November 7th, 2024 | General, History, Politics, Society at Large
I spent November 5, 2024, working at my local polling place. Had just enough time to shower and dress, walk Ping, have a swallow of tea, and walk around the corner to Samuel Adams Elementary School before the clock chimed six. There’s a lot to prepare: putting up...
January 9th, 2024 | Education, General, literature and poetry, Politics, Popular Culture
I now have my guidance for 2024: The Phantom Tollbooth by Norton Juster. My goal is to arrive at Wednesday, November 6, assured that Sweet Rhyme and Pure Reason have been returned to the Kingdom of Wisdom. I want to know that the Demons populating the Mountains of...
October 11th, 2023 | Education, Europe, General, Memory, Politics, Society at Large
I expected the village of Žiežmariai to be a quick stop. My target was the church, St James the Apostle, where so many Tomkuses had been baptized, married and seen off to the hereafter. The wooden prayer house those ancestors would have known was replaced in 1924 by...
March 12th, 2023 | Education, General, Politics, Society at Large
An ad has been popping up too often on my computer when I try to play a nice quiet game of solitaire. The tag line is, “Come shine in Miami where every day will make you want to stay just a little longer.” The copy sounds like a hybrid of a Maurice Williams song...
September 27th, 2022 | Family, Friends, General, Politics, Popular Culture, Society at Large, Time Passes
At the news of the death of Queen Elizabeth II, my mind went so many places. One of those places was my grandparents’ butler’s pantry. On one shelf, among odd sets, had been the set of coronation cups. “Who had them now?” I wondered and emailed my siblings and cousins...
June 24th, 2022 | Family, General, Politics, Society at Large, Women
On November 10, 2016 the news announced that Donald Trump would be the 45th president of the United States. I lay in bed howling, “Fuck, fuck, fuck, fuck…” My Dear One tried to comfort me, saying that it would be all right. I knew it wouldn’t be all right. Today was...