September 14

Without geography you’re nowhere. ~ Jimmy Buffett

Heading full steam ahead into the summer entertainment season. This is still part of playing catch up in the blog . . . ~ Me

I’m growing older, but not up. ~ Jimmy Buffett

[Why yes, I once was indeed a mountain man . . . ]

You will never live if you are looking for the meaning of life. ~ Albert Camus

June 30

In the Troubadour days, it was all those songwriters that I hung around with all the time, so I could get songs and find out what was going on. So we all knew each other, and we just carried each other’s word around. ~ Linda Ronstadt

[Galaxy Road at Carlos Creek Winery . . . ]

Traditionally, songwriters can’t sing. And that holds true in my case, also. ~ John Phillips

[With Aksel Krafnick on voice and guitar . . . ]

Most of the best songwriters that ever lived couldn’t read music. ~ Tim Minchin

Songwriters aren’t always performers, and even performing songwriters aren’t always the kind of show-biz performers you think they’d be. ~ Lyle Lovett

And I can say this, most of the people who have recorded my songs are songwriters themselves. ~ Smokey Robinson

As far as songwriters, I’ve always been a fan of Irving Berlin, Cole Porter, and George Gershwin; those guys mean a lot to me. ~ Mel Brooks

[Things really rock ‘n roll when the Armadillos come to town . . . ]

Humor has bailed me out of more tight situations than I can think of. If you go with your instincts and keep your humor, creativity follows. With luck, success comes, too. ~ Jimmy Buffett

[The eight members of The Fabulous Armadillos include (left to right) Pat Thorn, Cassandra Ronnie, Greg Armstrong, Mike Kreitzer, Chris Hawkey, Jay O’Donnell, Paul Diethelm and Mike Zeleny.]

Indecision may or may not be my problem. ~ Jimmy Buffett

[The stage is set at the Legacy of the Lakes Gardens . . . ]

We are the people our parents warned us about. ~ Jimmy Buffett

[The back view from the front row . . . ]

Is it ignorance or apathy? Hey, I don’t know and I don’t care. ~ Jimmy Buffett

Searching is half the fun: life is much more manageable when thought of as a scavenger hunt as opposed to a surprise party. ~ Jimmy Buffett

If it doesn’t work out there will never be any doubt that the pleasure was worth all the pain. ~ Jimmy Buffett

[The usual suspects with loge seating . . . ]

If I couldn’t laugh I just would go insane, If we couldn’t laugh we just would go insane, If we weren’t all crazy we would go insane. ~ Jimmy Buffett

My mother insisted that her children read. ~ Jimmy Buffett

[Kelli Minnerath, on behalf of the Alexandria Education Foundation, addressed the assembled masses . . . ]

I sell escapism. ~ Jimmy Buffett

[Ms. Minnerath with thank yous to all . . . ]

I still consider it a summer job, though. So, I try to maintain that summer job as long as I can. ~ Jimmy Buffett

Well, I’m still here. Didn’t have to go to rehab, and I’m not broke. ~ Jimmy Buffett

At 57, to have a No. 1 album, I wasn’t expecting it. ~ Jimmy Buffett

[Stretch . . . ]

Elvis was the only man from Northeast Mississippi who could shake his hips and still be loved by rednecks, cops, and hippies. ~ Jimmy Buffett

It’s been wonderful for me, and I feel so privileged to have fans that are that loyal. ~ Jimmy Buffett

I always said that I wouldn’t use a teleprompter, and if I start to sing real flat, I’ll hang it up. ~ Jimmy Buffett

I’m inspired by people who keep on rolling, no matter their age. ~ Jimmy Buffett

I always said that I wouldn’t use a teleprompter, and if I start to sing real flat, I’ll hang it up. ~ Jimmy Buffett

And I try to give the best bang for the buck. I love performing more than anything else. ~ Jimmy Buffett

To describe my scarce leisure time in today’s terms, I always default to reading. ~ Jimmy Buffett

If there’s a heaven for me, I’m sure it has a beach attached. ~ Jimmy Buffett

Take it all in… it’s as big as it seems. Count all your blessings. Remember your dreams. ~ Jimmy Buffett

I can’t change the direction of the wind, but I can adjust my sails to always reach my destination. ~ Jimmy Buffett

Changes in latitude. Changes in attitude. ~ Jimmy Buffett

It’s important to have as much fun as possible while we’re here. It balances out the times when the minefield of life explodes. ~ Jimmy Buffett

Life is just a tire swing. ~ Jimmy Buffett

Some people claim that there’s a woman to blame, but I know it’s my own damn fault. ~ Jimmy Buffett

Lust for the future, treasure the past. ~ Jimmy Buffett

Wasting away in Margaritaville, looking for my lost shaker of salt. ~ Jimmy Buffett

If life gives you limes, make margaritas. ~ Jimmy Buffett

It’s 5 o’clock somewhere. ~ Jimmy Buffett

Breathe in, breathe out, move on. ~ Jimmy Buffett

Shells sink, dreams float. Life’s good on our boat. ~ Jimmy Buffett

It’s a fine line between Saturday night and Sunday morning. ~ Jimmy Buffett

It was too much tequila, or not quite enough. ~ Jimmy Buffett

No working during drinking hours. ~ Jimmy Buffett

Go fast enough to get there, but slow enough to see. ~ Jimmy Buffett

Some of it’s magic and some of it’s tragic but I had a good life all the way. ~ Jimmy Buffett

Wrinkles will only go where the smiles have been. ~ Jimmy Buffett

[This could have been a scene from “Close Encounters of the Third Kind” . . . ]

Only time will tell if it was time well-spent. ~ Jimmy Buffett

Nothing is more despicable than respect based on fear. ~ Albert Camus

Alas, after a certain age every man is responsible for his face. ~ Albert Camus

A man without ethics is a wild beast loosed upon this world. ~ Albert Camus

Up Next: I’m still catching up – but I am catching up . . .

September 10

I don’t think I would encourage executives that work for me to blog. ~ Mark Cuban

Sometimes, reading a blog, which I do infrequently, I see that generations of Americans have been wilfully crippled, and can no longer spell or write a sentence. ~ Alice Walker

The photo displayed from the blog on Facebook is always the first photo in the post. I know of no way of changing that arrangement. So, why not go with Nicola Walker? ~ Me

A daily blog would just about finish me off completely. ~ Robert Plant

August 2

We shall not be happy unless we live like good animals, unless we enjoy the exercise of the ordinary functions of life: eating, sleeping, loving, walking, running, swimming, riding, sailing. ~ William Morris

[Well, doesn’t everybody take their dog and their bird kayaking?]

And to me, sailing the open ocean is a real challenge, because it’s life or death. ~ Morgan Freeman

[I’m always amazed at how kids become world-class sailors after one week at camp . . . ]

I keep sailing on in this middle passage. I am sailing into the wind and the dark. But I am doing my best to keep my boat steady and my sails full. ~ Arthur Ashe

[OK, now they’re just showing off . . . ]

The hands are the feet of the arms. ~ Seth Meyers

Sailing became one of the mainstreams of my life. I suppose my father was an influence. I remember seeing a photo of him at home sailing a big boat to Bermuda in his 20s. I still have it. ~ David Crosby

Sailing is such a variable sport. There could be no wind, or there could be 25 knots. You never know what you’re going to get. ~ Hannah Mills

Only when the tide goes out do you discover who’s been swimming naked. ~ Warren Buffett

[The aforementioned, Ye Olde Swimming Hole . . . ]

Swimming is a confusing sport, because sometimes you do it for fun, and other times you do it to not die. And when I’m swimming, sometimes I’m not sure which one it is. ~ Demetri Martin

If a man watches three football games in a row, he should be declared legally dead. ~ Erma Bombeck

[Let the games begin! I must have slept through horseshoes this year – already on to cornhole on the hottest day at camp . . . ]

Video games are bad for you? That’s what they said about rock-n-roll. ~ Shigeru Miyamoto

[Kent, on the left, is on “our team,” and son to the Fort Wayners sitting on the bench . . . ]

Baseball, it is said, is only a game. True. And the Grand Canyon is only a hole in Arizona. Not all holes, or games, are created equal. ~ George Will

[And Jenny, tossing here, is Kent’s partner in life and cornhole . . . ]

As long as there are games to play it is not over. ~ Alex Ferguson

[Ed, on the right, is also on “our team” . . . ]

Playing games can contribute to making you happy, perhaps even without therapy. ~ Gyles Brandreth

[Weather conditions permitted me to, on occasion, go out and pour water on his head . . . ]

Expanded outdoor dining has created a vibrancy in many of our neighborhoods in ways that we haven’t seen before, all while supporting locally owned, small businesses. ~ Ned Lamont

[Dining outside is routine as through the years we seem to enjoy weather like this . . . ]

‘Fine dining.’ I’d love to know who coined the term and whether they meant it to be as offputting as it is. The words evoke an idea of phoney refinement, of needless flummery, snooty waiters, and an atmosphere designed to intimidate the customer. ~ John Lanchester

[And when we’re finished the chipmunks come around to clean up the detritus . . . ]

August 3

The idea of elegance and aristocratic indulgence of an ocean cruise was born out of the image of the rich men and women who ruled the British Empire slowly sailing to India and the Far East while sipping gin and tonic on deck – served by men in white jackets. ~ Adam Curtis

[Sailing lessons appear to be absorbed immediately as kids then go out on their own . . . ]

Whether or not you discover your talents and passions is partly a matter of opportunity. If you’ve never been sailing, or picked up an instrument, or tried to teach or to write fiction, how would you know if you had a talent for these things? ~ Ken Robinson

From the moment I climbed into that 8-foot dinghy in 1952, I knew instinctively what to do and sensed I had done it before. ~ David Crosby

Geography was the lesson I always looked forward to most. It was a form of escapism. It could be bleak midwinter outside but inside you’re learning about African farming methods or the Great Lakes. No other lesson had that excitement. ~ Ben Fogle

[Daily 9:00 am flag raising, to sing the birdie song, the Camp Brosius song, and the IU school song . . . ]

We’re definitely honest with each other… if your sisters can’t tell you that you look ridiculous, who can? ~ Kourtney Kardashian

[The Biddies with their respective white Subaru Outbacks. (I should submit this as an advertising photo for the Outback?) . . . ]

The family is one of nature’s masterpieces. ~ George Santayana

[The Northern California wing of the Hatch family had to leave camp early . . . ]

The love of family and the admiration of friends is much more important than wealth and privilege. ~ Charles Kuralt

[We hope they’re hooked now for future visits . . . ]

Sometimes I can’t believe I’m going to be 60. I always say there’s no point moaning about getting older, when there’s nothing you can do about it. But still, I do find it quite funny. I look at that number, 60, and I think, ‘Really? Me?’ ~ Twiggy

[Photobombed by Reetz! With The Biddies as my chauffeurs all week, I was much more comfortable seeing where we had been rather than where we were going . . . ]

There are some things you learn best in calm, and some in storm. ~ Willa Cather

[People poo-pooed the dark sky . . . ]

Anyone who has spent a few nights in a tent during a storm can tell you: The world doesn’t care all that much if you live or die. ~ Anthony Doerr

[But it was the real thing . . . ]

The more violent the storm, the quicker it passes. ~ Paulo Coelho

[It rained hard with winds that blew out the window fans . . . ]

The fishermen know that the sea is dangerous and the storm terrible, but they have never found these dangers sufficient reason for remaining ashore. ~ Vincent Van Gogh

[But as strong campers we rode it out with only minor whimpering . . . ]

If you want to see the sunshine, you have to weather the storm. ~ Frank Lane

Old age is like a plane flying through a storm. Once you’re aboard, there’s nothing you can do. ~ Golda Meir

[We cleared out of the porch . . . ]

I once dated a weather girl, we talked up a storm. ~ Jay London

[The euchre game was moved indoors. Even then, the storm blew open the French doors on the right . . . ]

The preparations are what they are. We’re here. The storm is coming. We are as best prepared as we can be as the eye of the storm approaches. ~ Russel Honore

[Looking out the front door . . . ]

A few minutes ago every tree was excited, bowing to the roaring storm, waving, swirling, tossing their branches in glorious enthusiasm like worship. But though to the outer ear these trees are now silent, their songs never cease. ~ John Muir

August 4

I loved being in the film called ‘Carnal Knowledge’ – the one with Jack Nicholson, which was very dark but a really brilliant movie. I loved being in ‘The Ritz.’ ‘The Ritz’ I think is just hilarious. I just saw it again recently and by God, it’s still funny! ~ Rita Moreno

[Rappaport, out home away from home . . . ]

Remember to play after every storm. ~ Mattie Stepanek

[Happy to be an early riser the morning after a storm . . . ]

So the storm passed and every one was happy. ~ Kate Chopin

[There is usually great light and everything is fresh and clean . . . ]

Here’s to the pilot that weathered the storm. ~ George Canning

[The Hobie Cats appear to be OK . . . ]

The whole climate is changing: the winds, the ocean currents, the storm patterns, snow packs, snowmelt, flooding, droughts. Temperature is just a bit of it. ~ John Holdren

[The water tower and our sail boats survived the storm . . . ]

Give me odorous at sunrise a garden of beautiful flowers where I can walk undisturbed. ~ Walt Whitman

[As did the canoes and kayaks . . . ]

Forests, lakes, and rivers, clouds and winds, stars and flowers, stupendous glaciers and crystal snowflakes – every form of animate or inanimate existence, leaves its impress upon the soul of man. ~ Orison Swett Marden

[The Sputh Round House, the place where early risers meet at 7:00 am for coffee and muffins and discussions on thermodynamics . . . ]

Rivers, ponds, lakes and streams – they all have different names, but they all contain water. Just as religions do – they all contain truths. ~ Muhammad Ali

[The dining hall . . . ]

It’s one thing to get a letter from your kid at camp telling you he wants to come home. It’s another to get a letter from a grown child saying they’re coming back to live with you! ~ Walt Handelsman

[Fine dining, three squares a day . . . ]

Chaos in the midst of chaos isn’t funny, but chaos in the midst of order is. ~ Steve Martin

For most of the history of our species we were helpless to understand how nature works. We took every storm, drought, illness and comet personally. We created myths and spirits in an attempt to explain the patterns of nature. ~ Ann Druyan

[I hiked to the end of the camp entrance road to the public access to the lake . . . ]

All good writing is swimming under water and holding your breath. ~ F. Scott Fitzgerald

[Yup, hit the right time of day for photos . . . ]

The sky takes on shades of orange during sunrise and sunset, the colour that gives you hope that the sun will set only to rise again. ~ Ram Charan

[And there’s the Sputh Round House from the other side. Liked the photo well enough to make it my computer background . . . ]

In camp when I was eight – a bunch of kids threw me outside naked. I got ’em back! ~ Kelsey Grammer

[And now walking back into camp . . . ]

If your life ever begins to bore you, risk it. ~ Henry de Montherlant [Editor’s note: I’ve never been THAT bored. Really.]

