Two Gents' Worth
November 22, 2024
I took a trip back to my past this Friday when I returned to my university alma mater for the first time in years. I had to go to the library at California State University, Fresno (which we locals call “Fresno State”) to conduct research for a report I’m doing for the Madera County Historical…
Read More about Back to CampusSomething’s been rattling around inside my brain for a couple of months now, so I figure I’ll kick it out here, and we can both forget it. It was something Steve Karlin — the great 6 and 10 p.m. anchor on KCCI-TV in Des Moines — said on his last newscast before he retired. Trying…
Read More about Still Curious
So what kind of winter have you had, wherever you are in this great nation of ours? Out here — in the Great State of California — here’s what we’ve faced so far this winter — with still a few days to go before spring shows up on your calendar and ours. Eleven — yes,…
Read More about One Crazy WinterYes, Sharon and I plan to spend this Christmas in a yurt on the Central Coast of California. After all, everything was going just fine last year, when we “yurted” for the first time — until the pellet stove stopped heating inside our yurt on a quite-cold night — and until the bathroom building outside…
Read More about Another Yurt ChristmasI’m pretty sure my long-time buddy Albert would have enjoyed the walk I took through our old Hamilton Junior High neighborhood in Fresno a few weeks ago. It was a beautiful Saturday morning in early November — sunny and not too warm or too chilly. The neighborhood trees were reflecting autumn’s glory, with red and…
Read More about Walking Alone
The folks at Walt’s Place in Orlando — more properly known as Walt Disney World — do so many things “right” that it’s tough to keep track of them. For instance, when we arrived at our room at the Saratoga Springs Resort at Disney World at 1:30 this past Monday morning, we were greeted by…
Read More about At Walt’s Place, Again
Well, this is it. We always knew it would happen — but we didn’t think it would come so quickly. It’s time for us to leave Ames — and this may well be the final time we do so. When we arrived here a month ago for our annual summer sojourn to the Midwest, the…
Read More about So Long, AmesI had a really crazy fantasy recently. In this one, I was walking around downtown Fresno near Courthouse Park when The Guy I Used to Be drove up. He looked about 25 years old, maybe 150 pounds, with longish light-brown hair, a mustache and gold-rimmed glasses. He was driving the same bright blue ’71 Pinto…
Read More about The Guy I Used to Be
A few weeks ago, an old friend in Paso Robles emailed me a great series of cartoons dealing with aging. He does that a lot, and those cartoons are often quite amusing – even if they hit way too close to home. The best cartoon he sent in that batch showed a woman of indeterminate…
Read More about Another Birthday, on the WayA week or so ago, I wrote about why I had gone into broadcasting. I mentioned that it was because of NBC Radio’s incredible weekend-long “Monitor” program — which I fell in love with and never got over — and because of KNBR Radio in San Francisco, the great-sounding NBC owned-and-operated station that boomed its…
Read More about My Favorite Teacher