1.30.2026 - Weekly Digest

1.26.2026
Is this a golden date?

Twin Cities are good kinds of cities. Minneapolis makes art and music in the cold. Max took me to eight art museums and fifteen noodle restaurants and twenty-seven bars in one day then we hung out on the porch of a famous indie rockstar's house with a woman whose dad wrote the theme song for Friends while folks grilled Neil Diamond's meat. Next time I was up there he'd turned yellow in a hospital in St Paul.

Max wasn’t always the most generous or liberal person. He cheerfully attributed his pricklier qualities to his Hungarianness. He also made a mean remoulade. He’d’ve seized this moment though, come up with some overpoweringly absurd ways to contribute. Hovercrafts made of mylar balloons playing calypso music to confuse the invaders or the like. Vinegar cannons. Trained squirrel armies.

I'm just saying the horror show would have been a little more fun with him around.

1.27.2026
Don't what to do or how to contribute so I'm out here giving my blood away. Turns out my type is A-. Bout the same as my lifetime GPA. Easy to remember. Not bad but always something to regret. Known too many valedictorians to be proud of my academic achievements. Always finding a way to screw up the otherwise one good thing. Overextending and underperforming.

But, hey, I'm told I have a lot of platelets. The techs look hungry. Leery. You should come back, they say. I'm flattered.

Anyway I signed up for a Red Cross First Aid training class and I'll take as many as I can. Never know when someone's wounds are gonna break out. Spontaneous bleeders everywhere these days.

I want to be known for my tourniquets.

1.28.2026
Happy birthday Neil!

A break from the present to celebrate the past with someone from the future.

We used to watch Star Trek: First Contact with the director's commentary on. To the degree that we would and still do quote Jonathan Frakes' self-effacing free associations. 'Clever director'; 'That'll wake ya up.' He talks about how hard it was to get Patrick Stewart to put a shirt on. He loved Alfre Woodard and you should too.

And we took it too far, probably more than once.

Neil has an awesome wife and an awesome house now and he already has an awesome lawnmower and a neighbor horse who comes over to hang out like it's some Hundred Acre Wood shit. At a loss to find anything practical to give him the year we all turn 50 I got him this.

Two Takes Frakes is a gentleman I tell you what.

1.29.2026
Of all the protests in all the world I had to walk into the middle of a diverted Pro-life march on the Embarcadero. Thought I saw my fellow democracy enthusiasts out there but oh no it had to be this. Mariachi band, yellow balloons, all at the feet of the Fifty Foot Woman. Assembling a ladder to climb up her leg and stick some babies in there.

I've had this desire, usually when I'm out walking, especially when it's dark, to dissolve my ego and become something like code or pure prose. Living this close to Haight Ashbury has its consequences.

One thing I do know is I'm getting a lot of satisfaction out of turning my personal narratives into third person stories and I've been going back and mining the blog for the last year for material. Dozens of short flash narratives popping out of otherwise mundane observations.

So, once again, thank you all for reading and keeping me honest here.

Stay safe and smart.