[The lake swim, about a mile across beginning in the vicinity of the Barefoot Tiki Bar on the far side. As to whether or not I’ve ever attempted this, see the above quote . . . ]

Somebody said to me, ‘But the Beatles were anti-materialistic.’ That’s a huge myth. John and I literally used to sit down and say, ‘Now, let’s write a swimming pool.’ ~ Paul McCartney

A few minutes ago every tree was excited, bowing to the roaring storm, waving, swirling, tossing their branches in glorious enthusiasm like worship. But though to the outer ear these trees are now silent, their songs never cease. ~ John Muir

[That’s our screen porch. We did not know until morning that this rather sizable tree branch came down during the storm and just missed us. Now, I suspect, it will provide the fuel for future campfires . . . ]

Many people don’t give a rip about politics and know as much about public affairs as they know about the topography of Pluto. ~ Tony Snow

[There are some terrific vistas driving east from Lake Winnebago to Elkhart Lake . . . ]

Change will not come if we wait for some other person or some other time. We are the ones we’ve been waiting for. We are the change that we seek. ~ Barack Obama

[The theme at camp this year was “Out of This World” . . . ]

A man who carries a cat by the tail learns something he can learn in no other way. ~ Mark Twain

[And Mabel was the camp princess this year . . . ]

Your time is limited, so don’t waste it living someone else’s life. Don’t be trapped by dogma – which is living with the results of other people’s thinking. Don’t let the noise of others’ opinions drown out your own inner voice. And most important, have the courage to follow your heart and intuition. ~ Steve Jobs

There are only two tragedies in life: one is not getting what one wants, and the other is getting it. ~ Oscar Wilde

Love does not consist in gazing at each other, but in looking outward together in the same direction. ~ Antoine de Saint-Exupery

[Sisters . . . ]

There are only two lasting bequests we can hope to give our children. One of these is roots, the other, wings. ~ Johann Wolfgang von Goethe

[Daughter and mother . . . ]

Sister is probably the most competitive relationship within the family, but once the sisters are grown, it becomes the strongest relationship. ~ Margaret Mead

[The Biddies in all their glory . . . ]

As women, we have super powers. We are sisters. We are healers. We are mothers. We are goddess warriors. ~ Merle Dandridge

It is not so much our friends’ help that helps us, as the confidence of their help. ~ Epicurus

[The Hoosiers from Fort Wayne . . . ]

A life is not important except in the impact it has on other lives. ~ Jackie Robinson

[The last campfire . . . ]

August 5

What other people call dark and despairing, I call funny. ~ David Sedaris

[Last day at camp, we come down for a last doughnut on the patio and then head for home . . . ]

I know a lot about cars, man. I can look at any car’s headlights and tell you exactly which way it’s coming. ~ Mitch Hedberg

[Heading west from Elkhart Lake, the long down hill ride into Fond du Lac . . . ]

I spent a lot of money on booze, birds and fast cars. The rest I just squandered. ~ George Best

[Then north past Oshkosh . . . ]

Everything in life is somewhere else, and you get there in a car. ~ E. B. White

[See, I told you . . . ]

If all the cars in the United States were placed end to end, it would probably be Labor Day Weekend. ~ Doug Larson

[Then west across the St. Croix River on I94 into Minnesota . . . ]

If GM had kept up with technology like the computer industry has, we would all be driving $25 cars that got 1,000 MPG. ~ Bill Gates

[Minnesota on the left; the St. Croix in the middle; Wisconsin on the right . . . ]

And ending with –

Photography is a way of feeling, of touching, of loving. What you have caught on film is captured forever… it remembers little things, long after you have forgotten everything. ~ Aaron Siskind

[In 1965, Brad Anderson and I, friends from Alexandria, lived in Territorial Hall on the U of M campus for our freshman year. Pat Myers (below), from Seymour, Indiana, lived right across the hall from us. We lost total contact with him since then until I met someone at Camp Brosius this year who knew Pat – we were reconnected . . . ]

[Pat, on the left, with Alexandria classmates Greg (Mayo) and Bradley in a photo taken some time after the invention of the electric light bulb . . . ]

What the Internet’s value is that you have access to information but you also have access to every lunatic that’s out there that wants to throw up a blog. ~ George A. Romero

Humanity is a failed experiment, but I think I’m God and I’d like to start over. I don’t want to die, I just want everyone else to. I certainly would not be lonely. It would be exciting never having to listen to another person again but just my own self droning on and on. That’s why I write a blog. And I read it, too. ~ Roseanne Barr

Up Next: Getting back to stuff that has been rusting in archives . . .

September 2

The forest is the root of all life; it is the womb that revives out biological instincts , that deepens our intelligence and increases our sensitivity as human beings. ~ Akira Miyawaki

I love Wisconsin. It’s a great place. ~ Donald Trump

Green Bay Packers fans practiced their own religion in Wisconsin. ~ Holly Quinn

My mother was born in Wisconsin; it wasn’t her fault. ~ Me

July 30

We’re not going into Moscow. It’s Czechoslovakia. It’s like going into Wisconsin. ~ From “Stripes”

[Sunday morning sightseeing in Sheboygan . . . ]

We spent three years at the Sheboygan Conservatory of Music. ~ From “Some Like It Hot”

[The Biddies outside the John Michael Kohler Arts Center, our annual visit on Sunday mornings before leaving for camp in Elkhart Lake . . . ]

Were they sent to hell? Worse. Wisconsin. ~ From “Dogma”

[Sanity reigns at the Arts Center . . . ]

A thousand units in Oshkosh? Tommy, that’s fabulous. Your father never sold a thousand in Oshkosh. ~ From “Tommy Boy”

[The restrooms are always a highlight here – think about what Kohler means to you . . . ]

How do you like Wisconsin in February? I like it if you’re there. And I know a killer burger in Milwaukee. ~ From “Up in the Air”

This is sweet, man, because if this crook’s a Brewers fan, his ass has got to be from Wisconsin. ~ From “Reservoir Dogs”

[The Super leads off the tour of the current art displays. I apparently failed to pick up a brochure to describe what we were looking at . . . ]

Who is this? Baxter? Baxter, is that you? Bark twice if you’re in Milwaukee. ~ From “Anchorman”

Why are you always one step behind me? Because if I wasn’t, you’d be the most popular history professor at the University of Wisconsin. ~ From “The American President”

Do you seriously expect me to tell the President that an alien has landed, and assumed the identity of a dead house painter from Madison, Wisconsin? ~ From “Starman”

I bought a ticket to the States, to a fantastic place called Wisconsin. Wisconsin babes! ~ From “Love Actually”

I’m a regular visitor here, but Milwaukee has certainly had its share of visitors. The French missionaries and explorers were coming here as early as the late 1600s to trade with the Native Americans. ~ From “Wayne’s World”

Ever been to Wisconsin? They have some of the coldest winters around. I grew up there, near Chippewa Falls. ~ From “Titanic”

It is a well-documented fact that guys will not ask for directions. This is a biological thing. This is why it takes several million sperm cells… to locate a female egg, despite the fact that the egg is, relative to them, the size of Wisconsin. ~ Dave Barry

Wealthy individuals have always had the capacity to influence politics, of course, but only after two key campaign finance cases – Wisconsin Right to Life and and Citizens United, have they been able to do it in such a large and blatant way. ~ Zephyr Teachout

I’m a Wisconsin kid, so I like brats and burgers and stuff like that. Cheese curds. ~ J. J. Watt

Washington, DC is to lying what Wisconsin is to cheese. ~ Dennis Miller

It’s a great culture to be a part of: there are hockey players all over the world. It has taken me to an education, getting an education at Wisconsin. I’ve been able to travel the world. ~ Hilary Knight

[These are contributions to the Art Center’s restroom walls from local school children . . . ]

In the state of Wisconsin it’s mandated that teachers in the social sciences and hard sciences have to start giving environmental education by the first grade, through high school. ~ Gaylord Nelson

There’s no reason that anybody from Wisconsin or Turkey can’t relate to ‘Atlanta.’ ~ Brian Tyree Henry

In Wisconsin, style-wise, it was all about bundling up, maybe wearing a hat and forgetting about your hair. ~ J. J. Watt

Weirdness is not my game. I’m just a square boy from Wisconsin. ~ Willem Dafoe

Prayer and dependence on God has been our history. How unfortunate it is now that an unaccountable and unelected and misguided judge from Wisconsin, Judge Barbara Crabb, has declared National Days of Prayer – established by the Congress – to be unconstitutional. ~ James Dobson

I don’t think Wisconsin should become known as a state where we shoot cats. ~ Jim Doyle

Sarah Palin is brilliant. She is a media magnet and a media magnate. She creates headlines and draws crowds wherever she goes, whether it’s 98 degrees in the desert of Arizona or below freezing in the snow of Wisconsin. ~ Mark McKinnon

[The Biddies peruse the art room-by-room . . . ]

As an individual, and I have to say as a person of color, the thing about being an ‘other’ in America is I really feel like you’re bilingual. I’m from a small town in Wisconsin, but even when I’m in New York and I’m working for MSNBC or CNN, you’re used to being the only black person in the room. ~ John Ridley

Wisconsin is a very liberal state and a very conservative state. We’re the home of the progressive movement. We’re the home of the Republican Party. ~ Sean Duffy

[A hand up . . . ]

My favorite flowers are orchids and peonies. In Wisconsin, where I grew up, peonies were everywhere, and I have loved them all my life! I also love using succulents in my decor because they last forever and add great texture to any arrangement. ~ Kendra Scott

I definitely felt out of place at first, not unlike being lactose intolerant in Wisconsin. ~ Jared Brock

[A show of hands, please . . . ]

My father had season tickets to the Packer games, and I have several of those. I have a lot of family that still lives in the Bay Area and in Wisconsin, too. And so, I like to get back as often as I can. ~ Tony Shalhoub

[Another annual event, upon arrival in Elkhart Lake, before camp opens at noon for the 8th week attendees, we stop here for an adult beverage and snack overlooking the lake – this is on the southeast side of the lake while camp is on the northwest side . . . ]

There’s a concept in Wisconsin called deer widows, which is basically when all the menfolk leave town to go on their [hunting] trips and the women are left behind, bewildered and confused, to do whatever it is women do without men. (Celebrate.) ~ Don Zolidis

[The view from the Barefoot Tiki Bar . . . ]

Wisconsin doesn’t look kindly on the weeks that slip in between the death of cold and the birth of warmth . . . ~ Seanan McGuire

There was a point in time in Wisconsin football when people used to just go to watch the band. ~ Bret Bielema

[It appeared to be synchronous sailing . . . ]

You think all teenagers care about are musicians and movie stars? Spend some time in Wisconsin. We’ll blow your socks off. ~ Joan Bauer

…Minnesota, Wisconsin, all around there… has the kind of women I liked when I was younger. ~ Neil Gaiman

She was always threatening to move to be nearer to Rosie and the boys, but Wisconsin was obviously, non negotiably, self-evidently-too cold. But she came up for the summers. Phoenix’s weather need not be clutched to the breast for June through September. ~ Laurie Frankel

[The new staircase from the camp’s living quarters and recreation area down to lakeside . . . ]

My first joke that ever aired on ‘Late Night’ was for a list of ‘Top 10 Least Popular Summer Camps.’ My contribution – ‘Camp Tick in beautiful Lyme, Connecticut’ – squeaked in at No. 10. ~ Nell Scovell

[Lakeside, where we introduced ourselves to each other and were greeted by staff announcing plans for the week . . . ]

A lot of parents pack up their troubles and send them off to summer camp. ~ Raymond Duncan

[The first night campfire . . . ]

I played 15 years of hockey, and I got more injured doing two weeks of cheer camp. ~ Eric Christian Olsen

As a kid, I was terrified. I was a bed wetter, and I had to go to sleepaway camp every summer, which was humiliating and terrifying. I had lots of insecurities and scaredness. ~ Sarah Silverman

July 31

Doo, doo, doo, lookin’ out my back door. ~ John Fogerty

[The view from our living room out through the screen porch to the lake below . . . ]

I bought an island in 1987. It’s in one of the lakes in Canada. I went around it in my boat and went to the real estate office and bought it. It’s the best $65,000 I’ve ever spent. My family camp on it and we have great times there. ~ Dan Aykroyd

[The view from outside our front door . . . ]

I spent two summers working at Camp Curry and at Yosemite Lodge as a waiter. It gave me a chance to really be there every day – to hike up to Vernal Falls or Nevada Falls. It just took me really deep into it. Yosemite claimed me. ~ Robert Redford

[Ye Olde Swimming Hole at camp . . . ]

I play a female Indiana Jones, a professor who hunts down precious objects, like a bowl that belonged to the Buddha. They tailored the role to me: I wanted to be smart, funny, and to kick some ass. ~ Tia Carrere

[Phyllis is a longtime camper who provides perspective here . . . ]

Camp is so universal. It buys that sense of togetherness. You have camp friends that you only see at camp and couldn’t see an entire year. ~ Kevin Jones

[Last year the flagstone patio was redone with smooth pavers. Now old(er) campers can use the patio without fear of falling down . . . ]

I think the fascination with zombies is that they don’t obey the rules of monsters. The first rule of monsters is that you have to go find them. You have to make a conscious choice to go to the swamp or the desert or the abandoned summer camp. ~ Max Brooks

[Said old(er) people . . . ]

If I have to be remembered for something, I want it remembered that I really liked children and was a good camp counselor. ~ Francis Ford Coppola

[Looking across Elkhart Lake to the town of Elkhart Lake on the other side . . . ]

The ‘Billionaire’ song is what my kids tease me with. They sing it to me. It’s funny. ~ Bill Gates

[Lest you’re not sure, that is indeed the Elkhart Lake water tower seemingly with a fresh coat of paint . . . ]

As a woman, you can be funny and 50, but you can’t do much else – unless you’re Helen Mirren! ~ Caroline Quentin

[Rita stops for a visit with Jenny and Kent. Kent is what you would call if this was Harvard, a legacy camper. His folks and Rita have been campers here for over 40 years . . . ]

Camp Southern Ground is a lot more than a camp. It’s more of a campus. ~ Zac Brown

[The Biddies meet the lifeguard . . . ]

I actually like snakes! When I was young, I was a boy scout nature camp counselor, and one of our projects was collecting snakes and creating an environment for them, so I’m quite familiar with snakes and think they’re fantastic creatures. ~ Harrison Ford

Queen is my all-time favorite band in history. I was an obsessive growing up after I discovered them at 10 at summer camp. ~ Adam F. Goldberg

It’s really time for the State of Wisconsin to form a better relationship with the greater Milwaukee area. ~ Tony Evers

I think our Batman had to be fun, light-hearted, funny, tongue-in-cheek… and I think that made kind of an homage to those earlier comic books, where Batman always had a quip or something. ~ Adam West

Midwest kids got to summer camp. There is something very special about being away from your parents for the first time, sleeping under the stars, hiking and canoeing. ~ Jami Gertz

It’s been a dream of mine to run my own summer camp. I went to one as a kid, and I put on productions, and got lots of confidence. ~ Idina Menzel

The snow continues with high winds we remain at this camp to day in consequence of the weather. ~ William Henry Ashley

In earlier times, so many people sang much more. You know as a kid you’d go to some kind of religious training and or summer camp or whatever it was and you’d learn to sing a lot of songs. ~ Michael Tilson Thomas

All the guys called the Olympic Village a high-class Boy Scout camp. ~ Johnny Weissmuller

[The city beach in the right background; to its left (in the photo), the aforementioned Barefoot Tiki Bar is hidden by the trees on the point in the near left foreground . . . ]

Frontiersmen good and bad, gunmen as well as inspired prophets of the future, have been my camp companions. Thus, I know the country of which I am about to write as few men now living have known it. ~ Buffalo Bill

If a man falls down and gets up, it’s funny. If he falls down and doesn’t get up it’s not funny. ~ Soupy Sales

[The staircase up from the swimming deck to the camp lodging area . . . ]

I had 500 kids at camp this past summer for example. We do nine weeks for kids and nine days for grown ups every summer. The adult camp is a lot of fun. ~ Wavy Gravy

[And looking down on the waterfront and mess hall area . . . ]

I don’t hunt, I don’t camp, and I get lost on my subway to work here in Times Square! ~ David Grann

[I usually took the back seat of the golf cart to make sure no one was following us . . . ]

August 1

Our Congress should stay in session all summer – camp out in D.C., and turn off the AC. Put on their stuffiest powdered wigs and sweat it out, until they give in and put their John Hancocks (and their Nancy Pelosis and their John Boehners) on at least one meaningful law that no one wants to repeal. ~ Kevin Bleyer

[A smoky sunrise through the porch screen . . . ]

Show me a rock imported from France, and I’ll show you de Gaulle stone. ~ Soupy Sales

I’m really not that funny in real life! But I am the best audience one could find. I love to laugh. ~ Carol Burnett

[The camp game of choice leading to euchre tournament brackets . . . ]

Once you get past funny, my other qualities are so below average. It’s not like I’m handy. ~ Seth Meyers

[Our cabin, Rappaport, hidden amongst the trees in photo center . . . ]

Some of the best conversations I’ve had are sitting around a campfire. ~ Robyn Davidson

[And that’s certainly true for Biddie 1 and The DOM, who between them have over 80 years of experience coming to Camp Brosius . . . ]

Location is everything, I’d rather camp in the Lake District or Scotland than sit in a five-star hotel in Frankfurt. ~ Rory Bremmer

[They got to keep the hats (and may have to declare them on their W2’s) . . .]

