TODAY'S RAMBLINGS We're back in SF after a superb long weekend in Oceanside, which is about a 45 minute drive north of downtown San Diego. Major thanks to our very gracious hosts, the speed racer and noted TV installer Andy Jones, and the increasingly pregnant Libby Baines Jones. We ate, we drank, and we toured the surrounding area, bu...

TODAY'S RAMBLINGS We are off to San Diego later today to visit the posh new digs of dear friends Andy and Libby Baines Jones. These guys bailed on our beloved SF for what? The best weather in the US? More room for less money? No homeless people outside your door? Sure, they're having a baby and all, but what's so wrong about the kid gr...

In response to the deafening clamor from exactly nobody, I give you the eagerly anticipated (also by exactly nobody) next edition: Portico Darwin: The Cookbook Volume II. You can view and download the Cookbook at the link; it will take 15 pages if you print it out. If I don't mind saying so (and you know I don't), it's another winner, ...

TODAY'S RAMBLINGS This past Monday afternoon and evening, The Pandemic ended. Yes, it's over. At least for me. No, not because I've been vaccinated (I have) or because we hit some arbitrary number by July 4th set by Papa Joe or even my man Dr. Anthony Fauci (we didn't). And no, it's not because I live in San Francisco, which has a supe...

TODAY'S RAMBLINGS (Note to self: don't write blog posts after partying at Mad Oak. My post Friday morning had more typos than you deserve. Apologies. Here's a copy hopefully free of boo-boos.) No politics on a holiday Monday. Instead, the GOP to which I'm referring is coverage of the pretty much non-stop Grand Old Party that went on in...

TODAY'S RAMBLINGS One of the many clichés I often employ is that two (or even more!) things seemingly in conflict can be true at once. Call it nuance, and I've even written a post on it previously. Loving America is all about nuance, not dogma. Here are 3 vivid examples of that. Bill Maher and The Progress We've Made I hope everyone wi...

Let's clear up a couple of things right away. This Travel Guide sounds grand in scope, but it really covers only Las Cruces, New Mexico, El Paso, Texas, and 3 National Parks, two of which are located in southern New Mexico, the other in, yes, west Texas. So apart from its copious length, it's not that grand. Next: it's doubtful many ar...

TODAY'S RAMBLINGS You are in for a real treat: as today is a travel day - we are heading back to SF - my post will be short. But first, some brief-ish housekeeping: • Here is our photo album from the trip, for those that have too much time on their hands. I would be remiss if I did not thank Dr. Davis Fladgate and Mrs. Melynda Fladgate...

TODAY'S RAMBLINGS Phew! Tupper Lake may have been a social whirlwind, but we're talking about a National Park road trip whirlwind here in southern New Mexico and west Texas since Friday! Of course there's a complete Travel Guide forthcoming, but here are some tidbits to tide you over. Overall, what a great itinerary. We really loved ev...

If you remain concerned that there were nefarious activities by the Democratic party or anyone to steal the 2021 election for Joe Biden, I urge, no beg, you to read this article, published at The Atlantic's website yesterday. I read it last night, and thought it so important, I almost sent it then. Here is the link, and a PDF of the ar...

TODAY'S RAMBLINGS Perhaps it's the desert air or something else here in the beautiful enclave of Picacho Hills, but journalism, or specifically, what is and what isn't journalism, has been on my mind a lot lately. I will repeat something I say often. Journalism is a profession, like any other. Just like people go to MIT to become great...

TODAY'S RAMBLINGS What is it like here at the expansive and oft-sumptuous home of Dr. and Mrs. Davis Fladgate? I've summarized my typical day here previously, and I can assure you nothing has changed (I even re-stocked the Weissbier late Monday and my Ultimate Ears Wonderboom 2 continues to impress). But I will now add some inside info...

TODAY'S RAMBLINGS Today's post will be of the mercifully short variety because it's me simply sharing a revelation. This revelation came to me while listening to The Economist's superlative US news podcast, "Checks and Balance" on Sunday. For the record, it was here, on my walk Sunday morning. This week's coverage on the podcast was on...

TODAY'S RAMBLINGS (Editor's note: I am a capitalist, through and through. One of my favorite books is "Atlas Shrugged" by Ayn Rand. I started a successful business from scratch. In other words, while I may align with Bernie, Elizabeth, Alexandria, and Scandinavia on many things, assuming I do on everything would be a mistake. So with t...

