(Team Willow. Clockwise from lower right, owner and executive chef Tracey O’Grady and assistant, Official Logo of the 2015 BRGR Bash; Legendary chef Robert, now of Tonic downtown; Brian Wolken and assistant; Heather Small and lower center, award winning Burger Bash champions with house made Tater Tots. Photos Socotra). I don’t normally have a burger […]

I don’t know how you are handling the week. I am not doing that well. I am challenged by another mass shooting by some whack-job, the fact that our Armed Forces are actually should be called the Dis-armed Forces, and that the lead story about the massacre in the NY Times is about the concern […]

Thought you’d escaped, eh? No chance, Buckaroos. I have been trying to distract myself of late, and climb into the Time Machine and bounce around some intimate American history to distract myself from the events of the day. I am not even going to get started on them, because then I couldn’t finish the litany. […]

I was doing something else at the farm. I find myself doing that a lot. I start on one thing and get caught up in something else and never arrive where I thought I was going to be. The rain had come in sheets dense enough to knock out first the satellite Internet connection and […]

April 2, 1903 Hotel “Cecil” Thursday evening We hired a two wheel carriage for 3 horses to attend to our business., secure staterooms, call at the store, Ludgate Circle, Cooks, Post Office, Cable home, sightseeing, and at this hotel- we have a fine large room, two brass beds and meals outside nme each for day- […]

(W. E. Socotra, left, with traveling companions on the SS Mesaba, 1903). You know what? I am going to throw you a curve this morning. We have been veering wildly through the saga of immigrants from Ireland caught up in the turmoil of the American Civil War, a conflict so vast and violent that it […]

(This is the fanciest document in the Service Record of my Great Grandfather. The Union Army thought the war would be over long before the three-year enlistments for Volunteer troops would be up. It wasn’t, and they needed veterans to re-enlist. James did, but had second thoughts a few months later). OK- this has been […]

There are flags coming down today, and this date will be remembered far into the future. It is eerie to be reading- and laboriously typing- ancient documents to get the context of the conflict, the ideas and determination that drove the determining events of the middle portion of the Republic’s life. I have a lot […]

(The diner on the grounds of the Gilmore Museum near Kalamazoo, MI. Amazing place). Upon return late yesterday from an extended journey on America’s crumbling infrastructure, I got a note from Senior Executive Jerry tinged with concern. He had not heard from me since the 4th, and thought I might be trapped in the seat […]

I am listening to the Weather and Traffic radio station from Washington, though I am a long ways away form the nation’s capital. Isn’t the internet wonderful? I am on the road for this Holiday, and it was a good decision. There is not reason as compelling as seeing a grandchild, and besides, there were […]