“When we assumed the Soldier, we did not lay aside the Citizen.” —From George Washington’s address to the New York Legislature (26 June 1775) *** “When the representative body have lost the confidence of their constituents, when they have notoriously made sale of their most valuable rights, when they have assumed to themselves powers which the people never put into their hands, then indeed their continuing in office becomes dangerous to the state, and calls for an exercise of the power of dissolution.” —From Thomas Jefferson’s “A Summary View of the Rights of British America” (1774) *** “There never was…
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“Pops!” The salutation is not limited to the emphatic, even rambunctious hellos of reunion after a few months of separation on opposite coasts, but also, when I’m already here, as a request for my attention to some matter of apparent urgency to him. Say, a proposal for my participation in some imaginary game involving fire trucks and daring rescues of pets, or for some contemplative question heavy on his 3- and 2/3-year-old mind. A couple of nights ago, on a drive down the highway, it was the latter, and the question was, “Pops! Why are there trees?” Laughing about this…
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Certain tunes lodge in your brain from your earliest years. Depending on your age, you might have heard it on your mom’s “hi-fi,” your older sibling’s music app, or your third grade music education class (“Stand beside her, and guide her…”) before you got back to the business at hand of phonics instruction and the multiplication tables. It’s not much different than certain words or phrases that get imprinted on your brain for better and for worse early in life, words carrying their own music as they do. (“You DID it, yayyy!!”; “Stop that THIS MINUTE!”) An old friend of…
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When I returned to gym work a few months ago after an extended hiatus dating from the pandemic era that saw me get creative in doing all such exercise outdoors, I noticed something I hadn’t seen before in Gym Culture, Male Locker Room Division. On pretty much every visit since my return, I observe young men from perhaps 16-25 or so stroll up to the nearest mirror, roll up their sleeves or take off their shirt, and proceed to flex their muscles and preen for several minutes at a time, striking various poses while slowly completing a few 360-degree pirouettes. Sometimes…