Category Archives: Personally Speaking

That grand expanse of land taking up the northeast chunk of land of North America, frozen half the time, stretching out almost to touch Russia, is still evolving. There were thriving people carving out a living from the water and land in what’s called Alaska long before the Russians got there in the 18th century [...]

A quick farewell to my laptop, which died twice in recent weeks. First the hard drive fried, in the word of the technicians, and was replaced. And then it faltered because of a wire to the new drive. And finally, while on the other side of the country, it died again, making me finally come [...]

Things didn’t look good from the beginning, when we needed a jump start even to inaugurate the trip to the Outer Banks. The Prius battery was so iffy that we drove the five hours all the way down without ever shutting off the car — not when getting gas, not when getting coffee, not when [...]

Two feet of snow is a lot. But it seems in my long life I’ve seen a few snowstorms like that. After a day of unexpected beauty, when nature makes marshmallow pillows out of everything, and kids are allowed to sled and cavort on streets made impassible for cars and dogs see something they never [...]

It was not my idea to go on a cruise. Instead, it was a generous offer from my mother-in-law, who was dedicating her winter to two halves of the same Caribbean route all winter and was inviting family members along for individual legs. It was for a ship, I was delighted to find, that was [...]

Some still advertise the beach as the place to “get it away from it all.” It is to laugh. Certainly, it’s a time I look forward to each summer. But the notion of leaving it all behind and getting away from the hubbub is all wrong. Increasingly, people seem to be super-sizing their vacations. Driving [...]

I got to see “Nebraska” over the weekend in the Omaha theater that director Alexander Payne helped establish. He wasn’t there, though he was part of a couple of events helping open it. It’s a great film, by the way. Though its black and white stock lend it a needless artiness, there is power in [...]