Archive for Uncategorized – Page 53

Stanford Denied

What if

Do you ever wonder “what if?” Do you wonder how your life would have turned out if you had taken a different turn at a crucial point in your journey? Who would or would not be in your life now? What if you had done this instead of that? How might your life have changed if you had turned right instead of left at a certain point? Where would it have taken you? Some of these “what if” moments are spontaneous, some are traditional decision points leading into the future. Some are unpredictable and some are beyond our control – illness, accidents, lost jobs – that change the vector of our lives. read more

The Missing Man…

“In youth it seems one’s concerns are everyone’s. Later on it is clear they are not. Finally, they again become the same. We are all poor in the end. The lines have been spoken. The stage is empty and bare. Before that however, is the performance. The curtain rises.” And then the curtain falls…

James Salter – Burning the Days

Hubner 1

The curtain has fallen. John Hubner has given his final performance. Like James Salter, John was a gentleman, a husband, a father, a student, a scholar… and a fighter pilot. He died on January 4, 2016 at his home in Bellingham, Washington, with his wife, Julie, at his side. He was the most accomplished and complete aviator I have ever known. read more

How Chernobyl Changed My Life

Chernobyl

Thirty years ago today, April 26, 1986, the nuclear reactor at Chernobyl, Ukraine, then part of the Soviet Union, melted down creating a 2000-ton radioactive blob that blew the roof off the reactor and released 10 tons of radioactive debris into the air. It is the worst nuclear accident in history. Today there is an “exclusion zone” 30km in radius and almost 1000 square miles in area surrounding the reactor site. It is uninhabitable although the London Daily Mail reports that 7000 workers are still employed in the clean up effort. These are people who lived in the area before the disaster. None are safe, and all are tested daily as they exit the exclusion zone. Estimates vary from 3000 to 20,000 years before the area will be safe for human habitation. read more

Feed the Spirit Too

Wiley 1

“Pairings” are turning up on menus everywhere. They’ve become common currency in the culinary world. Small plate pairings. Three course pairings – appetizer, entrée and dessert. Prix fixe meals. Tasting menus. Wines paired to match prix fixe and tasting menus.

Matching food and wine is definitely the easy way. The restaurant selects a few food courses and matches them with complimentary wines. It’s good marketing for them and eliminates that sometimes awkward moment when you’re looking for a $30 bottle of wine on a list with Tiffany-like prices. Easy does it, and beware that while wine pairings may provide a good match they might also be a way for the restaurant to inflate the check. read more

Competitive juices…

There is an apocryphal story about the writer Joseph Conrad whose ability to concentrate was so fragile that he had his wife lock him in their spare room, furnished with only a bare table and chair, and not let him out until an appointed time. Writing is hard. Writers are easily distracted.

For the past several days I’ve been trying to write a piece about two legendary jazz players and watch the Masters golf tournament concurrently. I can identify with Conrad. Hard as I tried I couldn’t write and watch the Masters at the same time. I defaulted to golf and for five hours on Saturday and five hours on Sunday I watched 22 year-old Jordan Spieth confidently stride the narrow fairways of Augusta National until he became surprisingly human and dumped two balls in a water hazard, botched a sand trap shot, shot 7 on that par 3 and donated his 5 stroke lead to the eventual winner, 28 year-old Danny Willet. I couldn’t look away and my resolve to finish the jazz piece dissolved like Jordan’s lead. read more