From fifth grade on, I worked at our public library. The pay, a pittance, was almost superfluous. All through high school, I looked forward to summer as the time when I could work at the library four or five days a week. I was never a camp counselor, a lifeguard, a scooper of ice cream. ~ Julia Glass

[It’s all in the wrist . . . ]

I hate camping, but I love summer camp. ~ Zooey Deschanel

[With thanks to Rita and the DOM . . . ]

For me, take Tiger Woods. I always thought he was great, but I never truly understood how good he was until I had the chance to go to Tiger Woods Golf Camp. He taught me how to swing and was hitting the ball, and this dude was unreal. ~ Larry Fitzgerald

[The ultimate camp scene – young kids learning how to sail . . . ]

I’d love to open a camp focusing on the arts accessible to kids from all income brackets. ~ Idina Menzel

I love to travel but hate traffic and planes. I wish I could just beam myself anywhere instantly. ~ Jordan Ladd

[And how to right a Sunfish that has toppled over . . . ]

My ideal travel companions are my surfboard, wetsuit, and guitar. ~ Alexander Ludwig

We live in a society where sleep is really such an afterthought. Not getting enough sleep is an epidemic in our country and it’s something that is not talked about or taken seriously. ~ Gabby Thomas

Politics have no relation to morals. ~ Niccolo Machiavelli

[August 1, 2023, a date that will live in infamy . . . ]

In politics stupidity is not a handicap. ~ Napoleon Bonaparte

[And yet a date that produced these many faces of celebration . . . ]

Vote for the man who promises least; he’ll be the least disappointing. ~ Bernard Baruch

[Much of camp activity takes place on our porch . . . ]

We hang the petty thieves and appoint the great ones to public office. ~ Aesop

Democracy is when the indigent, and not the men of property, are the rulers. ~ Aristotle

A fool and his money are soon elected. ~ Will Rogers

It has been said that politics is the second oldest profession. I have learned that it bears a striking resemblance to the first. ~ Ronald Reagan

Politics is the art of controlling your environment. ~ Hunter S. Thompson

If we don’t believe in freedom of expression for people we despise, we don’t believe in it at all. ~ Noam Chomsky

There ain’t no answer. There ain’t gonna be any answer. There never has been an answer. That’s the answer. ~ Gertrude Stein

Hell, I never vote for anybody, I always vote against. ~ W. C. Fields

Being president is like being a jackass in a hailstorm. There’s nothing to do but to stand there and take it. ~ Lyndon B. Johnson

A diplomat is a person who can tell you to go to hell in such a way that you actually look forward to the trip. ~ Caskie Stinnett

I love to travel, anywhere in the world. Wherever it is… India… Tibet… wherever. I’ll go anywhere. ~ Guillermo del Toro

I was 12 when it really hit me. I did children’s theatre camp during the summers and played a fairy in ‘A Midsummer Night’s Dream.’ The next summer, I played Clytemnestra in ‘Agamemnon’ and I was like, ‘OK, this is amazing.’ ~ Rachel McAdams

The junior senator from Wisconsin, by his reckless charges, has so preyed upon the fears and hatreds and prejudices of the American people that he has started a prairie fire which neither he nor anyone else may be able to control. ~ J. William Fulbright

I travel Europe every couple of weeks. I just came back from London, Holland and Denmark. Every nation on this planet has its issues with race, and I am not sure if everyone has figured out how to deal with it. ~ Montel Williams

Up Next: Even more from camp . . .

August 31

When you are living in relentless heat, you become easily distracted, irritable. The fans, swamp coolers, and heat pumps we have in our homes can only take you so far out of the malaise. You become limp, despondent, and slow-moving like a lizard at high noon. Many throughout our desert communities are confronting the possibility that this untenable sustained heat and drought will force us to leave. ~ Terry Tempest Williams

[I was subsequently released under a $200k bond, all the while claiming (strongly) my innocence and that it was a political witch hunt . . . ]

Do not go gentle into that good night but rage, rage against the dying of the light. ~ Dylan Thomas

A man’s character is his fate. ~ Heraclitus

May 30

I’ve searched all the parks in all the cities and found no statues of committees. ~ Gilbert K. Chesterton

[A relatively new local area park. Just a drive through to see the improvements . . . ]

We’ve got to get people out of their cars, out of those drive-thru windows, get them walking, get them in parks and get them more active. ~ Mick Cornett

The making of the far-famed New York Central Park was opposed by even good men, with misguided pluck, perseverance, and ingenuity, but straight right won its way, and now that park is appreciated. So we confidently believe it will be with our great national parks and forest reservations. ~ John Muir

[Well, this looks nice . . . ]

Child welfare ought really to cover all sorts of topics, such as better water and sanitation and good roads, and clean streets and public parks and playgrounds. ~ Marjorie Stoneman Douglas

[Restrooms at the beach . . . ]

Conservation of any endangered species must begin with stringent efforts to protect its natural habitat by the enforcement of rigid legislation against human encroachment into parks and other game sanctuaries. ~ Dian Fossey

A society – any society – is defined as a set of mutual benefits and duties embodied most visibly in public institutions: public schools, public libraries, public transportation, public hospitals, public parks, public museums, public recreation, public universities, and so on. ~ Robert Reich

Objects in a park suggest static repose rather than any ongoing dialectic. Parks are finished landscapes for finished art . ~ Robert Smithson

[There were subsequently three substantial music events here (2,000 – 3,000 attendees) this summer. Those crowds were a little too big for our tastes . . . ]

June 20

If you’re old, don’t try to change yourself, change your environment. ~ B. F. Skinner

[Because what could be more exciting than the construction of a roundabout at the Y. It has since been completed and is working marvelously . . . ]

June 21

All my life through, the new sights of Nature made me rejoice like a child. ~ Marie Curie

[The proposed Alexandria Nature Trail . . . ]

Nature is my church. The wind in the trees and the bugs and the frogs. All those things are comfort to me. ~ Sissy Spacek

[You may recall Barb Benson from the previous post as a leading Friend of the Alexandria Nature Trail . . . ]

The purpose of education is to make good human beings with skill and expertise… Enlightened human beings can be created by teachers. ~ A. P. J. Abdul Kalam

[From Barb Benson: Tim Schoonhoven (red shirt), Alexandria City Engineer, will start us off with a brief informational presentation in Discovery. Lukas Gotto (gray shirt), Discovery Middle School (DMS) teacher, will lead us on a 1.5 mile trail walk. Following the walk…we will meet back at DMS to determine interest in a Friends of the Nature Trail.]

The clearest way into the Universe is through a forest wilderness. ~ John Muir

[An osprey nest at DMS . . . ]

Joys come from simple and natural things: mists over meadows, sunlight on leaves, the path of the moon over water. ~ Sigurd F. Olson

I am glad I will not be young in a future without wilderness. ~ Aldo Leopold

[The hike through the DMS part of the trail begins (the osprey nest in the background) . . . ]

Wilderness to the people of America is a spiritual necessity, an antidote to the high pressure of modern life, a means of regaining serenity and equilibrium. ~ Sigurd F. Olson

[Looking back at DMS . . . ]

Conservation is getting nowhere because it is incompatible with our Abrahamic concept of land. We abuse land because we regard it as a commodity belonging to us. When we see land as a community to which we belong, we may begin to use it with love and respect. ~ Aldo Leopold

In every walk with nature one receives far more than he seeks. ~ John Muir

Nature’s beauty is a gift that cultivates appreciation and gratitude. ~ Louie Schwartzberg

A conservationist is one who is humbly aware that with each stroke [of the axe] he is writing his signature on the face of the land. ~ Aldo Leopold

I care to live only to entice people to look at Nature’s loveliness. ~ John Muir

[The students named the ponds after area lakes . . . ]

To explain all nature is too difficult a task for any one man or even for any one age. ‘Tis much better to do a little with certainty & leave the rest for others that come after you. ~ Isaac Newton

To those devoid of imagination a blank place on the map is a useless waste; to others, the most valuable part. ~ Aldo Leopold

[Hiking back toward DMS . . . ]

I don’t think of all the misery but of the beauty that still remains. ~ Anne Frank

We learned about gratitude and humility – that so many people had a hand in our success, from the teachers who inspired us to the janitors who kept our school clean… and we were taught to value everyone’s contribution and treat everyone with respect. ~ Michelle Obama

[DMS . . . ]

Simplicity in all things is the secret of the wilderness and one of its most valuable lessons. ~ Sigurd F. Olson

[But still more trail to go . . . ]

Beauty is composed of many things and never stands alone. It is part of horizons, blue in the distance, great primeval silences, knowledge of all things of the earth. It embodies the hopes and dreams of those who have gone before, including the spirit world; it is so fragile it can be destroyed by a sound or thought. It may be infinitesimally small or encompass the universe itself. It comes in a swift conception wherever nature has not been disturbed. ~ Sigurd F. Olson

Six days shalt thou paddle and pack, but on the seventh thou shall wash thy socks. ~ Aldo Leopold

I never saw a discontented tree. They grip the ground as though they liked it, and though fast rooted they travel about as far as we do. ~ John Muir

[The Super leads the way out . . . ]

The way of a canoe is the way of the wilderness, and of a freedom almost forgotten. ~ Sigurd F. Olson

June 22

Act as if what you do makes a difference. It does. ~ William James

[The kids from Minnetonka did it again. They performed their tied for first place in the state one-act play contest “Honk & Holler” at Theatre L’Homme Dieu on Thursday night. Incidentally, Alexandria tied them for first place . . . ]

“1972. A then-lawyer at the ACLU named Ruth Bader Ginsburg set out to convince an all-male Supreme Court to take sex discrimination seriously with an unconventional strategy. She didn’t just bring cases where women were the victims of discrimination; she also brought cases where men were the victims. In this episode, we look at how a key battle for gender equality was won with frat boys and beer.*

This world premiere one act play is adapted with permission from NPR and Radiolab from one of their most popular podcast episodes. Minnetonka Theatre is excited to bring this remarkable true story back to life on the TLHD stage. Two performances only.”

Fight for the things that you care about. But do it in a way that will lead others to join you. ~ Ruth Bader Ginsburg

Whatever you choose to do, leave tracks. That means don’t do it just for yourself. You will want to leave the world a little better for your having lived. ~ Ruth Bader Ginsburg

[The Super approves of pre-show adult beverages on the patio . . . ]

I pray that I may be all that [my mother] would have been had she lived in an age when women could aspire and achieve and daughters are cherished as much as sons. ~ Ruth Bader Ginsburg

[Becky helps keep the wheels of the theatre operating smoothly . . . ]

Justices continue to think and can change. I am ever hopeful that if the court has a blind spot today, its eyes will be open tomorrow. ~ Ruth Bader Ginsburg

[Trent Boyum, artistic director, Minnetonka Theatre, and Nicole Mulder, executive director, Theatre L’Homme Dieu, discuss what we were about to see . . . ]

Women belong in all places where decisions are being made. It shouldn’t be that women are the exception. ~ Ruth Bader Ginsburg

As women achieve power, the barriers will fall. As society sees what women can do, as women see what women can do, there will be more women out there doing things, and we’ll all be better off for it. ~ Ruth Bader Ginsburg

We have made huge strides … but we have not reached nirvana. There’s still rampant discrimination on the basis of race, gender. It’s true that most of the explicit classifications — men are treated this way, women that way — are gone from the law books. But what remains is what has been called unconscious bias. One excellent example of that is the symphony orchestra. In my growing up years I never saw a woman in a symphony orchestra, except perhaps a harp player. ~ Ruth Bader Ginsburg

[The kids were very much terrific . . . ]

June 24

Jazz stands for freedom. It’s supposed to be the voice of freedom: Get out there and improvise, and take chances, and don’t be a perfectionist – leave that to the classical musicians. ~ Dave Brubeck

It’s not that people don’t like classical music. It’s that they don’t have the chance to understand and to experience it. ~ Gustavo Dudamel

[Classical music fans arrive at the evening’s venue at Mount Carmel on Lake Carlos . . . ]

There is a lot of science in bubbles. They are just like our weather system. The earth is, in effect, trapped inside a liquid sphere, the troposphere, where our weather forms. The bright colors on the outside of a bubble are just varying thicknesses of bubble, just like the varying thicknesses of clouds. ~ Tom Noddy

[We had an incredible summer evening sky on the drive home . . . ]

When I look at the clouds over the Earth, and I know how high clouds are, I get a sense we are really, really far above those clouds. I wouldn’t call it scary, but I am aware I am in space. ~ Scott Kelly

The Sheldonian Theatre in Oxford is an astonishing building, designed by Christopher Wren. Its painted ceiling has just been restored so that the darkish miasma that was Robert Streeter’s original allegory of truth and light striking the university is now bright with playful cherubs and lustrous clouds. ~ Justin Cartwright

I read this book when I was young. It’s about a black girl growing up in Heaven, Ohio. The cover has a black girl with clouds behind her. It was the first book cover I ever saw with a girl that looked like me. ~ Jamila Woods

Every customer wants to run on all the clouds. ~ Diane Greene

Among the plausible niches for extraterrestrial life in our solar system, the clouds of Venus are among the most accessible and the least well explained. ~ David Grinspoon

When you can stand over the clouds and watch them roll through the mountains below you, it shifts absolutely everything in your brain. ~ Jamie Chung

June 27

Twice a year, I take myself off to a self-imposed ‘writer’s retreat’, staying at a small inn or on a friend’s farm, where I am all alone and do nothing other than write. ~ Jane Green

[A wedding and event center that has happily decided to feature music one day a week – this time our friend Anthony Miltich . . . ]

Japan is the most intoxicating place for me. In Kyoto, there’s an inn called the Tawaraya which is quite extraordinary. The Japanese culture fascinates me: the food, the dress, the manners and the traditions. It’s the travel experience that has moved me the most. ~ Roman Coppola

[The music and pizza venue . . . ]

I don’t read music. I don’t write it. So I wander around on the guitar until something starts to present itself. ~ James Taylor

[Overlooking a lake (well, it is Minnesota) . . . ]

I believe 100 percent in the power and importance of music. ~ James Taylor

I am myself for a living. I don’t animate a character. ~ James Taylor

[Another Kilroy selfie . . . ]

If Willie Nelson had been Rosa Parks, there never would have been a civil rights movement in this country, because he refuses to leave the back of the bus. ~ Kinky Friedman

[Yup, this is the start of the parade to put bread in Anthony’s jar . . . ]

If it hadn’t worked out professionally, I would be teaching music theory and composition in a small college somewhere and playing drums in a jazz trio at the Holiday Inn on weekends, and I’d be happy there, too. ~ J. D. Souther

There is no private house in which people can enjoy themselves so well as at a capital tavern… No, Sir; there is nothing which has yet been contrived by man by which so much happiness is produced as by a good tavern or inn. ~ Samuel Johnson

Things started to get out of control when I began reading that I was a superstar. ~ James Taylor

[And the finish . . . ]

I collect hats. That’s what you do when you’re bald. ~ James Taylor

A concert is always like a feast day to me. ~ James Taylor

[Thanks for the pizza!]

I’m very unstable; there’s no stability in a musician’s life at all. You live on a bus or on the road hand to mouth and you don’t know where your money’s coming from. ~ James Taylor

Certain things in life are more important than the usual crap that everyone strives for. ~ James Taylor

All the world’s a stage, and all the men and women merely players: they have their exits and their entrances; and one man in his time plays many parts, his acts being seven ages. ~ William Shakespeare

[Meanwhile, back at Theatre L’Homme Dieu . . . ]

Those who decide to use leisure as a means of mental development, who love good music, good books, good pictures, good plays, good company, good conversation – what are they? They are the happiest people in the world. ~ William Lyon Phelps

If they ever do my life story, whoever plays me needs lots of hair color and high heels. ~ Charlize Theron

June 28

I’ve never been to a class reunion or anything because I’m always afraid of that one – there’s going to be some ‘Carrie’-like incident. ~ Paul Feig

[The venue for the monthly reunion lunch, the winery on the south side of Lake Minnewaska in Glenwood . . . ]

The future is built on brains, not prom court, as most people can tell you after attending their high school reunion. But you’d never know it by talking to kids or listening to the messages they get from the culture and even from their schools. ~ Anna Quindlen

[Mayo and I represented a two-person reunion . . . ]

There’s some horrible connotations in the word ‘reunion.’ ~ Carrie Brownstein

It takes a certain amount of guts to go to your class reunions. ~ Dick Cavett

[The hazy view of Lake Minnewaska . . . ]

Isn’t it funny how day by day nothing changes, but when you look back everything is different? ~ C.S. Lewis

We never really grow up, we only learn how to act in public. ~ Bryan White

[The views from the winery . . . ]

I’ve never been to a class reunion or anything because I’m always afraid of that one – there’s going to be some ‘Carrie’-like incident. ~ Paul Feig

[This was a visit of first impression for Mayo . . . ]

It takes a certain amount of guts to go to your class reunions. ~ Dick Cavett

[The winery . . . ]

Isn’t it funny how day by day nothing changes, but when you look back everything is different? ~ C.S. Lewis

We never really grow up, we only learn how to act in public. ~ Bryan White

There are very few personal problems that cannot be solved through a suitable application of high explosives. ~ Scott Adams

[And then it was on to golf course fine dining . . . ]

Sheep, like people, are ungovernable when hungry. ~ John Muir

[Yup, meat loaf . . . ]

June 29

Every class is drama class when you’re in high school. ~ Timothy Bird

[Basketball is not usually the first thing that comes to mind at the end of June . . . ]

To the uneducated, an A is just three sticks. ~ A. A. Milne

[Cardinal coach Wendy Kohler is hoping to lead her team to the state tournament again next March . . . ]

I went to the 30th reunion of my preschool. I didn’t want to go because I’ve put on, like, a hundred pounds. ~ Wendy Liebman

[Hadley Thul (11) was all-state last year as a sophomore . . . ]

Don’t go to a school reunion. There’ll be a lot of old people there claiming to be your classmates. ~ Tom Dreesen

[With team quickness and depth, the Cards will be hard to beat this season . . . ]

People want to take sex education out of the schools. They think sex education causes promiscuity. Hey, I took algebra. I never do math. ~ Elayne Boosler

In California, some high schools are requiring students to wear uniforms. They say uniforms create a safe, stable environment. Like the post office. ~ Jay Leno

[If that’s all the starters on the floor, the shooter appears to be junior-to-be point guard Allie Haabala . . . ]

Stand firm in your refusal to remain conscious during algebra. In real life, I assure you, there is no such thing as algebra. ~ Fran Lebowitz

[Half time score with the game played on running time . . . ]

As long as teachers give tests, there will always be prayer in schools. ~ Unknown

[This is Allie Haabala (33) shooting the free throw . . . ]

Education costs money, but then so does ignorance. ~ Claus Moser.

