Common Scents

I saw a man and a woman walking up the trail from Carkeek Canyon toward the parking lot yesterday as we were about to pull out and the tranquility of the moment was lost in hypocrisy, mine and theirs. We love to walk in Carkeek Canyon at least once a month. It is just a … Continue reading →

One God

Since you go to a church, any church, I think you should consider a few things about your belief in God, His “son”, The Holy Ghost, virgin births, The Assumption, transubstantiation and His famously inspired book, the Bible, which will never be mentioned in your church (or any other church). Think of this as a … Continue reading →

Trayvon Martin: Letter to the Editor of The New York Times

Every one of us with a three digit IQ knows who killed Trayvon Martin; the NRA. The NRA is the hand-maiden for the gun industry and lobbied strenuously for “stand your ground.” No matter how many American children die of handguns every year (about 3,000) Colt, Winchester, Remington, and Ruger want to sell more guns … Continue reading →

Tim’s Vermeer. Penn and Teller.

First of all, what a dreadfully pretentious, expensive, meaningless, stupid idea to begin with; to make a copy of Vermeer’s The Music Lesson! If the raison d’etre of this movie were to illustrate thoroughly to the lay public what art is not, then this might have been a worthwhile project, albeit ridiculously expensive and time-consuming. … Continue reading →

Why Stephen Lyman Is Not An Artist* (Letter to a Philistine)

When you told me that Stephen Lyman was “the second best-selling painter in America” and I replied, without ever having seen any of the man’s work, that “he must not be much of an artist” you took umbrage at, what you said, was my unqualified presumptuousness. The next day when we went to see Mr. … Continue reading →

See La Paz

I guess an illustration of the Zeitgeist is that now a popular feature in the New York Times is their weekly “36 Hour” travel feature. Why should I be surprised when, instead of actually reading War and Peace we now just read the Cliff Notes or rather than the entire concerto, we are lucky to … Continue reading →

Scott Frost at Paradise Billiards

Recently I was at a birthday party for a friend’s wife at a cozy tavern along the shore of Lake Washington just north of Seattle. The joint has three very nice Gold Crown IV’s and eventually several of us were playing inebriate eight ball. Our gang was mostly physicists, lawyers and musicians so you can … Continue reading →