TODAY'S RAMBLINGS <2 Minute Read Sure, we're in Houston having a crazy time, but why not throw some cold water on your vacation planning? I'd like to share the contents of Fodor's No List 2023. This is the travel website and publisher's annual attempt at discouraging visits to fragile and typically, over-loved, travel destinations. We'...

TODAY'S RAMBLINGS 2 Minute Read Tomorrow would have been the 81st birthday of Brian Jones, one of the founding members of The Rolling Stones; he died in 1969. (It's also the first day of Rodeo here in Houston, but more on that soon.) When I noticed his birthday coming up, I broke out a beautiful TASCHEN coffee table book we are proud t...

TODAY'S RAMBLINGS 3 Minute Read Editor's Note: tomorrow we depart for 8 nights in Houston, where we will be attending the extraordinary Livestock Show & Rodeo as the guests of the future highriser Dr. Shelly Murphy. So to make it easy on myself, essentially every word that follows and all of the images were created by the artificial in...

TODAY'S RAMBLINGS <3 Minute Read As I've worked to understand the dynamics of identity politics, one thing that is obvious is the reasonable desire for people heretofore ignored (or worse) by society to be heard. And (although I hate this Wokistan term) seen. I believe that is a major reason people have taken to deeming themselves quee...

TODAY'S RAMBLINGS < 3 Minute Read Happy Monday. Yes, I remember. It was just about this time last year when my love and appreciation for the art of my cousin Charles Clough collided with the hysteria around blockchain technologies, and specifically, non-fungible tokens (NFTs). Remember this? Then (as now) I believed in Charlie and his ...

TODAY'S RAMBLINGS 1 Minute Read Today, for the weekend, we can laugh about the airline business, and cry about trains, or at least, one route in particular. Here's a mercifully short post, but a troubling one, at least to this transportation nerd. As I occasionally do, I am liberally stealing plagiarizing borrowing from two different s...

TODAY'S RAMBLINGS 2 Minute Read As you might have noticed, I've recently been railing on extreme progressivism, or what I call The Psycho Woke. A lot, and as recently as Monday. It's because I am fed up with the mindless silo-ization of America, and the victimhood that comes with it. Add a few dollops of the woefully ineffective left-w...

TODAY'S RAMBLINGS <2 Minute Read It's Monday, but cheer up: we're going to Wokistan! And even better, we're starting at the candy store! These Boots Are Made For Woking By now, you may have heard of the trials and tribulations of that tramp proud woman, the Green M&M. You see, some found her original incarnation misogynist. Of course t...

TODAY'S RAMBLINGS <1 Minute Read (7 hour + listen) I mean, who has the time to wade through the NINETY-ONE categories that made up last Sunday's Grammy Awards? Are you f'ing kidding me? What to do? Well, congratulate yourself for subscribing to this blog. Because I skimmed this list, and then made a playlist of the albums that looked i...

TODAY'S RAMBLINGS 2 Minute Read Nah, it's not what you think. In fact, I want to nuke Texas so badly, and in such a positive manner, that I almost called in my heavy hitters. But I didn't. Because wanting Texas to be the center of clean energy, and especially the modular nuclear power plant industry, should not be fantasy. Yes, some ba...

TODAY'S RAMBLINGS <4 Minute Read Let's dive right in to Monday with me touching two of the third rails in modern America: gender and race. Heck, I even delve into sexuality for good measure. To illustrate, I'll use a term du jour: construct. But not the verb, the noun: Disclaimer: please top reading this right now if you are easily off...

TODAY'S RAMBLINGS > 3 minute read Hi! I'm a Californian again! And it's Friday! Along those lines, here are my favorite convertibles, in no particular order. Most, but not all, are vintage vs. something new. I'm not bothering with years, although I do provide the model of the car. And shocker, there's even a pithy comment here and ther...

TODAY'S RAMBLINGS <2 Minute Read Happy hump day. It is back to SF in a short while after a typically glorious, if cloudy and cold, visit with the literal lifesaver, Dr. Shelly Murphy, here in busy Houston. If you are in America, alive and anything other than off-grid, you've no doubt heard the wave after wave of hype over AI - artifici...

TODAY'S RAMBLINGS 5 Minute Read (attached PDF) I flew into Houston yesterday, courtesy of my favorite cousin, Dr. Shelly Murphy, and am now ensconced in the palatial Murphy Villa. But the Villa will be just a memory soon, which is why I'm here: I'm spec'ing out the tech for her new digs. "New digs," you ask? Nothing major, unless you c...

TODAY'S RAMBLINGS < 3 Minute Read It's the weekend, and I'm asking my dear departed parents to serve up the drinks. What drinks? I'm talking late 1960s and early 1970s, and following are what my parents and those around them were tossing back. People like this - my parent's friends Art Hansen, Wally Clarke, and Bill Cameron. All fine w...