[Junior-to-be Chloe Scholl (15) . . . ]

To be good is noble, but to teach others how to be good is nobler—and less trouble. ~ Mark Twain

[The next game . . . ]

It’s easier to floss with barbed wire than admit you like someone in middle school. ~ Laurie Halse Anderson

[Hadley . . . ]

The difference between try and triumph is a little umph. ~ Marvin Phillips

[High school girls are “bigs” in basketball when they’re over 6-feet tall. Here 6’2″ Hadley passes in to 6′ sophomore-to-be Kate Hennessy . . . ]

A liberal is a man too broad-minded to take his own side in a quarrel. ~ Robert Frost

He [Tony Bennett] was always available, always gracious. That old-school elegance, the jazz-era royalty – I don’t know if that’s going to exist anymore. Maybe he was its last remaining proprietor. That is one of the things that I mourn the most. ~ k. d. lang

Up Next: Likely Camp ’23 (Day 3 – ) . . .

August 29

In both business and personal life, I’ve always found that travel inspires me more than anything else I do. Evidence of the languages, cultures, scenery, food, and design sensibilities that I discover all over the world can be found in every piece of my jewelry. ~ Ivanka Trump

“Camp, (noun): a place with temporary accommodations of huts, tents, or other structures, typically used by soldiers, refugees, prisoners, or travelers.” Every year for many years the Super and I have spent the first week in August at Camp Brosius in Elkhart Lake, Wisconsin (thus, always missing the Resorters at home, the largest match play golf tournament in the country with over 500 players). It’s an Indiana University alumni camp that runs for 8 weeks each summer, turning over about 100 campers per week. Ruthie and Rita are both IU alums. And our group has always been week 8. ~ Me

No matter where you go, there you are. ~ Proverb

July 28

When you travel, remember that a foreign country is not designed to make you comfortable. It is designed to make its own people comfortable. ~ Clifton Fadiman

[All our bags were packed, we were ready to go . . . ]

Travel is glamorous only in retrospect. ~ Paul Theroux

[We have developed a habit of spending a night (two nights this year) in Sheboygan before checking into camp at 1:00 on Sunday. Sheboygan is a 475 mile, 7 1/2 drive from Alexandria with one lunch and one gas stop . . . ]

I still make sure to go, at least once every year, to a country where things cannot be taken for granted, and where there is either too much law and order or too little. ~ Christopher Hitchens

[The view out our window in the Inn of Sheboygan. The humpback whales there last year came back again this year . . . ]

I think a major element of jetlag is psychological. Nobody ever tells me what time it is at home. ~ David Attenborough

Paris is always a good idea. ~ Audrey Hepburn

[We went out to dinner on the Sheboygan waterfront after checking in – Lake Michigan in the distance . . . ]

The Ritz in London has an old-fashioned charm, with waiters wearing tails and white gloves. The dining room is exquisite, with immaculate service and ornate details. ~ Anton du Beke

[At Parker John’s BBQ and Pizza, a regular stop on the waterfront tour . . . ]

Dining should be something that isn’t always taken extremely seriously. ~ Graham Elliot

[Not to be outdone by her younger sister . . . ]

Dining with a married couple can be uncomfortable. ~ Carice van Houten

[Rita was enjoying a little “Sex on the Farm” . . . ]

A lot of Americans say the food in England sucks. I don’t think the food in England sucks – the food is great – but I’ve got to say, the Americans have got the dining out experience nailed down. ~ Michael Bisping

[The Super had a similarly-named sangria – we just can’t recall the name . . . ]

Let us be grateful to people who make us happy, they are the charming gardeners who make our souls blossom. ~ Marcel Proust

Life is like a roller coaster, live it, be happy, enjoy life. ~ Avril Lavigne

[I forget what Beth (Rita’s daughter) ordered, but she remembered it was what she ordered last year . . . ]

So long as you have food in your mouth, you have solved all questions for the time being. ~ Franz Kafka

[Otherwise known as a light snack . . . ]

June 29

Innovations that are guided by smallholder farmers, adapted to local circumstances, and sustainable for the economy and environment will be necessary to ensure food security in the future. ~ Bill Gates

[Day 2: A farmers’ market in the park across the street from our motel . . . ]

The Universe is under no obligation to make sense to you. ~ Neil deGrasse Tyson

I restore myself when I’m alone. ~ Marilyn Monroe

You don’t need a silver fork to eat good food. ~ Paul Prudhomme

Part of the secret of a success in life is to eat what you like and let the food fight it out inside. ~ Mark Twain

[Beth and “The Biddies” ISO – food . . . ]

I have struck a city – a real city – and they call it Chicago… I urgently desire never to see it again. It is inhabited by savages. ~ Rudyard Kipling

When you take a flower in your hand and really look at it, it’s your world for the moment. I want to give that world to someone else. Most people in the city rush around so, they have no time to look at a flower. I want them to see it whether they want to or not. ~ Georgia O’Keeffe

The city is not a concrete jungle, it is a human zoo. ~ Demond Morris

A city is not gauged by its length and width, but by the broadness of its vision and the height of its dreams. ~ Herb Caen

[Ruthie with a young man at the Positivity Booth . . . ]

Perhaps the truth depends on a walk around the lake. ~ Wallace Stevens

[The Super and Beth on a stroll around Lake Michigan . . . ]

My Mom said she learned how to swim when someone took her out in the lake and threw her off the boat. I said, ‘Mom, they weren’t trying to teach you how to swim.’ ~ Paula Poundstone

[You will meet Charley (Beth’s nephew) later in this screed. On his later walk here he lost his glasses when struck by a wave (later replaced at a same day glasses establishment) . . . ]

Exercise is really important to me – it’s therapeutic. So if I’m ever feeling tense or stressed or like I’m about to have a meltdown, I’ll put on my iPod and head to the gym or out on a bike ride along Lake Michigan with the girls. ~ Michelle Obama

One of my favorite places on the planet is a place in northern Michigan: Long Lake in Traverse City. ~ Gregory H. Johnson

[Beth may be looking for a yacht to take back to San Diego . . . ]

I write for a radio show that, no matter what, will go on the air Saturday at five o’clock central time. You learn to write toward that deadline, to let the adrenaline pick you up on Friday morning and carry you through, to cook up a monologue about Lake Wobegon and get to the theater on time. ~ Garrison Keillor

When I sell liquor, it’s called bootlegging; when my patrons serve it on Lake Shore Drive, it’s called hospitality. ~ Al Capone

[“The Biddies” provide scale for an ancient wooden boat wreck . . . ]

Whether or not we can save Lake Michigan, whether or not we can avoid a breakdown in our criminal justice system are more important than whether or not I’m going to be governor. ~ Bill Scott

When you’re working on a lake and it’s dark and cold out and you can’t see what’s underwater, it is freaking scary! ~ Jessica Szohr

[We learned this breakwater had just been completed – a nice half mile walk to the end . . . ]

I remember going out alone in a canoe. Somebody told me to lie in the bottom of the canoe and just drift. It was a small lake and I was perfectly safe. So I did that, and I drifted. It was quiet and peaceful. Suddenly, I heard a loon cry the first time I ever heard that marvelous sound. ~ Lorne Greene

[There is a Coast Guard station to their left . . . ]

L.A. is great, but it’s a completely different beast. I go back to Minnesota, and I borrow a bike from my neighbor and go around Lake Harriet saying ‘Hi’ to people. Some of that is missing in L.A. ~ Yara Shahidi

[Looking back from whence we came . . . ]

When I was a boy, one of my uncles had a cabin on a lake in Wisconsin. My family went there for parts of three summers, and I loved it! ~ Kevin Henkes

[Hiking to the end of the breakwater with a group of our close personal friends . . . ]

I’m definitely writing my fears. It’s almost therapeutic to at least voice a terror, to say, ‘I’m worried that Lake Powell looks low and Lake Mead looks even lower.’ ~ Paolo Bacigalupi

[Rita and I followed behind to make sure nobody got lost . . . ]

My ideal date would involve a park or rowing in those little boats on a lake. ~ Aja Naomi King

[Ruthie, Beth, and Rita, not realizing if you’re 3 or more you may be considered a cabal, or even worse, an LLC . . . ]

When I was a kid, getting on Lake Shore Drive from the south side to go downtown was magical. ~ Jamila Woods

An ice-fishing shanty is basically a tin outhouse on a frozen lake, except that in an outhouse, the hole has a purpose. In ice fishing, the hole is what you stare at for hours, hoping that at some point you’ll break the monotony by falling in. ~ W. Bruce Cameron

[Just “The Biddies” and me . . . ]

No hidden talents, but I have a lot of hobbies. Acrylic painting – I got a whole set, and I light candles at night and sit there and paint and look out on Lake Michigan. ~ Christen Press

Travel, in the younger sort, is a part of education; in the elder, a part of experience. ~ Francis Bacon

[This is the end . . . ]

Perhaps travel cannot prevent bigotry, but by demonstrating that all peoples cry, laugh, eat, worry, and die, it can introduce the idea that if we try and understand each other, we may even become friends. ~ Maya Angelou

[Auntie and niece . . . ]

I am not a great cook, I am not a great artist, but I love art, and I love food, so I am the perfect traveller. ~ Michael Palin

I never travel without my diary. One should always have something sensational to read in the train. ~ Oscar Wilde

[Ooh-la-la . . . ]

If all difficulties were known at the outset of a long journey, most of us would never start out at all. ~ Dan Rather

Never go on trips with anyone you do not love. ~ Ernest Hemingway

[This is an anchor. Undoubtedly from a boat. From Lake Michigan . . . ]

My art originates from hallucinations only I can see. I translate the hallucinations and obsessional images that plague me into sculptures and paintings. ~ Yayoi Kusama

Sculpture is the art of the intelligence. ~ Pablo Picasso

Sculpture is an art of the open air. Daylight, sunlight, is necessary to it, and for me, its best setting and complement is nature. ~ Henry Moore

[We had no idea about this place – it turned out to be a real highlight . . . ]

Good painting is the kind that looks like sculpture. ~ Michelangelo

Sculpture is the art of the hole and the lump. ~ Auguste Rodin

What sculpture is to a block of marble, education is to the soul. ~ Joseph Addison

Moonlight is sculpture. ~ Nathaniel Hawthorne

I look at every piece of furniture and every object as an individual sculpture. ~ Kelly Wearstler

Architecture is inhabited sculpture. ~ Constantin Brancusi

The art of mastering life is the prerequisite for all further forms of expression, whether they are paintings, sculptures, tragedies, or musical compositions. ~ Paul Klee

At a certain point, I just put the building and the art impulse together. I decided that building was a legitimate way to make sculpture. ~ Martin Puryear

I have tried to get close to the frontier between architecture and sculpture and to understand architecture as an art. ~ Santiago Calatrava

[Peek-a-boo . . . ]

Sculpture is something you bump into when you back up to look at a painting. ~ Ad Reinhardt

[Here’s looking at yourself, kid . . . ]

It is not hard to understand modern art. If it hangs on a wall it’s a painting, and if you can walk around it it’s a sculpture. ~ Tom Stoppard

This world is but a canvas to our imagination. ~ Henry David Thoreau

The purpose of art is washing the dust of daily life off our souls. ~ Pablo Picasso

Art is not what you see, but what you make others see. ~ Edgar Degas

There is nothing worse than a sharp image of a fuzzy concept. ~ Ansel Adams

Treat a work of art like a prince. Let it speak to you first. ~ Arthur Schopenhauer

Drawing is the honesty of the art. There is no possibility of cheating. It is either good or bad. ~ Salvador Dali

Painting and sculpture are very archaic forms. It’s the only thing left in our industrial society where an individual alone can make something with not just his own hands, but brains, imagination, heart maybe. ~ Philip Guston

I used to think that the great thing about sculpture was that, like Stonehenge, it was something that stood against time in an adamantine way, and was an absolute mass in space. Now I try to use the language of architecture to re-describe the body as a place. ~ Antony Gormley

Why must art be static? You look at an abstraction, sculptured or painted, an entirely exciting arrangement of planes, spheres, nuclei, entirely without meaning. It would be perfect, but it is always still. The next step in sculpture is motion. ~ Alexander Calder

When a finished work of 20th century sculpture is placed in an 18th century garden, it is absorbed by the ideal representation of the past, thus reinforcing political and social values that are no longer with us. ~ Robert Smithson

The skull is nature’s sculpture. ~ David Bailey

It’s hard for people to understand editing, I think. It’s absolutely like sculpture. You get a big lump of clay, and you have to form it – this raw, unedited, very long footage. ~ Thelma Schoonmaker

If you look at sculptures from hundreds of years ago, everyone’s naked. It’s not a bad thing. ~ Gigi Hadid

[Thoughts and prayers . . . ]

I did photography, painting, and drawing, but I prefer sculpture. I like it because it’s very physical. ~ P. J. Harvey

A sculpture is just a painting cut out and stood up somewhere. ~ Frank Stella

Take a relief. You draw it, you carve it out. Later you build it up from a flat surface. There is no other way to do a sculpture – you either add or you subtract. ~ Urs Fischer

I’ll bet there are a lot of artists that nobody hears about who just make more money than anybody. The people that do all the sculptures and paintings for big building construction. We never hear about them, but they make more money than anybody. ~ Andy Warhol

[Otherwise known as two babes in the woods . . . ]

Sculptures created from found materials like ice and thorns, driftwood, and even bleached kangaroo bones all presuppose that artistic design will yield to the cycles of time and climate, whether over an hour or a decade. ~ Simon Schama

In our own time it has been seen… that simple children, roughly brought up in the wilderness, have begun to draw by themselves, impelled by their own natural genius, instructed solely by the example of these beautiful paintings and sculptures of Nature. ~ Georgio Vasari

[The artist-in-residence is from the State of Virginia. At least that’s what the car license plate said . . . ]

I have no conceit as a writer; in fact, I find it very difficult to start writing about sculpture generally & my aims in particular. ~ Henry Moore

[This is the road side sign indicating the place name – no wonder we drove by it twice before we noticed it . . . ]

Art is an expression of who you are. Parts that I play are my sculptures. ~ Kim Cattrall

The world is a book, and those who do not travel read only a page. ~ Saint Augustine

[Driving back to Sheboygan along the lakeshore drive . . . ]

Travel becomes a strategy for accumulating photographs. ~ Susan Sontag

Fine dining is an occasional treat for most people. ~ Rene Redzepi

[Over the years has become our regular “pig out” place. Ed, in the foreground, will soon be introduced . . . ]

Shared dining fortifies us. ~ Deng Ming-Dao

The biggest piece is my family… From watching films like The Godfather on our dining room wall, to having a great relationship with my sibling. Or going on weekend trips with our cousins to the beach and eating all day… it’s been a crazy childhood; a ‘bohemian one’. ~ Zoya Akhtar

[Group thoughts prior to placing orders . . . ]

History has long had a wall up between the kitchen and the dining room. Front of house, back of house – one group always wielded more power and influence. ~ Daniel Humm

[A glance around the room . . . ]

If Broadway shows charge preview prices while the cast is in dress rehearsal, why should restaurants charge full price when their dining room and kitchen staffs are still practicing? ~ Marian Burros

[Across the street from “the pig” . . . ]

The secret of getting ahead is getting started. ~ Mark Twain

I painted one dining room red and I must say, the conversation became very heated in that room. ~ Amanda Pays

[My meal was sans pig . . . ]

The world of fine dining can be frightening, if it’s not what you grew up in. I think when the doors are just thrown open, and you’re given the confidence to step into that world without any barriers at all, and you’re made to feel very welcome in it, that you belong, then it’s no longer as frightening. ~ Monica Galetti

[Ruthie & Rita, front and center, long time attendees at Camp Brosius; Ed and Elke (across from Rita) have attended Camp Brosius several times, are Chris’s parents from Ohio. Chris and Beth (Rita’s daughter) are on the back right and have been to Camp many, many times. In the middle of the table both sides are Chris’s sister, Emily, her husband, Shane, and their two boys, Henry and Charley – they are from England and this is their first visit to Camp (when we asked how would we know their kids, we were advised they have an accent). Chris’s other sister and family from California had yet to arrive for, I believe, their second Camp visit . . . ]

The dining room in my old house was truly magnificent, but by far the worst room for conversation. I’d get up from the table, a very long table, and somebody would always say, Paul, I never got to talk to you. ~ Paul Lynde

We were saving, saving, saving then going to France and blowing the money eating. She was a nurse and had never experienced fine dining but she loved it, too. Our mates thought it absurd. ~ Heston Blumenthal

If you’re dining with someone who wants the same cut, it’s always better to get a 16-ounce steak and split it than to order two eight-ounce steaks. The longer something cooks, the more flavor it develops, so you’ll get a better taste with a bigger piece of meat. ~ Tom Colicchio

By itself, tofu is like wet foam rubber, but you’d no more eat it by itself and expect fine dining than you would stare at a blank canvas and expect to see fine art. ~ Victoria Moran

[The trick to a meal with a group of this size is to figure out how many things were left behind upon departure . . . ]

All journeys have secret destinations of which the traveler is unaware. ~ Martin Buber

[Drat, we were a week early for ABBA . . . ]

Reminds me of my safari in Africa. Somebody forgot the corkscrew and for several days we had to live on nothing but food and water. ~ W. C. Fields

[Back at our motel, a whole block “the pig.” This unique playground, just outside motel room window, had a soft, spongy floor(?) . . . ]

Wherever you go, go with all your heart. ~ Confucius

Exploration is really the essence of the human spirit. ~ Frank Borman

[Ed took a crack at it, too . . . ]

No one realizes how beautiful it is to travel until he comes home and rests his head on his old, familiar pillow. ~ Lin Yutang

[We left Sheboygan as we found Sheboygan . . . ]

Just got back from a pleasure trip: I took my mother-in-law to the airport. ~ Henny Youngman

[With mama and baby humpback whale . . . ]

I believe in pink. I believe that laughing is the best calorie burner. I believe in kissing, kissing a lot. I believe in being strong when everything seems to be going wrong. I believe that happy girls are the prettiest girls. I believe that tomorrow is another day and I believe in miracles. ~ Audrey Hepburn

You will never be happy if you continue to search for what happiness consists of. You will never live if you are looking for the meaning of life. ~ Albert Camus

Up Next: Well, I’ve posted two full days, and we’re not even at camp yet . . .