TODAY'S RAMBLINGS Today we fly from San Francisco to El Paso, via the important US transportation hub, Las Vegas. From El Paso, and with Julie's father, the noted educator and political commentator Dr. Davis Fladgate somewhat ably doing the driving, we'll head to the good doctor's desert playground in Las Cruces, New Mexico. It's two w...

TODAY'S RAMBLINGS One of my many passions is urban development and transportation. I've read a number of books on the subject (I just posted the list at my website), and I've arrived at this conclusion: The development of our built environment around cars and not people, which began right around the end of World War II, is central to o...

TODAY'S RAMBLINGS Facebook. Instagram. WhatsApp. That's what I wanted for the title of today's post, but I can't use the strikethrough formatting in the subject line. Whatever today's post is called, I hope you'll consider deleting these apps from your phones and your lives. Dramatic? I don't think so. I believe Facebook has uniquely e...

TODAY'S RAMBLINGS Last time, Heather Cox Richardson (kudos again to Primo Harvey, PhD for introducing me to this brilliant scholar). This time, the inestimable George Packer. You can't say I'm not trying. Mr. Packer has a new book, and there's an essay based upon it in this month's Atlantic. For those of you without a subscription, the...

This was unexpected and it turned out to be a very fun, and also educational, trip. Armed with the musically challenged Hunter Deuce and little else, yours truly decamped for downtown Sonoma in Mr. Deuce's swish new ride. This was an impromptu visit, and about the krijillionith time visiting for both of us. We've shredded it up here to...

TODAY'S RAMBLINGS Mercifully short! Due to the seemingly nefarious behavior of a famous Silicon Valley microchip executive who shall go completely nameless, the SF residential real estate shaman Hunter Deuce (shown here sadly missing a sunset on a recent vacation) and I had an unexpected Gentlemen's Day (and night) in Sonoma on Sunday....

Tupper Lake is in The Adirondack State Park of New York State, specifically in its famed High Peaks region. It is a superlative amalgam of mountains, forest, lakes, rivers and wildlife, that surround the nice-but-struggling village of Tupper Lake proper. Let me summarize it this way: Julie and I have been fortunate enough to travel to ...

TODAY'S RAMBLINGS Later today, we head to Albany for a quick night in a place so similar to Paris that they're often confused. I meant Paris, TX. But Tupper Lake is a place apart - as you can see by the photos and videos summarizing the trip here. Please don't miss Julie's videos of the beautiful loon that visited us Wednesday night du...

TODAY'S RAMBLINGS The party season here started slowly, but moved to light speed on Sunday. Try to keep up or at least don't doze off. The Martha Stewart fetish-holder Dr. Shelly Murphy outdid herself with a stylish rager that drew 20+ to The Manor on Sunday, including some well-to-do neighbors (more on these folks below) from a few ma...

TODAY'S RAMBLINGS This post is in honor of my late mother, Jeanne Anne LaBarge Clough. My mother was born and raised here in Tupper Lake, and today would have been her 94th birthday. With my family that lives here and those that are visiting, we are sprinkling her ashes today at the gravesites of two of her favorite people, the late an...

TODAY'S RAMBLINGS First, a few housekeeping items. These would normally go in the "From the Unwashed Masses" section, but they seem important enough to lead with. The networking gear journeyman Byron Browne IV asked if I could provide a link to my voluminous if not precise rating system. He had understandably forgotten whether Killer i...

If you've ever wanted to get out of the real life racket and step into a Norman Rockwell painting, I have your destination. "Arcadian" is one word that comes to mind in trying to describe Woodstock, here in central Vermont. "Gorgeous" and "bucolic" are others. Woodstock is set in a mountainous (for here) region, and it really ticks eve...

TODAY'S RAMBLINGS We departed Woodstock, Vermont yesterday. I took a final morning hike in the leafy and serene Marsh-Billings-Rockefeller National Historic Park before we hit the road for The Adirondacks. A brief Travel Guide will be forthcoming, but here's a link to some selected photos from our visit there. A beautiful and certainly...

TODAY'S RAMBLINGS If you've ever wanted to get out of the real life racket and step into a Norman Rockwell painting, I have your destination. "Arcadian" is one word that comes to mind in trying to describe Woodstock, here in central Vermont. "Gorgeous" and "bucolic" are others. Woodstock is set in a mountainous (for here) region, and i...

Cape Cod! Who knew? Well, I guess just about everyone else, but we'd never been there. Wow, were we impressed. Let me say right off the bat, the entire place is Diamond Certified. But first, an important note. We went in the middle of May of 2021. Pre-season, and also kinda sorta post-COVID, but of course, not really. Yada yada the vir...