Birthday I was relieved to hear that my younger son passed the age of majority and lived. He arrived at the age of majority at college, and I had been concerned that he might not make it. I called him the afternoon of the day before the big day and told him not to do […]

There is a minor controversy raging out there in the science grove. Learned men and women, painfully shy of being accused of the dread sin of anthropomorphism, are beginning to consider the idea that animals have personalities. Anthropomorphism refers to our natural and sloppy way of attributing human motivation, characteristics, and behavior to animals, inanimate […]

Pain Killers I’m not going to negotiate with terrorists. That is my policy, and I am going to stick to it today. I wavered yesterday, muttering under my breath that I would put the whole policy up for review as the Acela train hurtled down the tracks toward Washington. Just not this train, not today. […]

Sizzle There is an eternal sameness to the Marriot Hotel chain, which is a good thing, since my room otherwise features a commanding view of New Jersey State Route 10. As the volume of traffic rises and cars hurtle toward the Short Hills and the City beyond. I wonder idly if the bin Laden tape […]

Camouflage At the end of the day, or at least in the part approaching twilight, I sometimes look back toward morning and wonder if I should have done something differently. Yesterday was wild and blowing wet. I’m not sure I could have done it differently, even if I had thought about it. The first call at […]

It is January, and there are thunderstorms and rain coming this long dark day. The harbingers of Spring are inserted into Winter, which has a long way to go. Or at least it did when the calendar made sense. �The World Turned Upside Down,� is the tune that the British military band played as they […]

Tuesday’s Child It is a confused morning, thunderstorms beckoning, rain for sure. The clock radio has conspired to let me sleep; the terrorists on the television have joined the conspiracy, hooking me once again on Keifer Sutherland’s quirky television show with the strange hourly format �24.� I approached oblivion last with the weak, vacillating President […]

The Chief I was sitting with Jim and Joe in the center aisle of Hall B1, on the ground floor of the San Diego Convention Center . Outside the breeze blew in from the Bay, and the water glittered and life was a sweet as only it can be in SOCAL. We were out of Washington, which […]

Fog It might have come in on little cat’s feet, I don’t know. It was as quiet as a thief in the night, or an assassin. It must have come in the small hours and was answered by the long low-throated bleeting of the horns from the shipyards down toward 32 nd Street. The sound […]

Pottery Barn I don’t have anything burning off my fingertips this morning; goodness knows I should be concentrating on Judge Alito’s confirmation, or the bird flu, or how to defeat improvised explosive devices. I can’t do it, though. I am concentrated on the little things, and am prepared to let the larger world spin on […]