food, France, travel


18 March 2023

1658 words

Bordeaux

We’re all familiar with place names that are proper names, say Drakes Bay or Fenwick Island. Then there are those whose names are topographic or geographic: Ocean City, Ocean Beach, Lands End, Stillwater Cove, and so on. Other languages have similar naming conventions. For example, French. I’ve known for a while the meaning of the ...continue reading

France, wisdom


4 March 2023

880 word

Kieran in Lyon

Road trip to Lyon to move number one son there. *** It was a beautiful morning, a sailor’s warning of red clouds. *** Once clear of town, the views were long vistas, almost prarie contours to the land, and at the early hour everything is blue, grey, dirty white. *** All the trucks stayed far ...continue reading

fiction, John Cheever, short story, Silicon Valley


5 November 2022

6065 words

The Enormous Network

Based upon The Enormous Radio, a short story by John Cheever Jake Hutchinson pulled into the far end of the back parking lot of 70/Relay. He did not park under the eucalyptus trees, where tree sap or bird crap might mar the paint. He parked diagonally, taking up two spaces, well away from other cars. ...continue reading

Europe, memoir, travel


29 October 2022

4574 words

We walked around, it was wail’n, etc.

A note about the journal A week ago a container with our North American possessions arrived in France, and with it the chance to see things not seen for at least twelve years, and in some cases, several decades. Among all this was a journal, along with photos, of my first trip to Europe, in ...continue reading

France, Spain


31 July 2022

75 words

Summer Photos 2022

It’s been a busy time: laid low for a few days by covid, knee surgery, home purchase, friends visiting, a move, trips to places that begin with the letter M (Montreal, Maugansville), and much, much more. And we’re still not done: there’s an upcoming trip to finally get our stuff out of storage. Most will ...continue reading

fiction, Silicon Valley


14 July 2022

3,734 words

Al’s Understudies

Writer’s note: for this story to work, the reader must be very familiar with some of Al Pacino’s movies. In addition, the traits of the particular Pacino character must be clearly adapted to this situation; it’s not clear that I’ve done this well. Still, it was fun to write. “Explain it to me again,” said ...continue reading

France, Montpellier


31 January 2022

1774 word

Moments in Montpellier

Random observations of note, not always about Montpellier, sometimes just in my head. As always in these cases, it’s E.B. White style. *** Strange but true In the nearby park a woman was picking up poop from her dog. I almost took a picture. Clearly she is not French . *** Ménage à trois My ...continue reading

France, Montpellier, Suisse


14 November 2021

2491 words

Last train home

Saturday, 13 November, Chur to Montpellier It was early afternoon when I got in to Mulhouse, having left Chur a little after nine. Mulhouse has a dingy, crappy little train station: peeling paint anywhere you look, weeds wherever weeds could grow, a sad, run down feeling to it all. It was a fitting re-entry into ...continue reading

Chur, Suisse


7 November 2021

750 words

Arcas Platz

Being Alive — The search which we make for this quality, in our own lives, is the central search of any person, and the crux of any individual person’s story. It is a search for those moments and situations when we are most alive.   – Christopher Alexander, The Timeless Way of Building Arcas Platz, a ...continue reading

France, maison


30 September 2021

2948 words

Shutter Priority

Titles are hard. Come up with something and in your head it sounds great. See it written down, and it’s weak at best, and subsequent ideas are even worse. A title should be short (Augustus), capture something about the topic (Twelve Angry Men), be original (Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas), maybe funny (Green Eggs ...continue reading