August 24

You just try to be true to your idea of what is funny and what is also interesting. ~ John Oliver

Summer continues beautifully here in Vacationland USA, oblivious to its plights around the rest of the world, as I continue in my blog-catch-up mode. ~ Me

Fine dining is an occasional treat for most people. ~ Rene Redzepi

*****

I don’t like dining rooms. I think they have too much structure and are too formal. ~ Lee Radziwill

[Why yes, this is my federally-provided pencil sharpener . . . ]

Like almost everyone who uses e-mail, I receive a ton of spam every day. Much of it offers to help me get out of debt or get rich quick. It would be funny if it weren’t so exciting. ~ Bill Gates

May 26

Life’s pretty funny when you’re objectively on the outside looking at it. ~ Philip Seymour Hoffman

The Memorial Day weekend began yesterday with the Federales at Jack’s Pub at Carlos Creek Winery. Four sunny days in a row with temps in the lo 80’s! Unbelievable!

A transposable aphorism is a malaise of the urge to be witty, or in other words, a maxim that is untroubled by the fact that the opposite of what it says is equally true so long as it appears to be funny. ~ Umberto Eco

[Karin and Dave sampling the local wares at Jack’s Pub with the brewery in the background . . . ]

I grew up in a time when women didn’t really do comedy. You had to be homely, overweight, an old maid, all that. You had to play a stereotype, because very attractive women were not supposed to be funny – because it’s powerful; it’s a threat. ~ Lily Tomlin

[The Federales (from Minneapolis) . . . ]

What I like about the jokes, to me it’s a lot of logic, no matter how crazy they are. It has to make absolute sense, or it won’t be funny. ~ Steven Wright

I knew exactly what to do on Alien, it was funny. ~ Ridley Scott

Once you eliminate the impossible, whatever remains, no matter how improbable, must be the truth. ~ Arthur Conan Doyle

[The Minnesota state motto . . . ]

Give me a laundry-list and I’ll set it to music. ~ Gioachino Rossini

May 27

We will miss George for his sense of love, his sense of music and his sense of laughter. ~ Ringo Starr

[Jeff James doing “Willie” on the Townes Van Zandt classic on what we all agreed was a perfect weather day at Carlos Creek Winery . . . ]

I think ABBA have a pure joy to their music and that’s what makes them extraordinary. ~ Bono

[Recognized for his research on angleworms and batik shirt designs . . . ]

Music will never go away, and I will never stop making music; it’s just what capacity or what arena you decide to do it. ~ Dave Grohl

[Aficionados of the Biden aviator shades . . . ]

Music is a beautiful opiate, if you don’t take it too seriously. ~ Henry Miller

People understand my message is positive, and at the end of the day, I’m just here to make music that I enjoy and that other people enjoy. I think that’s why I have such a loyal fan base. ~ Lil Peep

What most people don’t understand is that UFOs are on a cosmic tourist route. That’s why they’re always seen in Arizona, Scotland, and New Mexico. Another thing to consider is that all three of those destinations are good places to play golf. So there’s possibly some connection between aliens and golf. ~ Alice Cooper

[The Alexandria Golf Club, celebrating the new season and honoring 50-year members . . . ]

I love being on the water, wakesurfing and wakeboarding. I’m not thinking about golf. I’m just wondering if my cooler’s got enough ice to make it through the day. ~ Dustin Johnson

[The clubhouse venue . . . ]

I like going there for golf. America’s one vast golf course these days. ~ Edward VIII

[Photo discovered posted somewhere in the bowels of the clubhouse. It’s from a 3 Gals and a Guy tournament from some year unknown. It appears I won a towel, which is appropriate since I majored in towels in college. BTW, that’s a short sleeve golf jacket of a sort I can’t seen to find anymore . . . ]

I did envisage being this successful as a player, but not all the hysteria around it off the golf course. ~ Tiger Woods

I can’t hit a ball more than 200 yards. I have no butt. You need a butt if you’re going to hit a golf ball. ~ Dennis Quaid

Golf is more fun than walking naked in a strange place, but not much. ~ Buddy Hackett

I went and took golf lessons so Dad would let me play with him. I was just terrible… but I was able to have a wonderful time just walking around with Dad. I can see the real pleasure of that game. ~ David Hyde Pierce

[50-year honoree, Duane Braun . . . ]

I don’t like going to the mall. I’m not really like the other girls. I just like to go out on the golf course and play. Golf is fun and feels really good. ~ Michelle Wie

[50-year honoree, Dave Schultz . . . ]

Cyclists, I work with a number of cyclists. They are great athletes; they are great aerobic athletes. If you ask them to hit a baseball or golf ball, they can’t do that. ~ Eric Heiden

I think fine dining is dying out everywhere… but I think there will be – and there has to always be – room for at least a small number of really fine, old-school fine-dining restaurants. ~ Anthony Bourdain

I played golf all over Detroit. ~ Smokey Robinson

I do not let a bad score ruin my enjoyment for golf. ~ Darrell Royal

[The pro shop was totally destroyed by fire last October. This was the grand re-opening of its replacement . . . ]

Golf is a search for perfection, for balance. It’s about meditation and concentration. You have to use hand and brain. ~ Celine Dion

[The founding year of the Alexandria Golf Club memorialized in pavers outside the pro shop . . . ]

I’m not interested in a film about golf but I am interested in golf as a metaphor. ~ Robert Redford

You can’t completely control the sport – Tiger Woods comes close. The test is against yourself and nature’s own way. I find golf a particularly good metaphor for this story. ~ Robert Redford

I’ve taken up golf in the past five or six years, and most of the time there aren’t too many people out there that can drive a ball further than I can. ~ Bo Jackson

May 28

I take photos, I used to make films, I journal incessantly, and I really value the documentation of life. Because it’s almost like you are making something special by wanting to make it exist in an object – on paper or even just in the computer – making these recordings, making this music. ~ Lucy Dacus

[Federales on Friday; Jeff James on Saturday; BAT on Sunday. And the beat goes on as he goes at this pace for 3 hours, without taking a break. Another beautiful day in Vacationland USA . . . ]

Music has this emotional thing to it, and it touches people in crazy ways. The power of having that power is something that, once you have it, you don’t want it to ever end. ~ Gwn Stefani

[When BAT comes to town, it’s an event . . . ]

I’m associated with gospel music in the minds of millions of people. ~ Pat Boone

Good fashion is like rock music: all anarchy and revolt. ~ Ann Demeulemeester

My God, how can anyone ever be a master of music? ~ Paul Hindemith

I’m not so funny. Gilda was funny. I’m funny on camera sometimes. In life, once in a while. Once in a while. But she was funny. She spent more time worrying about being liked than anything else. ~ Gene Wilder

[The Super seeks an audience with the Princess and Prince of Ashby . . . ]

Beethoven can write music, thank God, but he can do nothing else on earth. ~ Ludwig van Beethoven

I do have a treadmill desk in my office, and for a while, I would walk on it while checking email and going through jokes. I haven’t walked on it in probably four months. Now it’s more of an upright dining table for me. At some point, moss will grow over it, birds will build nests, and nature will reclaim the treadmill as its own. ~ Jimmy Kimmel

[Enjoying the fruits of past labors . . . ]

I love Charles Barkley, he’s a good friend of mine and he’s a funny guy. He knows nothing about college basketball. Less than nothing. ~ Jim Boeheim

[The Prince and Princess of Ashby . . . ]

When I started playing music, people weren’t selling 5 million records. That was not the standard; that was not the focus. ~ Prince

First of all, I want people to understand that I’m here to create for them. To create music for people so they’ll know that I’m a source of love. And they can depend on my name. ~ Brian Wilson

Look deep into nature, and then you will understand everything better. ~ Albert Einstein

[Barb, among other things, teaches dance . . . ]

Trees are the earth’s endless effort to speak to the listening heaven. ~ Rabindranath Tagore

[Currently she is involved in establishing the Alexandria Nature Trail . . . ]

In all things of nature there is something of the marvelous. ~ Aristotle

If a guy’s got it, let him give it. I’m selling music, not prejudice. ~ Benny Goodman

Music is part of God’s universe. ~ Cat Stevens

So long as you have food in your mouth, you have solved all questions for the time being. ~ Franz Kafka

I suspect music is auditory cheesecake, an exquisite confection crafted to tickle the sensitive spots of… our mental faculties. ~ Steven Pinker

[Leaving the scene . . . ]

To sit in the shade on a fine day and look upon verdure is the most perfect refreshment. ~ Jane Austen

I have come to the conclusion that the major part of the work of a President is to increase the gate receipts of expositions and fairs and bring tourists to town. ~ William Howard Taft

[On the road with BAT and Brenda . . . ]

May 29

Your job is to inspire people from your neighborhood to get out. ~ Jay-Z

[The supervisor took the babies for a ride around the neighborhood . . . ]

You can take the guy out of the neighborhood but you can’t take the neighborhood out of the guy. ~ Frankie Valli

I came from a real tough neighborhood. I put my hand in some cement and felt another hand. ~ Rodney Dangerfield

[I grew up (allegedly) two houses (on the diagonal) from Pat . . . ]

The underlying message of the Neighborhood is that if somebody cares about you, it’s possible that you’ll care about others. ‘You are special, and so is your neighbor’ – that part is essential: that you’re not the only special person in the world. The person you happen to be with at the moment is loved, too. ~ Fred Rogers

[Always nice to have an environmental area in the neighborhood . . . ]

May 31

The funny thing is people won’t let me pay for things. I’ll be in a restaurant and the manager will say, ‘Oh no, it’s on the house.’ ~ Richard Branson

[It’s Wednesday night fine dining at the golf club!]

June 3

Earlier today, Arnold Schwarzenegger criticized the California school system, calling it disastrous. Arnold says California’s schools are so bad that its graduates are willing to vote for me. ~ Conan O’Brien

[With the grandparents of a Hopkins High School alum who has now matriculated to the University of Michigan . . . ]

For good nurture and education implant good constitutions. ~ Plato

[Said recent graduate . . . ]

It might be said now that I have the best of both worlds. A Harvard education and a Yale degree. ~ John F. Kennedy

[Yeah, she’s gonna play a little basketball too . . . ]

A tourist follows a trail; a mountaineer finds one. ~ Reinhold Messner

[After the graduation party, we stopped at what was previously Sunsets in Wayzata on Lake Minnetonka . . . ]

The camera makes everyone a tourist in other people’s reality, and eventually in one’s own. ~ Susan Sontag

Tourists don’t know where they’ve been, travelers don’t know where they’re going. ~ Paul Theroux

[Overlooking Lake Minnetonka . . . ]

The worst thing about being a tourist is having other tourists recognize you as a tourist. ~ Russell Baker

[Waiting for Cam and Rog . . . ]

My only failure was the restaurant in Myrtle Beach. I kept it open for four years. It was in a tourist town, it was only busy four and half, five months of the year. But the bills kept coming all year. ~ Mickey Gilley

[I believe this was halibut pate, or some other bottom dweller . . . ]

Get to know the Chef and you will start to enjoy dining out even more. ~ John Walters

[Brother Cam and his friend Rog, from Arlington, VA, an inveterate traveler . . . ]

A crust eaten in peace is better than a banquet partaken in anxiety. ~ Aesop

[Where we just dined . . . ]

You don’t need a silver fork to eat good food. ~ Paul Prudhomme

[The Wayzata waterfront . . . ]

One cannot think well, love well, sleep well, if one has not dined well. ~ Virginia Woolf

Too many people just eat to consume calories. Try dining for a change. ~ John Walters

The greatest deception men suffer is from their own opinions. ~ Leonardo da Vinci

[The new (?) name of what was once Sunsets . . . ]

“Are you there God? It’s me, Margaret.”

(We drove through a couple of gully washers on the way home from the Cities. Not a drop landed in Alex . . . )

I’m a dreamer. I have to dream and reach for the stars, and if I miss a star then I grab a handful of clouds. ~ Mike Tyson

Be thou the rainbow in the storms of life. The evening beam that smiles the clouds away, and tints tomorrow with prophetic ray. ~ Lord Byron

There are no rules of architecture for a castle in the clouds. ~ Gilbert K. Chesterton

June 4

I firmly believe that we have more latent musical talent in America than there is in any other country. But to dig it out there must be good music throughout the land, a lot of it. Everyone must hear it, and such a process takes time. ~ John Philip Sousa

[Greg Donahue and Erik Schultz at Carlos Creek Winery . . . ]

Great music is that which penetrates the ear with facility and leaves the memory with difficulty. Magical music never leaves the memory. ~ Thomas Beecham

[A spouse going to great lengths to capture a moment . . . ]

I feel like in my music I can be a rebel. I can say things I wouldn’t say in real life. ~ Taylor Swift

[The moment . . . ]

I’ll be making music ’til the day I die. I’ve done all kinds of stuff, and more is coming. ~ Eddie Van Halen

Jazz has borrowed from other genres of music and also has lent itself to other genres of music. ~ Herbie Hancock

June 6

Some are born great, some achieve greatness, and some have greatness thrust upon them. ~ William Shakespeare

[The Fat Boys, on the road again . . . ]

Let us be grateful to people who make us happy, they are the charming gardeners who make our souls blossom. ~ Marcel Proust

[Tuesday Nightclub at the Garden Bar: Terry, Al, Dale, and Bill . . . ]

The difference between noise and music is in what the musician does with the sounds. ~ Jean-Michel Jarre

Schizophrenia beats dining alone. ~ Oscar Levant

If you put out quality music, you’re always going to be in a good place. ~ Romeo Santos

Playwrights are like men who have been dining for a month in an Indian restaurant. After eating curry night after night, they deny the existence of asparagus. ~ Peter Ustinov

[Just comparing coifs . . . ]

Ping-pong was invented on the dining tables of England in the 19th century, and it was called Wiff-waff! And there, I think, you have the difference between us and the rest of the world. Other nations, the French, looked at a dining table and saw an opportunity to have dinner; we looked at it an saw an opportunity to play Wiff-waff. ~ Boris Johnson

Everybody, no matter what vocation they’re looking at, should add music as an essential to their curriculum. Music can be a very important part of your soul and your growth as a human being. It’s so powerful. ~ Quincy Jones

Honor is simply the morality of superior men. ~ H. L. Mencken

I found that dance, music, and literature is how I made sense of the world… it pushed me to think of things bigger than life’s daily routines… to think beyond what is immediate or convenient. ~ Mikhail Baryshnikov

I like Hollywood. I just like Minneapolis a little bit better. ~ Prince

Food is one part of the experience. And it has to be somewhere between 50 to 60 percent of the dining experience. But the rest counts as well: The mood, the atmosphere, the music, the feeling, the design, the harmony between what you have on the plate and what surrounds the plate. ~ Alain Ducasse

[As the sign says . . . ]

My favorite Bible story is when Jesus feeds the multitudes after administering a drug test to make sure they deserve the food. ~ John Fugelsang

A woman simply is, but a man must become. ~ Camille Paglia

August 15

You meet people who forget you. You forget people you meet. But sometimes you meet those people you can’t forget. Those are your friends. ~ Mark Twain

[Over the years, we got together less and less. Travel is not kind to the aging body . . . ]

Mark Edward Brown 77 years old of Herndon, Virginia, passed away on July 22, 2023, in Herndon, VA.

Mark was preceded in death by his brother James Brown. He is survived by his brother Peter, daughter Jennifer, son Mark, mother of his children, Donna, and his grandchildren Owen & Evan.

