Self-Absorbed Boomer

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

Saturday, June 05, 2021

A Finger Lakes weekend, two train journeys, and lots of wine.

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Our friends Chris Bennem and Lisa Moore invited us to spend the long Memorial Day weekend at their house near Canandaigua Lake (photo above)...
Sunday, May 23, 2021

Celebrating Mary A. Whalen's 83rd Birthday

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Yesterday was the 83rd birthday of the small coastal oil tanker Mary A. Whalen (photo above). She is owned by  PortSide New York , a not fo...
Monday, May 10, 2021

Mets First in NL East!

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 I used this headline last July 24, at the start of 2020's shortened season, in a jocular way to note that the Mets' 1-0 opening gam...
Wednesday, March 17, 2021

The Chieftains, "Mna Na hEireann" ("The Women of Ireland")

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It's St. Patrick's Day, but it's also Women's History Month, so here are the Chieftains playing one of my favorites from the...
3 comments:
Monday, January 18, 2021

Remembrances and appreciations, 2020

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I gave 2020 the bum's rush in my last post, but promised to follow up with my annual post offering remembrances of those lost the previ...
Tuesday, December 29, 2020

2020, here's your hat. What's your hurry?

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On New Year's day 1980, as I recall, someone observed, "Here's to the passing of a real kidney stone of a decade." The sev...
1 comment:
Monday, September 07, 2020

"I Dreamed I Saw Joe Hill" - a song for Labor Day

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  Joe Hill was a songwriter and labor organizer. He was born  Joel Hägglund in  Gävle, Sweden in 1879. After a childhood made difficult by ...
Monday, August 31, 2020

Happy 75th, Van Morrison

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Yes, you've been  saying some crazy stuff  lately. Indeed, you've always been something of a loose cannon outside of your musical pe...
Saturday, August 01, 2020

Mets flounder, but the Gray Lady has interesting ideas for MLB.

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A week ago Friday I posted here , noting, with tongue firmly in cheek, that the Mets were in first place in the National League East -- a di...
Friday, July 24, 2020

Mets First in NL East!

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A squeaker to start a shortened season with silent stands. We'll see how this goes.
4 comments:
Saturday, May 23, 2020

Robert Ward's The Stone Carrier; 1970s New York, Uptown and Downtown

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Robert Ward's The Stone Carrier is a book that will grab you and not let you go. I read it because the author and I hung out at the s...
Tuesday, March 17, 2020

Andy Irvine and Donal Lunny, "My Heart's Tonight in Ireland"

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Here's a wistful song for this subdued St. Patrick's day.  Beannachtaí na Féile Pádraig oraibh!  
Monday, March 16, 2020

Giving up church for Lent

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I don't usually "give up" anything for Lent. I've had some clerical support for this. Lent isn't about renunciation,...
2 comments:
Monday, January 20, 2020

Remembrances and appreciations, 2018 and '19

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For some years I posted a remembrance of the past year, including a summary of the remembrances of those, either friends or those I admire...
Sunday, November 24, 2019

Sarah Stone and friends perform English and Scottish music at Communitea.

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On Friday evening Sarah Stone , on cello in the center of the GIF above, along with (left to right) Francis Liu on violin, Kevin Devine ...
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About Me

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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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