RAMBLE ON!
After an absence of more than a year, the Midnight Ramble Band returned to play Levon Helm‘s Barn in Woodstock on February 28th.
PUSH THE CUSH TOUR, PHASE ONE
The Winter of Our Discontent phase of the 2015 Push the Cush Tour saw us braving the snow and cold of January and February to make four stops. Regrettably, illness cost us visits to the Falmouth Historical Society in Massachusetts and the Naval War College in Rhode Island, but we had great time visiting The Group …
“HIGHLY RECOMMENDED”
Thanks to Patrick E. Purcell, who gave Commander Will Cushing a terrific review in Civil War News. “With a skillful account of the Cushing brothers’ careers,” says Purcell, “Jamie Malanowski has created a well-written and often thrilling story that is as engaging as an action novel. His book is highly recommended.” Thanks, too, to Rea Andrew …
THE HUDSON RIVER, OFF OF GLENWOOD, MONDAY, FEBRUARY 23, NEAR ONE PM
A snowfall, a foot or so, fell on January 26th (it clobbered Boston and New England, with multiple feet,) The temperature dropped into the teens a lower and stayed there, so the snow went nowhere. A number of snowfalls followed; none were major, but they all hung around, and hung around, and it stayed cold …
THE HUDSON RIVER, OFF OF GLENWOOD, MONDAY, FEBRUARY 23, NEAR ONE PM Read More »
LITHOTRIPSY
There is an asymmetrical quality to illnesses: they are fascinating to the afflicted, rather less so to well, I don’t want to bore you, but on Thursday, February 11, I woke with a kidney stone. For a condition that was painful but not exactly life threatening, I ended up losing a lot of time and …
JE SUIS CHARLIE, AND MORE
Until January 7th, I had never heard of Charlie Hebdo, but when Islamic terrorists broke into the offices of what was described as “a small French satirical magazine’’ and killed dozen people, including the editor-in-chief, four other cartoonists, two other editors, an economist, a mainterance worker, and two police officers, I instantly identified with the …
THE TOP 10 OF 2014
I wish I had documented this observation, but this was the year when everything needed to happen twice: two trips to Home Depot to get a part, two trips to Daniele’s to repair a mirror, and so on. Much time wasted, but then again, what would I have been saving it for? One hopes 2015 …
HAPPY 100TH BIRTHDAY, PATRICK O’BRIAN!
Originally published in The Wall Street Journal, December 11, 2014 Let us pause in the day’s labors to raise a glass, preferably containing Madeira or a rich, full-bodied port, to the centenary of the greatest historical novelist ever, and one of the best novelists of our era. Patrick O’Brian was born Dec. 12, 1914—or, rather, …
DOCTOR BILL AND MISTER COSBY
Originally published in The American Interest, December 9, 2014 In October, when I began reading Bill Cosby: His Life and Times, by Mark Whitaker, the 77-year-old comedian was enjoying a bit of a boom: a new television series in the works, a new special set to get the Netflix treatment, an exhibition at the Smithsonian …