Mark was born on August 12, 1945, in Washington, DC to parents Donald & Francis Brown. Mark attended University High School in Normal, Illinois, Illinois Wesleyan University in Bloomington, Illinois for his undergraduate degree and Southern Illinois University in Carbondale, Illinois for graduate work.

Following college Mark spent three years in the Army as a First Lieutenant and then 44 years with the U.S. Department of Commerce as the Director, Office of Budget and with NOAA/OAR as Chief Financial Officer. Mark was a devoted civil servant and received multiple honors working at the U.S. Department of Commerce and was highly regarded by Congress for his excellent work in finance for the Commerce Department.

Through out his life Mark enjoyed golfing, hunting, and attending Nascar races with his brother Jim and friends, taking his family on road trip vacations, going to Washington Redskins games with best friend Andy & son Mark and hosting annual Super Bowl parties at the house.

After retirement Mark enjoyed spending time at his home in Ocean City, Maryland, traveling to see friends and family, working on the Brown family ancestry, attending the annual Cigar Fest in Pennsylvania, and spending time with his grandchildren.

*****

The following explains an issue within the purview of Mark’s office (which was adjacent to that of the Secretary of Commerce) and was brought to the attention of the general public in Michael Lewis’s book, The Fifth Risk, and thus the weather quotes throughout this missive:

A private company whose weather predictions were totally dependent on the billions of dollars spent by the U.S. taxpayer to gather the data necessary for those predictions, and on decades of intellectual weather work sponsored by the U.S. taxpayer, and on international data-sharing treaties made on behalf of the U.S. taxpayer, and on the very forecasts that the National Weather Service generated, was, in effect, trying to force the U.S. taxpayer to pay all over again for what the National Weather Service might be able to tell him or her for free. (www.reddit.com/r/weather/)

*****

We should expect the best and the worst of mankind, as from the weather. ~ Vauvenargues

[A classy guy in a classy place, Marcus at the golf guys annual Christmas lunch at the Willard Hotel in 1993 . . . ]

You don’t need a weatherman to know which way the wind blows. ~ Bob Dylan

[My acquaintance with Marcus was established through things real men did in the old days: golfed, fished, played softball for something like 25 years. These are the golf guys, with significant others, fine dining somewhere in the greater Washington, D.C., metropolitan statistical area: Marcus, Bob, Danny, Jim (Mark’s brother), and me.]

Bed is the perfect climate. ~ Noel Coward

[Da boys, Danny (on the left) and me were the two youngest of the group, and now are the only ones left . . . ]

Barometer, n. An ingenious instrument which indicates what kind of weather we are having. ~ Abrose Bierce

[Another fine dining experience at a place lost in the ethers of time . . . ]

Weather forecast for tonight: dark. ~ George Carlin

[Where is this place?]

It’s freezing and snowing in New York – we need global warming! ~ Donald Trump

[Again, I have no idea. I do not remember the names of the guys on each end, but I believe the gentleman on the right retired to Prescott, AZ, and looks remarkably like Dwaine Berger of Alexandria, MN . . . ]

Fall 1989

Don’t knock the weather. If it didn’t change once in a while, nine out of ten people couldn’t start a conversation. ~ Kin Hubbard

[Marcus (foreground) explores the wonders of surf fishing – a nap in a folding chair soothed by the surf under the sun . . . ]

You want a prediction about the weather, you’re asking the wrong Phil. I’ll give you a winter prediction: It’s gonna be cold, it’s gonna be grey, and it’s gonna last you for the rest of your life. ~ Bill Murray (Groundhog Day)

[The fishing boys visited the Outer Banks of North Carolina every spring and fall in hopes of catching the migrating bluefish runs. Most years, though, it was just a great time to catch up on our sleep . . . ]

Everybody talks about the weather, but nobody does anything about it. ~ Charles Dudley Warner

[You’d wade out into the waves as far as your waders would allow, cast out as far as you could with your 9-12′ surf casting rod with 4-8 ounces of lead weight on the end with a mullet-baited hook, walk back up the beach, place your rod in a sand spike, sit down in your folding lawn chair, and hope nothing would bite so you could have a nice nap, waking occasionally for a beer . . . ]

It doesn’t matter what the weather is like – even if it’s minus 10 I will go out there and fish. ~ Adrian Lewis

[A year we guessed right. That’s me with about a 10-pound blue – a nice tussle through the surf. Marcus is heading down on the far right for his next cast . . . ]

December 12, 1992

I absolutely loathe sleeping in a tent, regardless of the weather. ~ James Acaster

[The golf guys occasionally annual Christmas lunch at the Willard Hotel (years before it became the site of sedition meetings) in Washington, D.C. . . . ]

In fair weather prepare for foul. ~ Thomas Fuller

[We enjoyed the ambience of a men’s club atmosphere, with dark wood paneling and after meal digestifs and fine cigars . . . ]

October 22, 1993

I kind of like rainy weather at nighttime. I used to take naps in rainy weather. ~ YBN Nahmir

[Hoping we timed the autumn trip right – Marcus on the left . . . ]

If you want to see the sunshine, you have to weather the storm. ~ Frank Lane

[We’d place the chairs between the SUV’s for windbreaks . . . ]

Bad weather always looks worse through a window. ~ Tom Lehrer

[The Brown brothers ISO the mighty bluefish . . . ]

Summer 2002

One can’t predict the weather more than a few days in advance. ~ Stephen Hawking

[This photo was undated. I’m pretty sure this is the first time Marcus (at the helm of our pontoon, the Moby Obie) visited us on beautiful Lake Darling after we retired to Minnesota . . . ]

July 6 2005

Sometimes I wish that I was the weather, you’d bring me up in conversation forever. And when it rained, I’d be the talk of the day. ~ John Mayer

[At Arrowwood Resort on Lake Darling with Jami, Danny, and grandson Tommy . . . ]

The Bermuda Triangle got tired of warm weather. It moved to Alaska. Now Santa Claus is missing. ~ Steven Wright

[Just another beautiful day in Vacationland USA . . . ]

July 7, 2005

I’ve never been one to bet on the weather. ~ J. Paul Getty

[When one visits Alexandria one must visit Carlos Creek Winery . . . ]

March 28, 2006

I’m leaving because the weather is too good. I hate London when it’s not raining. ~ Groucho Marx

[Back in D.C. for a visit and fine dining with the surf fishing group . . . ]

October 11, 2006

Poets are always taking the weather so personally. They’re always sticking their emotions in things that have no emotions. ~ J. D. Salinger

[Marcus came back to Alex, and we paid a visit to Carlos Creek Winery . . . ]

The people of the State of Texas consist principally of men, women, and children, with a sprinkling of cowboys. The weather is very good, thermometer rarely rising above 2,500 degrees in the shade and hardly ever below 212. ~ O. Henry

[Looks like we’re enjoying the winery’s signature Marquette . . . ]

Some scientists believe climate change is the cause of unprecedented melting of the North Pole, and that effects these very uncertain weather patterns. I think we should listen to those scientists and experts. ~ Dalai Lama

[And then a visit to Sixth Avenue Wine & Ale for dinner . . . ]

All we need is a meteorologist who has once been soaked to the skin without ill effect. No one can write knowingly of the weather who walks bent over on wet days. ~ E. B. White

[Marcus is wearing a Goose Creek sweatshirt, the golf course in Leesburg, VA, we played most often over the years . . . ]

August 9, 2009

Almost nothing is more tedious than complaining about the weather. ~ Meghan Daum

[Here at Arrowwood Resort and Conference Center on Lake Darling in Alex . . . ]

I’m a big follower and reactor to weather. ~ Jimmy Buffett

[We likely went to Arrowwood via the Moby Obie . . . ]

Among famous traitors of history one might mention the weather. ~ Ilka Chase

[Likely a business call for Marcus . . . ]

August 10, 2009

I’ve lived in good climate, and it bores the hell out of me. I like weather rather than climate. ~ John Steinbeck

[It is a rite of passage for all out-of-towners to visit the Lake Minnewaska overlook in Glenwood. Marcus drove to Alex from Herndon, VA, in his new white Ford Edge. I bought one soon after his visit . . . ]

The increasing frequency of extreme weather events, droughts and floods is in line with what climate scientists have been predicting for decades – and evidence is mounting that what’s happening is more severe than predicted, and will get far worse still if we fail to act. ~ David Suzuki

[“Yeah, this is pretty cool!” ~ Marcus]

I once dated a weather girl, we talked up a storm. ~ Jay London

Syracuse, New York, is like Hawaii for eight months of the year. The other four months, I don’t care about the weather because we’re playing basketball. ~ Jim Boeheim

Homosexuality is like the weather. It just is. ~ Andrew Sullivan

[Lake Minnewaska is over 8,000 acres large with 20 miles of shoreline. In the foreground is the city of Glenwood (population 2,700) and on the far side of the lake lies the city of Starbuck (population just under 1,400) . . . ]

Concrete is, essentially, the color of bad weather. ~ William Hamilton

[Marcus at a neighborhood landmark – the Muddy Boot in Forada (population 170) . . . ]

I’ve always been fascinated by weather. ~ Shepard Smith

[More fine dining, in the train car of Weston Station where the great and near-great met over great steaks and wine . . . ]

The L.A. weather is a lot like Taiwan’s, where you don’t observe four seasons, so the years can pass and you don’t feel a thing. ~ Ang Lee

[A major loss for the area when this restaurant closed its doors forever several years ago . . . ]

August 11, 2009

We may achieve climate, but weather is thrust upon us. ~ O. Henry

[Marcus at the entrance to the Minnesota Lakes Maritime Museum, subsequently renamed the Legacy of the Lakes Museum . . . ]

I feel more like an environmentalist since I’ve been up here. There are parts of the Earth that are covered with pollution all the time. I saw weather that was unexpected. Storms bigger than we’ve seen in the past. This is a human effect. This is not a natural phenomenon. ~ Scott Kelly

[A Falls Flyer speed boat built in Little Falls, MN, c. 1940’s . . . ]

I spent a lot of my youth working outside in the elements, and I kind of revel in defeating tough weather. ~ Nick Offerman

[The museum’s cover of a lake cottage . . . ]

Scarves, mittens, and hats are a great way to express your personality in the cold weather. ~ Brad Goreski

[Marcus coming out the backside of the museum into the maritime gardens . . . ]

Change of weather is the discourse of fools. ~ Thomas Fuller

[Daydreaming about life on the lakes . . . ]

There are three reasons why I live in Scotland. First, I like silence, and you have to be a millionaire to buy silence in Italy. Second, I like cold weather. Third, in Italy I have too many relatives and know too many people, so I never get a quiet time. ~ Gian Carlo Menotti

[Ruthie and Marcus wining and dining at Sixth Avenue Wine & Ale in Alex. Based on what I could find in the photo archives this appears to have been Marcus’s last visit to Alex . . . ]

March 31, 2011

A bank is a place where they lend you an umbrella in fair weather and ask for it back when it begins to rain. ~ Robert Frost

[On a D.C. visit with Marcus at the Carlyle Grand Cafe in Shirlington (a section of Arlington) – two blocks of fine dining on both sides of the street, and thus, logically a favorite destination for this reporter . . . ]

Climate is what we expect, weather is what we get. ~ Mark Twain

February 1, 2013

Nature is so powerful, so strong. Capturing its essence is not easy – your work becomes a dance with light and the weather. It takes you to a place within yourself. ~ Annie Leibovitz

[Those brave enough to venture out in the biting cold of that day, gathered at The Dubliner for an Irish nosh.  Pictured here is my brother-in-law, Mohamed Chighali, standing, who dined on the very Irish Philly cheese steak, and Mark, sitting right, who recently retired as, I believe, the equivalent of the CFO for the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, and who, as I recall, dined on the more traditional fish & chips . . . ]

I love being new places and hate getting there, and have been known to say on multiple occasions that I would give anything from a piece of my soul to a limb to a portion of my life savings to teleport. Especially when bad weather keeps me off planes. ~ V. E. Schwab

[The last time we saw Mark in D.C. . . . ]

Conversation about the weather is the last refuge of the unimaginative. ~ Oscar Wilde

We can’t get to the $4 trillion in savings that we need by just cutting the 12 percent of the budget that pays for things like medical research and education funding and food inspectors and the weather service. And we can’t just do it by making seniors pay more for Medicare. ~ Barack Obama

I like the cold weather. It means you get work done. ~ Noam Chomsky

Even the best of friends cannot attend each other’s funeral. ~ Kehlog Albran

Nothing makes the earth seem so spacious as to have friends at a distance; they make the latitudes and longitudes. ~ Henry David Thoreau

Friends fill time in our lives that will be vacant when they die. ~ Helen Fitzgerald.

August 11

Humor has to surprise us; otherwise, it isn’t funny. It’s a death knell for a writer to be labeled a humorist because then it’s not a surprise anymore. ~ Garrison Keillor

Another week delayed by a trip to camp. That puts me a further week behind in cub reporting. This post will cover various music events , The Post, and the end of my surgical rehab – all essentially in the third week of May. ~ Me

They say such nice things about people at their funerals that it makes me sad that I’m going to miss mine by just a few days. ~ Garrison Keillor

May 20

With a doughnut in each hand, anything is possible. ~ Jameela Jamil

[A double caramel roll gift from a visiting friend yesterday almost superseded the Saturday morning doughnut run. Nevertheless, the doughnuts persisted. So, we doubled our pleasure, doubled our fun . . .

When Sinatra said, ‘For my money, Tony Bennett is the best singer I’ve ever heard,’ it changed my career completely. He was my best friend, and I was his best friend… but I was never part of the Rat Pack. ~ Tony Bennett

[The rumors were true. Yesterday was our first outdoor music event of the year. We enjoyed the musical stylings of Aksel Krafnick of Galaxy Road fame. That evening, in a continuing mood for similar activity, we matriculated to the Performing Arts Center for a performance of Beethoven’s Symphony No. 9 by the Central Lakes Symphony Orchestra. We capped the evening at Lure Lakebar for a rootbeer float . . . ]

I have a simple life. In my job I have a contract that says I’m a singer. So I sing. ~ Tony Bennett

I’ll call it a day when I die. It’s a wonderful occupation for me. I’ve never worked a day in my life. ~ Tony Bennett

[The usual music suspects . . . ]

I respected Ella Fitzgerald, Nat King Cole and Frank Sinatra. Those were my heroes, and they were 10 years older than I was. ~ Tony Bennett

Lady Gaga is the Picasso of the entertainment world. She’s very intelligent. ~ Tony Bennett

[Brad Lambrecht delivers his maestro’s notes, an hour before each concert . . . ]

I think one of the reasons I’m popular again is because I’m wearing a tie. You have to be different. ~ Tony Bennett

The United States created the best popular songs that were ever written, and from the 1920s to the 1940s, it was a renaissance period. It stopped in 1950. ~ Tony Bennett

The high point for me in my career was when Sinatra called me his favourite performer in the Fifties. And I’ve been sold out ever since. ~ Tony Bennett

If music sounds dated, it means it wasn’t very good in the first place. ~ Tony Bennett

[Looking down on where the Super and I usually sit, but seats occupied by the performers during maestro’s notes . . . ]

I want to try to prove that at 100, I could sing as well as I was singing when I was 45 or 43. ~ Tony Bennett

[And the musicians begin to file in . . . ]

For many years, I’ve always been attached to what they call the Great American Songbook, and Kern was a great leader of that because he had the classical training of Europe. He impressed all the greatest composers, like Cole Porter and Gershwin. They couldn’t believe he was writing the songs he was writing. ~ Tony Bennett

I still get a little nervous before performing. You don’t want to forget a lyric; you don’t want to make a mistake. I still get butterflies. You can try to judge an audience, but you can only really judge things by the applause. ~ Tony Bennett

Cock your hat – angles are attitudes. ~ Frank Sinatra

Alcohol may be man’s worst enemy, but the bible says love your enemy. ~ Frank Sinatra

May you live to be 100 and may the last voice you hear be mine. ~ Frank Sinatra

Rock ‘n Roll: The most brutal, ugly, desperate, vicious form of expression it has been my misfortune to hear. ~ Frank Sinatra

I am a thing of beauty. ~ Frank Sinatra

Nothing anybody’s said or written about me ever bothers me, except when it does. ~ Frank Sinatra

[After the concert, we went out for a drink . . . ]

May 21

Country roads, take me home, to the place I belong. ~ John Denver

[The Super and I took the back roads to the soon to be seen destination . . . ]

Migrant workers have helped build our roads, homes and offices. We cannot stand and watch them be homeless. ~ Sonu Sood

[It’s 31 miles from Alexandria to Long Prairie. Here we’re passing the north side of Lake Osakis, something I’d never done before . . . ]

I just want Texas to be number one in something other than executions, toll roads and property taxes. ~ Kinky Friedman

I consider myself a poet first and a musician second. I live like a poet and I’ll die like a poet. ~ Bob Dylan

[I now require sunglasses on bright sunshiny days or I get snow blindness . . . ]

Poetry is when an emotion has found its thought and the thought has found words. ~ Robert Frost

[This was the day the Super and I crossed an item off our Bucket Lists. We paid a visit to “The Pole” . . .

