Self-Absorbed Boomer

"[A] delightfully named blog", (Sewell Chan, New York Times). "[R]elentlessly eclectic", (Gary, Iowa City). Taxing your attention span since 2005.

Sunday, February 21, 2010

Baseball (yawn!) is happening again.

For some years now, the words "pitchers and catchers report" have, for me, been a tonic in bleak February. Not so this year. I...

Wednesday, February 17, 2010

Dale Hawkins, 1936-2010

LaVern Baker, Chuck Berry, Johnny Cash, Bo Diddley, Don and Phil Everly, Bill Haley, Buddy Holly, Jerry Lee Lewis, Roy Orbison, Carl Perkin...

Friday, February 12, 2010

Townes van Zandt, "Rake"

Townes van Zandt (1944-1997) had a voice and a lyric pen I'll always miss. The clip above (courtesy of lapislazuli42 ) was, according ...

Thursday, February 11, 2010

The splendor that was steam: Nickel Plate and Pere Marquette Berkshires in action.

To get the full effect of this video, double click twice to bring it to full screen size, and crank up the volume. Because I was born on t...

Sunday, February 07, 2010

The song of the hour.

The great Satchmo, who would have loved tonight's Super Bowl result. Update: Someone commented on this post, in Chinese. Using Babel ...

Lower Manhattan architectural contrasts, redux.

In my almost daily walks across the Brooklyn Bridge and back I've found time to admire the examples of various architectural styles repr...

Wednesday, February 03, 2010

Is civilization a product of intoxication?

I've long considered the moderate consumption of alcohol to be a useful, if not essential, adjunct to civilized life. According to this ...

Wednesday, January 27, 2010

My SOTU trivial observation.

The President had to make do with having his head flanked by Joe Biden and Nancy Pelosi. Governor McDonnell, giving the Republican response,...

Monday, January 25, 2010

It seems I'll have to watch the Super Bowl, after all.

I've never been much of an NFL fan. As I've explained before, I came of sports fan age in Florida long before there were Bucs or Jag...

Sunday, January 17, 2010

Haiti: special needs.

I've been dilatory in posting about the disaster in Haiti, not out of lack of concern, but because I believed I had nothing of value to ...

Monday, January 11, 2010

Norovirus or no, Queen Victoria arrives.

Cunard's newest cruiser, the 90,000 grt Queen Victoria , as I saw her this morning from the Brooklyn Heights Promenade , passing Govern...

Wednesday, January 06, 2010

The universe: spatially and temporally.

In The Restaurant at the End of the Universe , the second volume of Douglas Adams's Hitchhiker series, Zaphod Beeblebrox, as punishment...

Tuesday, January 05, 2010

Let the Art Institute of Chicago help you with your resolutions.

I'm not one for resolutions. As my wife sometimes says (usually as I'm pouring my ill-advised second helping of Cognac): "You ...

Saturday, January 02, 2010

New year's shout-outs.

Brooklyn Bridge pedestrian and bike path, January 1, 2010 I've made it my practice, on New Year's Day, to thank my readers, and t...

Thursday, December 31, 2009

The view on the last morning of 2009.

Here's the view from my window this morning, looking across Pierrepont Place toward Pierrepont Playground and Columbia Heights beyond. ...

Thursday, December 24, 2009

"Once in Royal David's City"

My favorite carol, performed by the choir of King's College, Cambridge, as shown on the BBC "Carols from King's" series. ...

Sunday, December 20, 2009

Your correspondent rides the Adirondack with Beckey Bright of the Wall Street Journal.

About six weeks ago I received a call from Daniel Machalaba, a freelance writer who sometimes writes on railway related topics . Dan said h...

Sunday, December 06, 2009

Liam Clancy, last of the Clancy Brothers.

Though we were both Lion's Head denizens, I never met Liam Clancy. I did meet his brother Paddy, who died eleven years ago, at the Hea...

Friday, December 04, 2009

New York Senator Diane Savino on marriage equality.

New York state Senator Diane Savino represents parts of Brooklyn and Staten Island. Her measured, well reasoned yet impassioned plea to he...

Tuesday, December 01, 2009

Grace Slick at seventy.

Someone once wrote that Jefferson Starship's Red Octopus was "proof positive that rockers can age gracefully." This photo (t...

Monday, November 30, 2009

Blue trees.

According to a sign at the far end of this row of trees, this art project at the World Financial Center is sponsored by Korean Air Lines. T...

Saturday, November 28, 2009

Paulina Sinaga: a Polish siren in Ontario.

Ontario, California, that is. Back in 1983, low-budget movie genius Mark Pirro gave us A Polish Vampire in Burbank , which included, among i...

Harvard vs. Yale--The Game I never watch.

Maybe I should, though. When I was in my first year of law school, I went to a couple of Harvard football games. South Florida, my undergrad...

Wednesday, November 25, 2009

"We Gather Together"

The North Guilford Congregational Church Bell Choir plays the Dutch folk melody that has become perhaps the most popular (Hey! I almost wr...

Monday, November 23, 2009

Message from Wally Backman, new manager of the Brooklyn Cyclones.

Can a hero of the 1986 NLCS and World Series lead the Brooklyn Cyclones out of their always-a-bridesmaid rut? Again, thanks to New York ...

Sunday, November 22, 2009

Message to Jude Law.

New York City is a densely populated place. If you're going to live here, and have a balcony on your apartment, and your apartment is v...

Friday, November 20, 2009

Zelda, the Battery Park turkey, says, "Thanksgiving, Shmanksgiving!"

Here she is, bold as brass, a little over a week before the holiday on which millions of her co-speciesists will be roasted or, for the bra...

Thursday, November 19, 2009

Someone in Myanmar visited my blog.

I'm delighted, of course. Could it be an indication that President Obama's visit to Asia is bearing fruit? Perhaps. I'm curious ...

Sunday, November 08, 2009

The house that Jeter is building, and the aftermath of a victory parade.

The old Yankee Stadium was called "The House that Ruth Built". Will the new one be called "The House that Jeter Built"?...

Thursday, November 05, 2009

Please bear with me.

No sooner had I returned from Florida, where Mom is now doing fine, when my Vista-cursed computer suffered cataclysmic OS failure. I am in t...

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About Me

: I was born in a city renowned in Vaudeville humor, Altoona Pennsylvania. My dad was in the military, so we moved many times in my childhood. We lived in rural England from the time I was five until I was eight, and I began my formal education in a county council school, where my being American is likely all that saved me from having my bottom caned. When I was eleven my father retired from the Air Force, and we settled in Tampa.I graduated from the University of South Florida and Harvard Law School. Since then, apart from two years' active Army duty, I have lived in New York City; and have lived in the Borough of Brooklyn for many years. I'm married to Martha Foley, an historian and archivist. We are proud of our daughter, Elizabeth, and our granddaughters, Ada and Sigrid.

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