I really should be writing about my dad, who is in the hospital with an array of symptoms that thus far seem to have his doctors stumped and the rest of us worried- and then Canadian figure skating Joanna Rochette skated brilliantly last night despite carrying the grief of having just lost (quite suddenly and
I spoke with the legendary Frederick Douglass today on the Morning Show. Not Mr. Douglass himself- what an amazing thrill that would have been - but with a gifted actor named Mel Johnson Jr. who brings Douglass thrillingly and movingly to life in a one-man show, “Frederick Douglass: In the Shadow of Slavery,” which is
Yesterday was the finale of what has turned out to be a rather protracted birthday celebration- although I don’t feel terribly guilty about it, since you only turn 50 once in your life. (Of course, you also turn 49 once - or any other birthday, for that matter - so I probably need to come
There are so many things I appreciate about the work of Rev. Steve Samuelson, Holy Communion’s interim pastor until the beginning of the summer- but towards the very top of that list is his way with children’s sermons. I think a lot of pastors struggle with children’s sermons because they aren’t particularly good at talking
Tonight was Kenosha Unified’s annual Choral Festival, which is an amazing feast of singing featuring the combined forces of every high school and middle school in the district- each of which gets their own “solo” moment in the spotlight as well as the thrill of joining forces in a roof-rattling finale. I always play for
Last night was the great shoot-out between two of the finest figure skaters in the world, Russian Evgeny Plushenko and American Evan Lysacek. . . and any of you who watched it or read about it the next day know what a razor close finish it was - or how sour the aftermath has been,
I think I’ve written enough about my 50th birthday, so let’s just pretend that it was for no particular occasion or reason that my brother Steve and sister Randi each sent me lavish gifts this week- specifically, seasons one and two of the classic Star Trek series on DVD. I’ve been coveting these ever since
Cake #1 (pictured above) was my idea. I knew that I would be spending the noon hour with most of my voice students in studio class (our first of the semester) and there was no question that I had to do something for them for my birthday. So I stopped by Racine’s Danish Uncle (the
Ten years ago today, I turned 40 years old. . . and the door to my office at Carthage was festooned with black balloons (thanks a lot, Katie Nagao), which actually was a very true reflection of my mood at the time. I was in the midst of a challenging year of leading the Carthage
Many years ago my dad described me in one of his famous Christmas Letters as “a walking encyclopedia of useless information.” What inspired that characterization was my fondness to spouting off trivia without the least bit of prompting or provocation. For instance, we might be on a trip and driving through a small town, and