More on “The Pole” from it’s “owner” David Bengtson in Long Prairie: “March 10 – Today was humongous in the brief history of THE POLE! With absolutely no advance notice, an unidentified representative of Best in the World Awards (Long Prairie, MN) stopped by to present THE POLE with an understated trophy signifying its prestigious designation as “Best Pole in the World”!

Here’s a brief quote from what turned out to be a rather lengthy speech: “As someone famous will some day say, ‘Just remember, the greatest awards are often accompanied by the smallest trophies’” (Quote from “Greatest Speeches of the Future”).

The trophy will remain on display during daylight hours. To discourage thievery, we have installed a wireless security camera with 1080p HD video, 140° extra-wide field of view, and a built-in siren.

A small but appreciative audience gathered for the festivities. (They said they heard there was food.)”]

What is a poet? An unhappy person who conceals profound anguish in his heart but whose lips are so formed that as sighs and cries pass over them they sound like beautiful music. ~ Soren Kierkegaard

When power leads man toward arrogance, poetry reminds him of his limitations. When power narrows the area of man’s concern, poetry reminds him of the richness and diversity of existence. When power corrupts, poetry cleanses. ~ John F. Kennedy

I was reading the dictionary. I thought it was a poem about everything. ~ Steven Wright

Poetry is an echo, asking a shadow to dance. ~ Carl Sandburg

You don’t have to suffer to be a poet; adolescence is enough suffering for anyone. ~ John Ciardi

Poetry is the art of creating imaginary gardens with real toads. ~ Marianne Moore

Poetry is the synthesis of hyacinths and biscuits. ~ Carl Sandburg

The poets have been mysteriously silent on the subject of cheese. ~ Gilbert K. Chesterton

[A live model to provide perspective . . . ]

A poet can survive everything but a misprint. ~ Oscar Wilde

[A semi-live model to provide perspective . . . ]

I intended an Ode, And it turned to a Sonnet. ~ Henry Austin Dobson

Roads do not upgrade or maintain themselves. Bridges do not repair themselves or rebuild themselves. ~ Martin O’Malley

[After The Pole we noted we were only 15 miles from here . . . ]

I believe that all roads lead to the same place – and that is wherever all roads lead to. ~ Willie Nelson

The everyday kindness of the back roads more than makes up for the acts of greed in the headlines. ~ Charles Kuralt

[Where we had heard about this restaurant on Big Birch Lake . . . ]

Great artists make the roads; good teachers and good companions can point them out. But there ain’t no free rides, baby. ~ Ursula K. Le Guin

All water has a perfect memory and is forever trying to get back to where it was. ~ Toni Morrison

[It’s a good size lake of 2,100 acres – for the locals that places it in size between Lakes Le Homme Dieu and Carlos . . . ]

Every woman adores a Fascist. ~ Sylvia Plath

[Our server was the only employee working that day – handling both inside and on the deck . . . ]

I was born in 1940 in Minnesota and grew up in the country… dirt roads, swamps, lakes, woods. ~ Terry Gilliam

Western classical music is participative. Look at the number of people who are involved in a symphony. ~ Ilaiyaraaja

[This was the symphony orchestra’s donor party at the Legacy of the Lakes Museum. The high school’s Rainbow Strings performed for us . . . ]

I listen to old jazz and classical music, and that’s it. ~ Kenny G

[Maestro Lambrecht . . . ]

I had spent many years pursuing excellence, because that is what classical music is all about… Now it was dedicated to freedom, and that was far more important. ~ Nina Simone

The tradition of classical music and the opera is such that it used to be the place where social intercourse could take place between all parts of society: politicians, industrialists, artists, citizens, etc. That tradition, I think, still exists, but it’s much, much more diluted. ~ Yo-Yo Ma

I don’t know if it’s a sign of all the chaos that is happening out there or not, but I’ve lately craved the structure and order of classical music, the balance and symmetry. ~ Helen Reddy

I know this will blow your mind, but most people would probably never ever get it, but I listen to classical music when nobody else is around. It calms me down and I can get into this, like, deep thinking mode, you know, because there’s really no lyrics to it, so you’re not following something that – that you’re listening to a story. ~ Vanilla Ice

[Is that an ice cream parting gift?]

May 26

The art of medicine consists in amusing the patient while nature cures the disease. ~ Voltaire

[35th cardiac rehab session today – only one more to go. Peddled the elliptical all the way to Winnipeg and back . . . ]

Walking is man’s best medicine. ~ Hippocrates

[The rehab staff found me incorrigible, but nevertheless were happy to join me in partaking of the bags of doughnuts I brought on graduation day . . . ]

When I was born I was so ugly the doctor slapped my mother. ~ Rodney Dangerfield

I am dying from the treatment of too many physicians. ~ Alexander the Great

Up Next: The options are many . . .

July 22

No matter how big or soft or warm your bed is, you still have to get out of it. ~ Grace Slick

Summer events are in full swing in Vacationland USA. Yet to prevent getting even further behind in my work (i.e., don’t back into a meat grinder), I’m reaching back into the recent archives again . . . ~ Me

Anyone who’s 71 years old would look ridiculous singing rock. ~ Grace Slick

May 7

My music is about a joyful experience. I’ve learned that if you can affect other people, you should. ~ Cyndi Lauper

[Anthony Miltich readies to rock Carlos Creek Winery . . . ]

I hate most of what constitutes rock music, which is basically middle-aged crap. ~ Sting

[The aforementioned Anthony in the aforementioned Carlos Creek Winery . . . ]

I like having my hair and face done, but I’m not going to lose weight because someone tells me to. I make music to be a musician not to be on the cover of Playboy. ~ Adele

To my mind, there is a reason that music is there and it’s about being human. ~ Kim Deal

That’s the miracle of music. No one can reinterpret a Picasso, but a song can be remixed and covered and interpreted in an infinite number of ways. It’s a living thing. ~ Chris Cornell

If you listen to people talk, when people actually talk, they talk in melodies. If they get angry, their voice rises, and it’s more of a staccato thing. When they ask for something, they’re real sweet. It’s all music. ~ John Prine

My goal was always to be involved in music that would outlive me. And maybe that’s actually happening. ~ Barry Manilow

The trouble with music appreciation in general is that people are taught to have too much respect for music they should be taught to love it instead. ~ Igor Stravinsky

The GOP is getting teachers fired for teaching sex ed while the GOP shows porn on the House floor. ~ Duke Skorich

[It was also wine pick up and tasting day at the winery . . . ]

May 8

Remembrance of things past is not necessarily the remembrance of things as they were. ~ Marcel Proust

[The Class of ’65 got together for lunch for the first time since 1936, as a result of things COVID and excess wintery. 17 of our brethren and sistren showed up at Boulder Tap House for food and discussion. Some people came from as far away as Alexandria. Several seemed to be amazed that you could both graduate from high school and still be alive at age 75. There were, however, significant lapses in the retention of teacher names. We pledged to do better next time . . .

I wish my school days could have dragged on a little longer, or that I could go back and do it later in life. ~ Cara Delevingne

You can close your eyes to reality but not to memories. ~ Stanislaw Jerzy Lec

To reminisce with my old friends, a chance to share some memories, and play our songs again. ~  Ricky Nelson

I’ve never been to a class reunion or anything because I’m always afraid of that one – there’s going to be some ‘Carrie’-like incident. ~ Paul Feig

Every man’s memory is his private literature. ~ Aldous Huxley

The roots of education are bitter, but the fruit is sweet. ~ Aristotle

[Some of us even remembered half of our classmates names . . . ]

Truly great friends are hard to find, difficult to leave, and impossible to forget. ~ G. Randolf

[Whatever it was, I recall it was quite tasty . . . ]

I’ve been looking for you God. I looked in temple. I looked in church. And today, I looked for you when I wanted to confess. But you weren’t there. I didn’t feel you at all. Not the way I do when I talked to you at night. Why God? Why do I only feel you when I’m alone? ~ Judy Bloom

[The movie had great reviews, so we were looking forward to it . . . ]

Are you there God? It’s me, Margaret. We’re moving today. I’m so scared God. I’ve never lived anywhere but here. Suppose I hate my new school? Suppose everybody there hates me? Please help me God. Don’t let New Jersey be too horrible. Thank you. ~ Judy B

[And the reviews were right!]

Sometimes Grandma is almost as bad as everybody else. As long as she loves me and I love her, what difference does religion make? ~ Judy Bloom

[After the movie we went to a great little neighborhood restaurant that featured pie a la mode for dessert . . . ]

May 10

There is no sincerer love than the love of food. ~ George Bernard Shaw

[Wednesday night fine dining at the golf club . . . ]

One cannot think well, love well, sleep well, if one has not dined well. ~ Virginia Woolf

[Savoring a turkey commercial, or how to get three full meals out of a single entree . . . ]

May 13

So long as you have food in your mouth, you have solved all questions for the time being. ~ Franz Kafka

[The “fruits” of the Saturday morning doughnut run . . . ]

[Summer road construction is leading to multiple, much needed, roundabouts in the greater Alexandria metropolitan statistical area . . . ]

May 14

He who knows that enough is enough will always have enough. ~ Lao Tzu

[Jami was here for a visit . . . ]

May 16

When in doubt, don’t. ~ Benjamin Franklin

[When the spring greenery exploded on the scene (less the shoreline reed beds which greened a few weeks later) . . . ]

Let food be thy medicine and medicine be thy food. ~ Hippocrates

[Another fine dining (salmon) evening at the Garden Bar with entertainment by Tuesday Nightclub . . . ]

I like being in a recording studio. I like watching a song go from the simplicity of the original music. ~ Grace Slick

[The aforementioned Tuesday Nightclub in all their glory . . . ]

It’s not what you look at that matters, it’s what you see. ~ Henry David Thoreau

You can tell alot about a fellow’s character by his way of eating jellybeans. ~ Ronald Reagan

[Let us eat cake!!]

I love Wagner, but the music I prefer is that of a cat hung up by its tail outside a window and trying to stick to the panes of glass with its claws. ~ Charles Baudelaire

Conductors’ careers are made for the most part with ‘Romantic’ music. ‘Classic’ music eliminates the conductor; we do not remember him in it. ~ Igor Stravinsky

When you sit down to write something, there should be no guidelines. The main idea is not supposed to be, ‘How many different ways can we sell it?’ That’s so far away from the true spirit of what music is. ~ Prince

The music that I have learned and want to give is like worshipping God. It’s absolutely like a prayer. ~ Ravi Shankar

Get your facts first, then you can distort them as you please. ~ Mark Twain

May 17

Progress was all right. Only it went on too long. ~ James Thurber

[The Canadian wildfires as seen from Alexandria . . . ]

No man has a good enough memory to be a successful liar. ~ Abraham Lincoln

He was a bold man that first ate an oyster. ~ Jonathan Swift

[The low calorie (?) special for fine dining at the golf club this week was tortellini with marinara sauce and Italian sausage. The dining room Resorters photo is from the year I was born . . . ]

Food is our common ground, a universal experience. ~ James Beard

When you get older, it’s not about what you did that you regret, it’s what you didn’t do. ~ Grace Slick

[The scene at the Resorters Golf Tournament in 1947. . . ]

May 18

If you don’t know where you are going, any road will get you there. ~ Lewis Carroll

[The babies room – where they wait for mom and dad to come home . . . ]

The best way to keep children at home is to make the home atmosphere pleasant, and let the air out of the tires. ~ Dorothy Parker

Reality is merely an illusion, albeit a very persistent one. ~ Albert Einstein

When my kids become wild and unruly, I use a nice safe playpen. When they’re finished, I climb out. ~ Erma Bombeck

Up Next: More older stuff . . .

July 11

My objection to organized religion is the premature conclusion to ultimate truth that it represents . . . ~ Arthur C. Clarke

Continuing our two episode recollections of our most recent national holiday ~ Me

As long as we don’t die, this is going to be one hell of a story. ~  John Green

June 29

Dunking is something guys care more about than girls, There’s something about jumping that seems to fascinate guys. Girls are more, like, ‘As long as the ball goes in, who cares how you got it there?’ ~ Lisa Leslie

[A chance to watch my favorite summer sport – basketball? Alex hosted a Breakdown tournament so I went to see how our last year’s state tournament team was progressing. They will likely be favored to reach state again the next two years . . . ]

One time, I put up 40, 50 points dunking on Shawn Bradley. After the game, he brought his family over. He was like, ‘This is my wife. She wants to take a picture.’ I’m like, ‘Nice to meet you.’ I smile into the camera, take the picture, and then feel guilty about dunking on him so many times. ~ Shaquille O’Neal

[Cardinal coach Wendy Kohler is closing in on 700 career victories . . . ]

If I weren’t earning $3 million a year to dunk a basketball, most people on the street would run in the other direction if they saw me coming. ~ Charles Barkley

[Yes, she looks like she could still play the game herself . . . ]

I’m not a big sports fan, but I love it when they ‘slam dunk.’ That’s sexy. ~ Emma Bunton

[The Cardinals started 4 sophomores and a freshman last year. Hence, the expectations for the next two years are high . . . ]

I can jump high; I can dunk – nobody really believes that I can. ~ Christian Pulisic (5’10” U.S. soccer player)

[It was a good test. Delano is a better team than the one we played two years ago. When you watch the game close up from the end lines you realize how physical the girls’ game has become . . . ]

I can’t afford to do the highlight dunk and miss it because, if I do that, I’ll be sitting right on the bench beside the coaches. ~ Zion Williamson

I don’t think the Whataburger would dunk on the In-N-Out Burger, but I never really liked Whataburger or all the other burgers. McDonald’s is decent, I guess, but no, the In-N-Out Burger kills them all. ~ Dirk Nowitzki

[Since I can identify the other 4 Cardinals on the court, the shooter is likely point guard Allie Haabala . . . ]

I’m 6-foot-4. If my life depended on it, I could still dunk a basketball. Then I would need assistance from a first responder to get down from the rim. ~ Willie Geist

[The Cards led at the half – the games were played on running time . . . ]

When I was young, we were taught not to dunk. We were taught not to stand out from the rest of the team. It’s different now. ~ Yao Ming

[Four of the usual starters in this shot. All will be juniors this year except for the player in the right foreground who will be a sophomore. Allie Haabala is the shooter . . . ]

My first dunk ever was in middle school. We were playing, me and my church friends, and I dunked it, and I swear I could not sleep that night. ~ Jeremy Lin

[The shooter is junior-to-be Chloe Scholl. I stood next to her grandparents at the game. We remembered each other from a few years ago when their other granddaughters played on the hockey team . . . ]

When you can’t dunk anymore, you have to find a way to make it into the news. ~ Manu Ginobili

[The next game vs. Fargo Davies . . . ]

You look at today, it’s a different situation. You have a game that has been transformed into a game where almost every shot is either an outside shot – a three-point shot – or a dunk. ~ Oscar Robertson

[All-state selection junior-to-be Hadley Thul with the shot . . . ]

I apologize for being the voice of reason here, but this sports fan has almost zero interest in seeing women dunk a basketball. It’s a nice little novelty act that has a very short life span. ~ Jason Whitlock

[Hadley passing in to sophomore-to-be Kate Hennessy . . . ]

June 30

We’re in this entertainment business really to give the audience what they want. ~ Ice Cube

[Galaxy Road performing at Carlos Creek Winery . . . ]

I feel like skateboarding is as much of a sport as a lifestyle, and an art form, so there’s so much that that transcends in terms of music, fashion, and entertainment. ~ Tony Hawk

Art is making something out of nothing and selling it. ~ Frank Zappa

[The singer/guitar player is Aksel Krafnik . . . ]

Music is the soundtrack of your life. ~ Dick Clark

Anyone who tries to make a distinction between education and entertainment doesn’t know the first thing about either. ~ Marshall McLuhan

All it takes is one song to bring back a thousand memories. ~ Unknown

There is a core group of eight Armadillos — Armstrong, Paul “Stretch” Diethelm, Billy Scherer, Pamela McNeill, Mike Zeleny, Jay O’Donnell, Pat Thorn and Mike Kreitzer — but every guest who plays with them is called an Armadillo, too.

The core band features musicians with a deep history with some great regional and national bands from their past including Greg “Gary D.” Armstrong on keys (GB Leighton, Bobby Vee, The Vees), Paul “Stretch” Diethelm on guitar (Jonny Lang, Slip Twister), Billy Scherer on vocals (Johnny Holm Band), Pamela McNeill on vocals (Pamela McNeill Band, Rumours and Dreams, Lamont Cranston) Mike Zeleny on bass (Airtight, Slip Twister). Jay O’Donnell on drums (The Britton Brothers, Slip Twister). Their 8 piece band also features a horn section with Pat Thorn on trumpet and Mike Kreitzer on saxophone. COME OUT OF YOUR SHELL and see what everybody has been talking about!

