A GOOD MAN? I’m listening to a jazz septet. One of the musicians toyed with the memory of a fine jazz musician. He recalled that “He was a good man, most of the time.” It was a play on words and sentence structure and it brought a chuckle from those around. I thought how clever. … More What is a Man?

THE MIDDLE OF NOVEMBER 2015 Winter is coming, no doubt. November has been a gentle and polite host so far. I feel honored and well cared for. However, yesterday the wind nearly blew the hair off my head during a pleasant half hour of walking the breakwater in Rockland, Maine. The air was bracing and … More Middle of November

THERE’S A SMALL HOTEL Writing is a useful tool to explain our surroundings to ourselves. Thinking is alright but writing is where we have to really think hard and put into words what it is we are experiencing, sensing, absorbing unwillingly, and regurgitating in front of other people. Putting things on paper is a good … More There’s a Small Hotel

This old vagabond has lived a couple of lifetimes worth of travel starting as a child and then as a sailor and now as an old man with sand in his shoes. I’ve spent so much time on the road and at sea that the only way for me to feel comfortable with my restless … More Patty Griffin Sings My Music

I learned to tell time at an early age. The first time I told was twenty minutes after eight in the morning. My sister Jean helped me to learn this skill. I was a really bright kid so it was an easy task to teach me things. Time gets problematic when these two events arrive; … More Timex and John Cameron Swayze