All posts filed under: Random DJB Thoughts

This is where I put anything that is not easily categorized…

Baseball vs. Golf. No contest.

Published by

Spring is a weird time for sports. First, there are lots of changing seasons.  Playoffs are just starting in hockey and basketball. (Do you know that WWII wasn’t as long as the NBA playoffs?) Baseball is in its first week. Golf begins to come back onto the radar screen. And those folks who think football is the only game get all excited about…the draft.  (Please. Get a life, people.) This afternoon, I watched about all the golf I will take in on television over the course of the year – the last nine holes of the Masters.  It takes me about an hour of CBS coverage of the Masters to remind myself why I think golf is so damn pretentious and full of itself.  The hushed tones, the endless references to history, the endless paeans to Phil (I make millions of dollars, but I still complain about having to pay taxes) Mickelson. (The guy actually wears logos of a bank and an auditing firm.  That should tell you something about this “game.”) Give me a …

Tut Taylor

Tut Taylor, R.I.P.

Published by

This week we lost the third member of the Aereoplane Band when “The Flatpickin’ Dobro Man” Tut Taylor passed away at age 91. Taylor, along with the late Vassar Clements, Norman Blake, and Randy Scruggs made up the Aereoplane Band that helped the late John Hartford record his ground-breaking album Aereo-Plain – which I once highlighted as my favorite album of all time.  (And yes, the name of the album is spelled differently from the title cut.  Hey, it was the 70s.)  I heard Tut play with Hartford’s band (Earl Scruggs opened for Hartford, if you can believe that) about 40 years ago, and I most recently heard him at MerleFest, where he was a mainstay. Much has been written about Taylor’s unique style of playing the Dobro with a flatpick, as opposed to the finger picks used by every well-known Dobro player from Uncle Josh Graves to Jerry Douglas.  Tut Taylor was unique, and his bluesy style fit well with the fiddling of Vassar Clements and the stellar guitar work of Norman Blake.  This …

Good-bye Basketball, Hello Baseball

Published by

It is a good thing I don’t bet on sports. Last weekend, as college basketball teams were playing to reach the Final Four, I found myself in a strange position: leading my office “friendly” pool after three of the four teams had been decided.  I had Kentucky and Wisconsin. I even picked Michigan State to make it.  I never win March Madness pools or similar challenges, I don’t play fantasy anything, and I don’t bet.  (Andrew’s godfather – John Lane – says it best:  “I have the same chance of winning the lottery whether I buy a ticket or not!) But here I was, getting giddy at the prospect of leading our pool going into the final four games. And then my head lost out to my heart. I so wanted Gonzaga to get into the final weekend.  I so did not want to see another Duke team in the Final Four – even if I thought they had the best chance to beat hated Kentucky. So I went with my heart…and got bumped from …

Basketball Couch Potato

Published by

There are few advantages to having a cracked bone in your shoulder…but there is at least one: I can be a total couch potato during the weekend of the college basketball tournament championships. Yes, I know that college basketball has lost its soul.  Yes, I despise the one-and-done culture that Kentucky has mastered so well, and for that I “hate” John Calapari almost as much as I hate Christian Laettner. (I don’t really hate either one, but you have to admit it is a great film title to kick off this season’s 30 for 30 on ESPN.) But given all of that, I still enjoy the game.  Especially this weekend and next weekend, before the elite big boys take over.  On these two weekends, you can see teams that no one expects to go anywhere, suddenly get hot and destroy the best laid plans of the big boys.  You can see Albany hit its only three-pointer of the game to beat Stony Brook for a one-point win, in today’s first game.  My alma mater, Middle …

Lesson #61: You Never Know…

Published by

Earlier this week, two colleagues and I were “stranded” in New Orleans because of multiple flight cancellations back to DC.  Monday evening they surprised me by taking me out for an early birthday dinner at a wonderful restaurant called Herbsaint – which just happens to be where the husband of the former executive assistant who made a cameo in my 60 Lessons From 60 Years (Lesson #18) now works. One of those colleagues just sent the following message: I was struck by the juxtaposition of the two images…of David’s celebrations. I think the takeaway is that you should always go ahead and have the deep fried lamb neck, dirty rice with sausage, fantastic pinot, and decadent dessert when you have the opportunity. You never know what comes next! I think I’ve just discovered Lesson #61. More to come… DJB

Pullman National Monument Designation

Places that look ordinary are nothing but extraordinary

Published by

I don’t often mix my work into More to Come…. But then again, I don’t often hear the President speak so eloquently about the work with which I’m engaged.  Last Thursday was one of those days. After 24 hours in my own house, I was on the road once again to Chicago last week.  Cold. Frigid. Windy. Chicago.  It wasn’t a destination I would have sought out in February, except for the fact that President Barack Obama was going to designate Pullman a National Monument.  At the National Trust, we were part of a coalition working for this designation, and I was proud to join our team at the celebration. These types of events with government and political leaders are often perfunctory – at least from the politician’s standpoint.  Last Thursday – with the President on his home turf – was anything but.  You knew we were in for a treat when his opening remarks began with this ode to Chicago’s winter: “It’s always been a dream of mine to be the first President to …

Just Another Beautiful Day in Southern California

Published by

Not even ten hours – TEN HOURS – stuck in the Phoenix Airport on Thursday was going to ruin our last Family Weekend at Pomona College with Claire.  (Phoenix Airport motto:  “And you think our city has sprawl – just wait until you have to go from concourse-to-concourse in our lovely airport.  We’ll show you world-class sprawl!”) Yes, the time has come for the last of our family weekends during the college years.  We’ve made 7 of 8 over the course of the four years between our twins and their two schools. Some parents poo-poo the Family Weekend, saying they are only for freshmen parents who miss their children.  But we love them.  Why? Well, beyond the obvious of getting to spend time with Claire and Andrew, we get to meet and hear great professors talk about fun things. In the fall at Brown, our favorite was Fundamentals of Healthy Aging.  This year’s topic of choice at Pomona from Professor Joti Rockwell was entitled  Sympathy for the Devil:  The Meanings of Fiddle and Guitar Music …

Quest for the Best (2015 Edition, Round 2)

Published by

Since our last report on our quest to see the Best Picture, Candice and I have seen three more of this year’s nominees.  So let’s get to it. We walked to our “commercial” theatre (the Regal) in downtown Silver Spring earlier this week to see Selma. This movie has had its share of controversy, from the treatment of Lyndon Johnson in the film, to the snub from the Academy in terms of award nominations. David Oyelowo was excellent as Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. in a performance certainly deserving of a Best Actor nomination. But the film was stilted at times, and uneven. Selma is not the year’s Best Picture, but it is the most important film of the year.  We forget too quickly how difficult it was to attain rights for all, and how much pressure there is, even today, to restrict or even take away those rights.  I have members of my extended family who love to wave the Confederate flag, without any understanding of what that really means. I grew up in …