[The Legacy of the Lakes Gardens stage . . . ]

You can’t download a live musical experience. ~ Unknown

[Local Armadillo fans arriving en masse . . . ]

I just think, certainly for live music it should look as good as it sounds. ~  Adam Ant

[Filling in the various neighborhoods in the “gardens” . . . ]

I’m not much for dancing but for you I did. ~ Taylor Swift

[Yes, another Chamber of Commerce weather evening . . . ]

Music makes the people come together. ~ Madonna

[And food and beverages were available for the hungry and the thirsty . . . ]

So stop pretending you’re shy, just come on and dance, dance, dance, dance, oh. ~ Jonas Brothers

For those of you in the cheap seats I’d like ya to clap your hands to this one; the rest of you can just rattle your jewelry! ~ John Lennon

[Kelli Minnerath, executive director, Alexandria Education Foundation and Cardinal Athletic Foundation, welcomes the Armadillos and their fans . . . ]

We sometimes take photos (or record a video) so that we can later see what was happening while we were busy taking photos (or recording a video). ~ Mokokoma Mokhonoana

[“And a thank you all for supporting the education foundation” . . . ]

It’s not a concert you are seeing, it’s a fashion show. ~  Freddie Mercury

[Chris Hawkey and Cassandra Ronnie on vocal chords, Jay O’Donnell on drums . . . ]

We will rock you. ~ Queen

[Paul “Stretch” Diethelm on guitar, Mike Kreitzer on saxophone, Mike Zeleny on bass, and Greg Armstrong on keyboards . . . ]

The middle of the road is for yellow lines and dead armadillos. ~ Jim Hightower

[“Stretch”!]

Armadillos make affectionate pets, if you need affection that much. ~ Will Cuppy

You know, sometimes you can’t just take an armadillo, put it in the barn, light it on fire and expect it to make licorice. ~ Dana Carvey

[And Pat Thorn on trumpet . . . ]

What joy when the insouciant armadillo glances at us and doesn’t quicken his trotting across the track into the palm brush. ~ Denise Levertov

Without the beat in the background, jazz basically sounds like an armadillo was let loose on the keyboard. ~ Bill Bailey

While other guitars may have more twang or an esoteric atmosphere, the Les Paul is like a T-Rex thampling everything in it’s path .. it can be subtle if you want it to be, but it works best if you have an ‘armadillo in your trousers’ and you want to articulate that. ~ Miles Zuniga

[They’re kind of everybody’s favorite band in this part of the world. And I can’t believe that as long as they have been together, there has never been a decent music video of them?]

Is God a man or a woman? God could be an armadillo. I have no idea. ~ Sherman Alexie

[Kreitzer covered the famous saxophone riff on “Baker Street.” Raphael Ravenscroft, a studio musician, was the saxophone player on the hit record. The story is when Gerry Rafferty sent him a check for his services on the record, the check bounced. So, Raphael performed his famous riff for no remuneration . . . ]

I know I’m smarter than an armadillo. ~ Lee Child

A great artist can look at an old woman, portray her exactly as she is … and force the viewer to see the pretty girl she used to be … more than that, he can make anyone with the sensitivity of an armadillo see that this lovely young girl is still alive. ~ Robert A. Heinlein

In the woods, if you stopped, if you grew still, you’d hear a whole new set of sounds . . . armadillos snorkeling through dead leaves. ~ Tom Franklin

I do a lot of thrifting, but I don’t go shopping in a concerted way very often. I find things by accident that I can’t talk myself out of, like armadillo purses. ~ Mackenzie Davis

Khufu carefully picked out everything that ended with-o—Doritos, Oreos, and some chunks of meat. Buffalo? Armadillo? I was scared to even ask. ~ Rick Riordan

[And then the audience got in on the action . . . ]

We know that there are many animals on this continent not found in the Old World. These must have been carried from here to the ark, and then brought back afterwards. Were the peccary, armadillo, ant-eater, sloth, agouti, vampire-bat, marmoset, howling and prehensile-tailed monkey, the raccoon and muskrat carried by the angels from America to Asia? How did they get there?  ~ Robert Ingersoll

[As with any audience, the level of dancing skills . . . varied . . . ]

It turned out to be a young Dasypus novemcinctus, a nine-banded armadillo, about the size of a small loaf of bread. Although they were becoming more common in Texas, I’d never seen one up close before. Anatomically speaking, it resembled the unhappy melding of an anteater (the face), a mule (the ears), and a tortoise (the carapace). I thought it overall an unlucky creature in the looks department, but Granddaddy once said that to apply a human definition of beauty to an animal that had managed to thrive for millions of years was both unscientific and foolish. ~ Jacqueline Kelly

Our shepherd had decided that the finest specialty of the area was armadillo, and there wasn’t a single Sunday that his wife failed to cook us up an armadillo – ~ Massimo Carlotto

Hastily, all alone, a glistening armadillo left the scene, rose-flecked, head down, tail down. ~ Elizabeth Bishop

The first thing about Dallas that you can’t get away from, particularly when I arrived, you’ve got no idea of the heat in this place. It’s over 100 degrees, and with that the humidity is ridiculous. I mean, people don’t live here, armadillos live here. ~ Chris Vance

One of my favorite books is ‘Armadillo Rodeo’, and I got the idea from traveling to Texas and seeing armadillos. ~ Jan Brett

. . . avocados, prickly pears and papayas used to be gulped down whole, seeds and all, by fridge-sized armadillos called glyptodonts. ~ Adam Leith Gollner

Fine, sure, go ahead. Weird, but I like it. ~ Conan O’Brien, on God green-lighting the Armadillo

What should you do if you see an endangered animal eating an endangered plant? ~ George Carlin

[But if I were grading on an Olympic scoring system, the woman with the blue sleeveless top was the winner of the dance contest . . . ]

No animal should ever jump up on the dining-room furniture unless absolutely certain that he can hold his own in the conversation. ~ Fran Lebowitz

Animals may be our friends, but they won’t pick you up at the airport. ~ Bobcat Goldthwait

[The conga line, once considered extinct, came back to life with the Armadillos . . . ]

There are no green mammals. ~ Weird Science

It’s extremely likely that the people who have never been exposed to a human who has leprosy, it’s very likely they got leprosy from exposure to an armadillo. ~ Anthony Fauci

I Sellotape whole tins of sardines to my face at night, attach two squeezed lemon rinds to my armadillo-skinned elbows, and put cucumber on my eyes. ~ Barry Humphries

If I had a cat I’d buy another one so I could kick one and then the other. ~ Greg Abbott

This was either “Close Encounters of the Third Kind” or the Fabulous Armadillos at the Legacy of the Lakes Gardens . . . ~ Me

With the advance of feudalism came the growth of iron armor, until, at last, a fighting-man resembled an armadillo. ~ John Boyle O’Reilly

July 2

If it’s your job to eat a frog, it’s best to do it first thing in the morning. And If it’s your job to eat two frogs, it’s best to eat the biggest one first. ~ Mark Twain

[Our first breakfast of the season at the golf club . . . ]

I feel sorry for people who don’t drink. When they wake up in the morning, that’s as good as they’re going to feel all day. ~ Dean Martin

I have always been delighted at the prospect of a new day, a fresh try, one more start, with perhaps a bit of magic waiting somewhere behind the morning. ~ J. B. Priestley

[Yet another golfer who should be breakfasting instead . . . ]

Some mornings, it’s just not worth chewing through the leather straps. ~ Emo Philips

Music is a moral law. It gives soul to the universe, wings to the mind, flight to the imagination, and charm and gaiety to life and to everything. ~ Plato

[We were delighted to welcome back the internationally-awarded music duo, Patchouli, to Carlos Creek Winery . . . ]

Where words fail, music speaks. ~ Hans Christian Andersen

[Julie and Bruce historically played in Alex several times a year, but with gigs in Florida (in winter) and all seasonal points between, they are pretty much booked up everywhere now . . . ]

Without music, life would be a mistake. ~ Friedrich Nietzsche

[All our best again to Julie and Bruce, after a tough year of Bruce fighting off cancer. His advice as a result is to always carry an extra 50 pounds, as he needed them all . . . ]

Music expresses that which cannot be said and on which it is impossible to be silent. ~ Victor Hugo

Music doesn’t lie. If there is something to be changed in this world, then it can only happen through music. ~ Jimi Hendrix

In fine arts, when you make a painting, it’s just a painting. But if you make a painting in the entertainment industry, it can be an album cover or a t-shirt or a logo. ~ Andrew W. K.

I think sports has done a disservice for a lot of black kids thinking they can only be successful through athletics and entertainment. I want them to know they can be doctors, lawyers, teachers, fireman, police officers, etc. ~ Charles Barkley

[Local photographer and noted coffee roaster, Paul Trumm, shoots a photo . . . ]

Most entertainment is trying to get you. It’s tested, like toothpaste. ~ Albert Brooks

[The crowd wandered back outside after an afternoon rain . . . ]

Music is the one part of the entertainment business where you can’t fool anybody into buying a record. ~ Nile Rodgers

[The rain delay chased us all inside for half hour or so. But the big finish was back out on the wine patio . . . ]

July 3

Let’s put it this way: I don’t have a good work ethic. I have a real casual relationship with hours. I don’t understand why, in entertainment, the hours are as long as they are. It seems like everything takes forever, and no one can tell you why, exactly. ~ Janeane Garofalo

[Anthony Miltich at Lure Lakebar, hard by the shores of Lake Le Homme Dieu, on another perfect weather day in Vacationland USA . . . ]

Music is escapism, it’s entertainment. ~ Andy Taylor

[While the Super enjoyed an adult beverage, I snarfed down a few onion rings . . . ]

I never called my work an ‘art’. It’s part of show business, the business of building entertainment. ~ Walt Disney

[The lake was unbelievably busy with water craft . . . ]

Well, you know, in this crazy world of entertainment, I would say if you have a dream, you have to pursue it. ~ Caprice Bourret

I learned that the first technology appeared in the form of stone tools, 2.6 million years ago. First entertainment comes evidence from flutes that are 35,000 years old. And evidence for first design comes 75,000 years old – beads. And you can do the same with your genes and track them back in time. ~ Zeresenay Alemseged

Art is moral passion married to entertainment. Moral passion without entertainment is propaganda, and entertainment without moral passion is television. ~ Rita Mae Brown

July 4

Every morning was a cheerful invitation to make my life of equal simplicity, and I may say innocence, with Nature herself. ~ Henry David Thoreau

[Happy Independence Day! I am now and have always been a morning person . . . ]

How sweet the morning air is! See how that one little cloud floats like a pink feather from some gigantic flamingo. Now the red rim of the sun pushes itself over the London cloud-bank. It shines on a good many folk, but on none, I dare bet, who are on a stranger errand than you and I. How small we feel with our petty ambitions and strivings in the presence of the great elemental forces of Nature! ~ Arthur Conan Doyle

The next morning dawned bright and sweet, like ribbon candy. ~ Sarah Addison Allen

I love the smell of book ink in the morning. ~ Umberto Eco

I drink cup of sunlight every morning to brighten myself. ~ Debasish Mridha

Cultivate the habit of early rising. It is unwise to keep the head long on a level with the feet. ~ Henry David Thoreau

July 5

Pop culture and entertainment can be dismissed as surface, but it’s not. It’s the language we all speak, and it’s the connection point between people all over the world. ~ Bozoma Saint John

[Terrance and the band hit a grand slam as far as the audience was concerned . . . ]

I believe entertainment can aspire to be art, and can become art, but if you set out to make art you’re an idiot. ~ Steve Martin

[The musicians were all super . . . ]

Culture relates to objects and is a phenomenon of the world; entertainment relates to people and is a phenomenon of life. ~ Hannah Arendt

After silence, that which comes nearest to expressing the inexpressible is music. ~ Aldous Huxley

Music is moonlight in the gloomy night of life. ~ Jean Paul

Music should strike fire from the heart of man, and bring tears from the eyes of woman. ~ Ludwig van Beethoven

[Ruthie caught a couple bead necklaces . . . ]

Music is everybody’s possession. It’s only publishers who think that people own it. ~ John Lennon

True music must repeat the thought and inspirations of the people and the time. ~ George Gershwin

I guess a good song is a good song is a good song, ya know. ~ George Thorogood

[Super fun night . . . ]

July 7

Storytelling is the oldest form of entertainment there is. From campfires and pictograms – the Lascaux cave paintings may be as much as twenty thousand years old – to tribal songs and epic ballads passed down from generation to generation, it is one of the most fundamental ways humans have of making sense of the world. ~ Maria Konnikova

I remember when I was first starting out in the late 50’s, and everybody at that time said rock ‘n roll was gonna die. I was 15 years old when I started, and I certainly didn’t believe that was true. I thought anything that feels this good and makes me want to tap my foot like this can’t be a passing fad like everybody says. Of course, they were wrong, and here we are in the 90’s and it’s alive and well, and getting programmed all over the country, and really all over the world. So it’s been a great journey. ~ Bobby Vee

remembering bobby vee
August 15-16, 2017

The Killer Vees, featuring Jeff, Tommy and Matt Vee along with Bobby’s long-time guitarist Ar J Stevens and pianist George Maurer will reunite at Theater L’ Homme Dieu one last time to say goodbye to their father, uncle, friend, mentor and band leader Bobby Vee. Complete with Bobby’s touring string section and cast members from Teen Idol: The Bobby Vee Story singing songs from their roles in the play as well as helping out on background vocals.

[We left for the theatre early because rain was on the way. We didn’t quite make it so we stayed in the car for a half hour or so until it quit . . . ]

Rock gives children, on a silver platter, with all the public authority of the entertainment industry, everything their parents always used to tell them they had to wait for until they grew up and would understand later. ~ Allan Bloom

Living ain’t easy, loving’s twice as tough. ~ Bobby Vee

[Interspersed throughout the show were videos of the life and times of Bobby Vee . . . ]

So remember when you tell those little white lies that the night has a thousand eyes. ~ Bobby Vee

[Theatre executive director Nicole Mulder does the introductions . . . ]

I once thought losing my confidence was the worst thing that could happen; then I lost my faith. ~ Bobby Vee

[DYK Bob Dylan once played piano for Bobby’s Vee band. He played then under the name Elston Gunnn (yes, 3 n’s), but he was subsequently let go because he could only play in the key of C . . . ]

Come back when you grow up girl, you’re still living in a paper doll world. ~ Bobby Vee

[Dylan thought of Vee as a brother because they were from the same part of the country . . . ]

You’re looking like a woman now, you’re mind hasn’t gotten the message somehow. ~ Bobby Vee

[Bob Dylan & Vee met again when Dylan was playing in Greenwich Village & Vee was at the Top of the Charts . . . ]

I punched my buddy in the nose after lunch, now I’m in trouble cause the dean saw the punch. ~ Bobby Vee

[Bobby’s nephew Matt on guitar and lead vocalist, and Bobby’s son Tommy on bass . . . ]

I see music as fluid architecture. ~ Joni Mitchell

[Bobby’s grandson Bennett Vee, lead guitar player on the far right, is now a regular . . . ]

I produced a song for Bobby Vee called Get The Message. ~ Jimmy Griffin

Music is forever; music should grow and mature with you, following you right on up until you die. ~ Paul Simon

[BTW, that’s Tommy’s brother Jeff on drums . . . ]

Music is the best means we have of digesting time. ~ W. H. Auden

The wise musicians are those who play what they can master. ~ Duke Ellington

[Matt’s 14-year old son Will joined in with the band on drums and later on guitar . . . ]

Lean your body forward slightly to support the guitar against your chest, for the poetry of the music should resound in your heart. ~ Andres Segovia

[Proud papa looks on . . . ]

It was my 16th birthday – my mom and dad gave me my Goya classical guitar that day. I sat down, wrote this song, and I just knew that that was the only thing I could ever really do – write songs and sing them to people. ~ Stevie Nicks

He has Van Gogh’s ear for music. ~ Billy Wilder

[You rock, Killer Vees!]

My father used to sing to me in my mother’s womb. I think I can name about any tune in two beats. ~ Yancy Butler

[Apologies to Julie Velline – Matt’s wife and Will’s mom – here in the back, stage left (from this perspective), for not getting a better photo of her. She, a star in her right, sang with the band and did a couple (?) of solos. Spoiler alert: We retired to Alex 22 years ago. Thus, I know we have known Julie and Matt for that long because they were both working at Wells Fargo at the time – and Julie was our mortgage banker . . . ]

[A previous photo of Julie, with Matt, from a place long ago and far away . . . ]

Please write music like Wagner, only louder. ~ Samuel Goldwyn

[Another super show!]

Nobody with an IQ higher than emergency-room temperature could ever believe that ‘death panels’ would be appointed to nudge the elderly toward euthanasia. Yet for idle entertainment, it’s hard to beat Sarah Palin’s ignorant nattering on the subject. ~ Carl Hiaasen

Nevertheless, we do need insects, for they perform many useful functions. Without insects, for example, we would have no reliable way to spread certain diseases. ~ Dave Barry

Life is a lot like jazz… it’s best when you improvise. ~ George Gershwin

Up Next: Back to cleaning up the back files . . .