"You can cut all the flowers but you cannot keep spring from coming." - Pablo Neruda I missed yesterday's post. Thursdays have become my most difficult point on the calendar--the midday class is among the most challenging, with a couple hundred pages of reading a week. By Thursday my paying work has piled up, as has my homework, to the point that from the moment I roll out of bed I'm hustling to get everything done so we can drive back to Corning after class. It doesn't leave

TS Eliot (1888–1965) Ash Wednesday (first stanza) Because I do not hope to turn again Because I do not hope Because I do not hope to turn Desiring this man's gift and that man's scopeI no longer strive to strive towards such things (Why should the aged eagle stretch its wings?) Why should I mourn The vanished power of the usual reign? Because I do not hope to know again The infirm glory of the positive hour Because I do not think Because I know I shall not know The one verit

"An American has not seen the United States until he has seen Mardi-Gras in New Orleans." - Mark Twain A gray, cool Shrove Tuesday in Manhattan. Not getting up to take the photo because I'm in the middle of eleventh-hour trial prep, and my knee is absolutely throbbing nearly four weeks post-surgery. My constant pain and immobility has sort of put a damper on this adventure. Poor P--she has so many things she'd like to see and do, and she's shackled to a guy who can barely wal

"Der Führer does not say, "Achtung, baby.'" I figured this would be a quiet Monday, being Presidents Day and all. "Presidents Day"? How completely ridiculous. We used to honor Washington and Lincoln, two shining models of how to occupy that office. Now we seem also to be honoring Warren G. Harding, or maybe James Polk. Or maybe the senile jester holding the title as I write this. I had a thought this weekend that maybe, someday, perhaps even in my lifetime, we'll see a modern

"Anyone who stops learning is old, whether at twenty or eighty. Anyone who keeps learning stays young." — Henry Ford How I'm spending my Friday, with lunch with the beautiful P wedged between classes. Life is good. Happy Friday.

A brief one this morning before class, after an excruciating night highlighted by my knee finally giving out and forcing us home early. I'll be taking Uber to and from class for the next few days, at $30 a pop, and any walkable fun in NYC is out of the question. Not great. So, on Sunday we were driving back here from Corning and decided to stop for gas up in Monroe, NY, just outside of West Point before the final push into the city. We pulled into an Exxon whose sign announce

Missed a day yesterday, which is a great way to reduce the number of folks paying attention. I just got incredibly busy with work that didn't really reflect itself in my billable hours at the end of the day. Not sure how that happened. I ran across a couple thought-provoking essays this morning discussing the same topic--how AI is on the cusp of radically changing our society. Or not. As usual, the more balanced and someone skeptical view comes from the Atlantic. We've seen t

We come on the ship they call The Mayflower We come on the ship that sailed the moon We come in the age's most uncertain hours And sing an American tune -Paul Simon Feeling a little more optimistic about our prospects as a country after last night's Super Bowl. The ads were funny and kind. The one by the Blue Square Alliance entitled "Sticky Note" brought tears to our eyes, dragging this modern wave of antisemitism into view. Robert Kraft paid for the ad. The owner of the Pat

“Nice people made the best Nazis. My mom grew up next to them. They got along, refused to make waves, looked the other way when things got ugly and focused on happier things than politics. They were lovely people who turned their heads as their neighbors were dragged away. You know who weren’t nice people? Resistors.” -Naomi Shulman If you're still a Republican this frosty February morning, here's what your Dear Leader posted on his social media account last night. If you vot

"Though I get no more tired now than I did when I was younger, I take much longer to get un-tired afterwards." -C.S. Lewis Up well before the sun this morning, learning that 5:30 a.m. is about the only time there is no one on the sidewalks outside. Any earlier folks are staggering home from the bars (and into my hallway at 3:30 a.m.--lucky me!); any later and the people who make this City work are unlocking and setting up shop. Meanwhile my Facebook feed includes posts from b

