Oct. 2017 Boston

Trip to Boston with Barb to celebrate both girls’ birthdays, for Barb to see Allie’s place, and generally commune with our newly working daughter.  Then Bill went on to Nova Scotia for week including music of the Celtic Colours festival. Next Day | Trip Home Thursday, Oct. 5, 2017 Barb and I drove to BWI, …

Susan Barnett

Cousin Susan Barnett passed away last year and is remembered in a loving document put together by husband Jim Rech and presumably others.  Yesterday, Jim shared the “book” consisting of Susan’s collected Xmas letters and many photos.  I always enjoyed receiving annual editions of “Life With Father Wreck” and was one of those that always …

Disce Pati

It’s been a long-running joke in our family that the ancient Duncan clan motto is “Disce Pati”, or “Learn to Suffer”.  The Internet says it’s true (Wikipedia, Index of Clans), at least sort of (Clan Duncan), so it must be true, at least sort of. We’ve long transmogrified the phrase to “Disco Pattie”, I think …

Songs I Didn’t Know Were Covers

I’m sometimes surprised to learn that songs I’ve associated with one artist are covers from another generation.  Here are some that surprised me, some that I suspected were covers but didn’t know the original, and others where I think someone did a great job of interpreting someone else’s song. Istanbul, Not Constantinople.  For years I’d …

Development , Government and Unintended Consequences

Two unrelated articles in today’s Washington Post got me thinking about government’s role in planning and the nature of unintended consequences.  I’m no specialist in urban planning or government, but I am trying to make sense of what I’ve seen go right and go wrong over the course of my lifetime. The first article was …