the loss his beloved Yankees suffered when the St. Louis Cardinals won the 1942 World Series, four games to one. I grew up with the summer … Continue reading
September of My Years, Frank Sinatra “One day you turn around and it’s summer. Next day you turn around and it’s fall. And all the winters and the springs of a lifetime, whatever happened to them all?” September’s slight melancholy inspires … Continue reading