"Everybody ought to have a lower East Side in their life." — Irving Berlin As usual, it's slow going here in the morning, with a knee that's still giving me fits, mostly in the dead of night when my foot hangs on the comforter and gives the knee a painful twist as I roll over. Hips hurt too. This bed is too damned soft. I guess I'm getting there myself. Last night sitting in my estate planning class, it occurred to me that I'm now making the transition from the "isn't this c

“But are there not many fascists in your country?" "There are many who do not know they are fascists but will find it out when the time comes.” "But you cannot destroy them until they rebel?" "No," Robert Jordan said. "We cannot destroy them. But we can educate the people so that they will fear fascism and recognize it as it appears and combat it.” ― Ernest Hemingway, For Whom the Bell Tolls Another sub-freezing day, maybe the tenth or so in a row. It makes from some gray, na

"Monday Monday, can't trust that day, Monday Monday, sometimes it just turns out that way Oh Monday morning, you gave me no warning of what was to be Oh Monday Monday, how you could leave and not take me." -John Phillips Sitting in silence watching the traffic slide by, on a balmy 22 degree Manhattan morning. I arrived here early Sunday evening, studied, talked to P for a few minutes, then after reading my book about the October Surprise, Den of Spies by Craig Unger, nodded

"The ultimate inspiration is the deadline." - Nolan Bushnell A warming trend out there in the valley of the Chemung this morning, rocketing from nine below zero at sunrise to seven degrees right now. Yesterday I failed to post, not out of sloth but because there wasn't a moment to sit in front of a computer and write something. My most difficult class falls on midday Thursdays, Tax Planning for Real Estate Transactions. The syllabus is a nonspecific mess, with 200 pages of re

I have found me a home. -Jimmy Buffett Partnership Tax starts in about eight minutes, so a very quick post. Last night after Estate Planning class Peg and I walked two blocks to Swift's Hibernia Lounge for tapas and a cocktail before bed. What a marvelous place, with live Celtic music, Guinness, and every Irish whiskey known to man. And no TVs, anywhere. I'm beginning to like this place.

"Some men like a dull life - they like the routine of eating breakfast, going to work, coming home, petting the dog, watching TV, kissing the kids, and going to bed. Stay clear of it - it's often catching." - Hedy Lamarr Already handled my first call today, with a deposition starting in about a half-hour. I know I'm probably not getting paid for this one--the client is broke, but it's too late the cancel. An incentive to work from the stretch instead of the windup, and move o

"A lot of people like snow. I find it to be an unnecessary freezing of water." - Carl Reiner The great blizzard of '26 has proven a bit of a bust in Lower Manhattan. We drove back midday Saturday, me still aching from surgery the day before, trying to beat the massive snowstorm that was to arrive overnight. Portable signs along the side of the interstate warned of the blizzard, and directed that no commercial vehicles be on the road after midnight. We arrived back here a litt

Missed yesterday because of knee surgery, scrambling around to make sure my work affairs were in order before becoming unavailable in a way only general anesthesia can ensure. Things went fine, and even with a suture or two Peg needs to pull out in a few days it hurts a lot less than when I walked through the hospital door yesterday. A hopeful sign. Now scrambling/hopping around again this morning, catching up on work stuff and organizing our wagon train to drive ourselves an

“My favorite thing about New York is the people, because I think they’re misunderstood. I don’t think people realize how kind New York people are.” —Bill Murray A quick update because class is in two hours and I pretty much lost yesterday in a full day mediation which, if I actual get paid, may just about cover the rent this month. That's our place, up on the fifth floor on the far right. We're directly on Houston Street, the busy thoroughfare that leads to the Williamsburg B

"I go to Paris, I go to London, I go to Rome, and I always say, 'There's no place like New York. It's the most exciting city in the world now. That's the way it is. That's it.'" - Robert De Niro Well, we've arrived. Our view, at least four nights a week, for the next three-and-a-half months. Not so long, really. We've found our grocer, our tailor, our neighborhood pub, our deli (Katz Deli, of course, made famous by When Harry Met Sally ). our bookstore. All within a couple bl