TODAY'S RAMBLINGS < 3 Minute Read First and foremost: Happy Birthday to my very special wife, Julie. If only she took better pictures. On to less wonderful subjects. My typical disclaimer on days like today: no, I am not returning to my news and social media-fueled hair-on-fire and angst-ridden blog style. Nobody wants that. Or mass sh...

TODAY'S RAMBLINGS 2 Minute Read Happy Monday. Let's start the week some good news about Texas. And perhaps, America. My favored news source The Economist recently published an article I found rather astounding. It is about the adoption of green clean energy in Texas. I love the graphic they used and the article even more. Here's just o...

OVERVIEW Unfortunately, I must begin this wine region-focused Travel Guide by bragging. Because the fact is, I've been to all parts of Sonoma before. And Napa. And Anderson Valley. Santa Cruz Mountains. Livermore Valley. Santa Barbara and the Santa Rita Hills. The Sierra Foothills. Heck, I've been in a wine region in New Mexico. And fr...

TODAY'S RAMBLINGS 2 Minute Read It's been magical pretending we live in Wine Country. We head back home tomorrow after a great week here. Travel Guide? Certainly and soon, but its scope will be limited to Downtown Sonoma, vs. a vineyard touring thing. But believe me: we went wine tasting. I hope you enjoy today's short rant. Many (OK, ...

TODAY'S RAMBLINGS 5 Minute Read Enough heavy talk - JFC I'm in Sonoma! And it's not awful! But for now I will duck out of the many wine salons I am inhabiting this week to talk about America's corporate darling, Apple. I want to remind you Apple people out there - and OMG, there are a whole bunch of you - that Apple, its products, and ...

TODAY'S RAMBLINGS 2 Minute Read Happy Martin Luther King Day. I hope you'll consider and remember what this singular man did for America. And at what cost. It's a holiday, I know, but this topic is important. My apologies for its serious and sexually graphic nature, and a warning that it is about the subject of rape. Please do not read...

TODAY'S RAMBLINGS 4 Minute Read It's the weekend, so maybe you're looking for movie ideas. Yes, I'm going all Siskel & Ebert on you. For you kids out there, Gene Siskel and Roger Ebert were among the kingmakers of the movie industry. These gifted dweebs were influencers before the term existed; a "Thumbs Up" meant a film likely made mo...

TODAY'S RAMBLINGS Today I am reflecting on the great fortune of being retired relatively young. I've been in my own private Del Boca Vista since October of 2020, when I was 56; I am now 59. Is it all it's cracked up to be? Better? Worse? Shocker, but I have some thoughts. I think it's important to say at the outset that retiring and be...

TODAY'S RAMBLINGS Happy Monday, and let's begin the week with some Shakespeare. Naturally. "A fool thinks himself to be wise, but the wise man knows himself to be a fool." While often this blog is little more than a personal trough of self-aggrandizement and documentation of my overly-charmed life, I do occasionally seek and then pass ...

TODAY'S RAMBLINGS (No, I'm not back on my political lectern. And Ukraine is still top of mind. But today is January 6th, among the darkest dates in American history, and a big reason are the people above, who refused to certify Biden's election after the riots at The Capitol 2 years ago today. Kevin McCarthy is there, as are those now ...

TODAY'S RAMBLINGS If you watched this past Monday night's football game, you already know about this. If not, you should be aware a player very nearly died on the field of cardiac arrest after a violent hit, but was brought back to life via CPR over several minutes. As I write this early on Wednesday PST, the player, 24 year old Buffal...

TODAY'S RAMBLINGS Happy New Year and face it: it's the dead of winter. But winter in SF is arguably the best time here. Sure, there are storms (and we're having some fabulous rain this season and OMFG do we need it - just not too much too fast, please), but boy, do we have some Chamber of Commerce days, too. In fact, New Year's Day in ...

There are acutally actually no typos in today's post. Without further ado and in response to the clamoring from many (fact check: nobody), here's who will be taking home the prized Portico this year. The award ceremony is very hush-hush and on a need-to-know basis. Trip of The Year · Ormond Beach · Tupper Lake · Italy & Austria: Lake G...

Yes, more me! As so many have been begging for (nobody, actually), here - hot off the presses - is The Portico Darwin Travel Guide: 2022 While not as vast as last year's, there was still plenty of magic. I hope even a tiny bit is useful to someone out there, and I appreciate any and all feedback, and especially if you try my advice som...

TODAY'S RAMBLINGS I trust you had a great Christmas. Us? Well, Christmas Day itself was fine, but let's just say all good things must come to an end. After a positively Diamond Certified almost 3 weeks in Hoboken and NYC, it all screeched to a halt when, about 20 minutes before boarding, Alaska Airlines canceled our EWR-SFO nonstop Chr...