The Columnist Manifesto

A few weeks ago, I gave a hockey teammate on of those fist-to-fist high fives in celebration of a good play by our team. I suppose that the celebration of any moment of success in sports is, in some fundamental sense, an implicit rejoicing in the misfortune of others.

In any event, I ended up with a jammed pinky finger. It still hurts.

I think from now on I'm switching to the less macho, but safer thumbs up.

A few evenings ago, the moon was sitting up there looking improbably big and red. It was so amazing that I had to run out to the edge of the lake with my camera.


Some things just don't translate. I guess it's the limited abilities of my camera and, especially, me. In real life it looked twice as big as it seems in these picture. The camera adds ten pounds, unless, of course, you happen to be a heavenly body.

What do I think about when I'm not thinking about iced coffee and teaching law? Why, WWII, of course.

I'm currently listening to a recorded version of Dwight Eisenhower's WWII memoir, "Crusade in Europe." It's one of those recorded books that's always on the library shelf -- I mean, this baby never gets checked out -- and I've passed it over more times than I could count. I just assumed that it would be extremely dull -- a self-serving, myopic "history" from someone who observed events from the mountaintop. I ended up checking it out only because there were slim pickings in the recorded books section.

Boy, was I wrong. Eisenhower (of course!) has a comprehensive perspective on the war and is also a master of detail. And his plain, unaffected, factual writing style becomes quite enjoyable as you realize how it reflects his personality: Eisenhower comes across as one of the most unpretentious and un-egotistical of great men, a man of sound judgment and supreme patience with the frustrations of command of a multi-national allied force.

As a military leader, he seems to have been such a straight-shooter. His presidential administration does not, of course, have this historical reputation, and one wonders whether the arena of politics was just too much for his personal integrity.

No, I don't mean the Democratic-controlled Congress. Check out this sign out in front of Rude 'n' Slow's Cafe this week:



That's right, you saw just what you think you saw:



Rude 'n' Slows is announcing an explicit reversal of its corporate culture, and I couldn't be more excited.

I was in a grumpy mood after ordering breakfast this morning at Rude 'n' Slow's. Then getting cream fo rmy coffee I saw this ... "tableaux" is too grand a word for this little everyday scene.

Nor is the photo much to look at. But when the phrase "life is beautiful" pops into your head, you have to stop and mark that moment somehow.

Is anything more beautiful than a ketchup bottle in context?