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Cold Spring
As I write this, a full month after the vernal equinox, the weather outside is 43 degrees, overcast, and threatening to rain. That is to say that it’s a typical spring day in Central New York. When I talk to people from outside this area, they will sometimes ask me about our famously harsh and… Continue reading
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The Winter Beard
There are beards and then there are beards. I’ve regularly worn a beard of the unprepossessing, neatly trimmed variety for the past decade or more. A few months ago, when the weather started getting cold, I decided to grow it out a bit. Why? For the same reason most men do anything with their facial… Continue reading
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Staying Useful
“One must imagine Sisyphus happy.” – Albert Camus The first quarter of the year has been laborious for me. It always is. There is an annual project at my job that starts in the fall and wraps up in late February or early March. I’m writing this the day after putting said project to bed… Continue reading
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Book Report: Moby-Dick
Some books have reputations that precede them. The reputation may be for genius, for popularity, for challenging readers, for polarization, for profundity, or for sheer heft. Herman Melville’s Moby-Dick checks all of those boxes. Moby-Dick used to be a staple of American high school English curricula. (It might still be, but given the trajectory of… Continue reading
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Classics Every Day
In a previous post, I talked about classic literature, and how I experience mild pangs of regret over not appreciating the great works that were assigned to me back in high school. Since then, I gathered something of a classics starter collection and spent the month of January working my way through some of it.… Continue reading
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Classics
I am not one to wallow in regret. There aren’t many things that I’ve done or failed to do over the years that cause me to look back and want to kick myself. That said, there is one category of experience that does cause me to get annoyed with my past self: whenever, in retrospect,… Continue reading
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New Year’s Hike
I started 2024 off with a hike at Beaver Lake Nature Center. I can’t say it’s a full-blown tradition, but it’s something I’ve done on a few past New Year’s Days and will continue in the future as weather permits. A nature hike seems as good a way as any to celebrate the new year,… Continue reading
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Year-End Wind-Down
There is a period in the Central New York seasonal cycle between when the last of the fall foliage drops from the trees and when the first serious snow accumulation arrives. It’s a time of dreary landscapes filled with bare tree limbs silhouetted against drab skies, dampened by cold drizzle and fog. Generally, that is… Continue reading
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Black Hat
Black hats are tricky. They come with a whole host of associations and connotations, ranging from several religious groups to western outlaws to any number of pop-culture villains and antiheroes. Toht from Raiders of the Lost Ark wore a black hat, as did Walter White, The Shadow, Waylon Jennings, and Lee Van Cleef, to name… Continue reading
About Me
Researcher. Marketer. Teacher. Father of adult children and dogs. 20th Century holdover. Central New York native. Long-suffering Buffalo Bills fan. History nerd. Traveler. Vintage advertising enthusiast. Hat wearer.
a.k.a. V.J. 