March 2023
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Recently some much-admired old friends recommended a movie called Shadowlands (1993). They pledged that we'd love it. But we didn't. In fact, we regarded it as a film that lacked value and integrity. Of course, we won't mention to our friends that we responded so negatively and that we now question their esthetics. I'm sorry…
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Wow, carded at this great advanced age! Not, of course, carded so as to be permitted to purchase alcoholic beverages. Those days are long since gone, and besides, I don't drink. It was yesterday, at the Denver Art Museum, when I asked for senior tickets (a big $2.00 discount). "May I see your driver's license.…
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Here on Walnut Street, we're trying to make more and better use of locatives — words that have long been underemployed and undervalued. We think that the language (and therefore the world) would be richer and more commodious if others would join with us in this endeavor. But we're not evangelizing, heck no! We honor…
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Although I regularly walk our many nearby scenic mountain trails, I'm not a genuinely "outdoorsy" person. I don't ski, or snowboard, and I certainly don't rock climb. No climbing at all if I can help it. At this time, I have no plans to "summit" anything, not even my step stool. My camping days are…
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We were invited for dinner at the place to which a number of my "senior" friends have retreated. The experience was cordial and civilized, but somehow troubling. I know one thing: I don't want to wind up there. I'm staying put as long as I possibly can. Too many old folks. I want to live…
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Is there another common English word that exhibits such varied meanings as "boot?" Or one that has shown such continual transformation during my brief years on the planet? Like much of my early vocabulary, "boot" entered my life through the medium of radio baseball . In my mind's ear, I can hear the voice of…
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"Troll" is a word that has strangely metamorphosized in the course of my lifetime. While It once had warm associations; now, not so much. "Troll" came into my life in the late 1940s at Makamah Beach on the Long Island Sound. My grandmother Sonia taught me how to "troll" for bluefish or sunfish. Here's how…
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Am I just plain nuts to think that I live in a safe and secure world? All the evidence says "perpetual vigilance" and "it can happen here" and "keep a close watch? Let's look at the situation. Our state has a violent history. In the far past: at Sand Creek in 1864, several hundred Cheyenne…