Although I’ve never read any of Larry McMurtry‘s books and never watched the Lonesome Dove TV series, I had enough awareness of them to enjoy the intersection of fiction and reality found at this historic cemetery in Weatherford, Texas (about an hour’s drive west from where we are staying). The main characters of McMurtry’s novels are said to be loosely […]
What is it about genus arboretum that socks us in the figurative solar plexus? We see a logging truck go cruising down the road, stacked with a bunch of those fresh-cut giants, we feel like we lost a brother. Next thing you know, we’re in The Brick, we’re flopping money down on the bar. Wood. We’re under a roof. Wood. […]
On this mostly grey and chilly Christmas Eve, I spent my afternoon drinking mugs of hot tea and rewatching a collection of videos from my favorite childhood Christmas specials — Mr. Magoo’s Christmas Carol, Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer, and How the Grinch Stole Christmas (the 1966 animated version with Boris Karloff). I finished off by watching “A Charlie Brown Christmas,” because I’ve always adored the Peanuts characters created by Charles Schulz, and the accompanying music by Vince Guaraldi never fails to make me smile. As much as I enjoyed reliving my childhood memories with the other three Christmas specials, this is the one that captures the true spirit of the season best for me. Maybe you’ll enjoy watching it too. https://dailymotion.com/video/x2cgz0g
October 1996 — A quick trip to Cicely, Alaska. The TV show Northern Exposure aired in the US from 1990 to 1995. It was set in the fictional small town of Cicely, Alaska; but it was actually filmed in the very real small town of Roslyn, Washington. In the fall of 1996, while my mom and I were visiting Leavenworth, […]
When I was in San Francisco last week, one of the things I decided I had to see was a fairly nondescript intersection in North Beach. Maybe the reason was a little bit nutty — the TV show Monk (2002-2009). Of course, even though the series was set in San Francisco, very little of the actual filming took place there. […]
My very elderly neighbor’s house has been standing vacant for a few years now, although her son comes by regularly to mow the lawn and keep an eye on things. Today, after yet another heavy rainstorm blew through, I happened to go out to my backyard and noticed a bright spot of color from behind the fence. For some reason, […]