"To travel hopefully is a better thing than to arrive." -Robert Louis Stevenson A lot less snow out there after an afternoon high yesterday in the mid-40s. More heat coming today. It's not optimum for the whole winter wonderland schtick that kept us up here this deep into the December calendar. So we'll leave sooner than planned after Peg's boss gave her the grace of the 23rd off from work, not to return until the 29th. We were looking at trying to get out of here on Christma

"...if the citizens neglect their Duty and place unprincipled men in office, the government will soon be corrupted; laws will be made, not for the public good so much as for selfish or local purposes; corrupt or incompetent men will be appointed to execute the Laws; the public revenues will be squandered on unworthy men; and the rights of the citizen will be violated or disregarded." - Noah Webster 12.17.25 A heat wave arrives in the Southern Tier, just in time for Christmas.

"Every act of rebellion expresses a nostalgia for innocence and an appeal to the essence of being." - Albert Camus Looking out across the valley on this thirteen degree morning at the bare tree trunks and branches highlighted by the snow clinging to the hills. Back at Tara we displayed a daguerreotype of Southside Hill with the house right there where it's been for 176 years now, backed by those same snowy hills. Nothing has changed. I find it reassuring every time I drive up

“Christmas is a season not only of rejoicing but of reflection.” – Winston Churchill Friday. Issac's birthday--guessing Peg shot him a text from the operating room at the exact time of his birth, as she does every year. My last final of the semester comes later, sadistically scheduled to begin at 5 p.m. What sinister scheduler thought that was a good idea? The only ones I pity more than myself are the proctor and the IT people on the exam team who must virtually sit there wit

"Nothing is more exhilarating than philistine vulgarity." - Vladimir Nabokov An exuberant sunrise. But already giving way to gray skies with snow on the way after last night's dusting. One final exam is now on the books, with one to go. How did I do? No clue, but overall it seemed okay. I keep reminding myself that the dumbest guy in the program graduates with an LLM in Taxation from NYU, and they don't print your GPA or class rank on that diploma. Thinking very early this mo

"Save us from the time of trial." -The Lord's Prayer, BCP (Modern) Dark and gloomy out there, even for Corning in December. Certainly a little more wintery than the photo I snapped exactly a year ago. Jim turns 33 today. We spoke for a few minutes yesterday when I took a break from my studies. It sounds like he may be by himself for Christmas, which bothers me enormously. The inside of my head keeps playing Fool If You Think It's Over, Chris Rea's 1978 FM radio hit. Some days

"I was thinking about how people seem to read the Bible a whole lot more as they get older; then it dawned on me . . they’re cramming for their final exam." - George Carlin We awoke to four below zero this morning, maybe the coldest I've ever seen it here. Jack Frost dallied in arriving this year, but these days it feels like he's making up for lost time. I missed yesterday's post because we awakened up at the lake, drank coffee that wasn't up to par because the steam wand on

"It is the life of the crystal, the architect of the flake, the fire of the frost, the soul of the sunbeam. This crisp winter air is full of it." - John Burroughs We began this morning at zero degrees, the coldest day so far of this winter of 2025-26. The ice crystals on the window are delicate, mysterious works of art. Sometimes I'm glad I'm a history major rather than some science person--better to treat these experiences as magic than to unpack them into component parts an

Gray, cold, and thirty degrees out there, with light snow falling outside my office window. A perfect day in this early Advent season. December is supposed to look and feel like this. Thinking a lot in recent days about change and the inertia of advancing age. So many ways of living I've accumulated in six decades, many of them not-so-healthy and completely fixable with a resolve to move in a different direction. That, in turn, requires a change in one's way of thinking, in m

Time it was, and what a time it was, it was A time of innocence, A time of confidences Long ago, it must be, I have a photograph Preserve your memories; They're all that's left you -Simon & Garfunkel A lovely, fourteen degree morning out there. Peg's drive to work yesterday turned out to be far dodgier than expected. For whatever reason the snowplows did not take to the streets overnight--the theory being tossed around is that when they closed the schools, the local governmen

Sunshine is delicious, rain is refreshing, wind braces us up, snow is exhilarating; there is really no such thing as bad weather, only different kinds of good weather. - John Ruskin So this started happening around 1 a.m. Seven-and-a-half hours later, and it's still coming down steadily. Hence my evening worry and cursed insomnia, knowing P would need to drive in the un-shoveled or plowed places to get to work in the predawn darkness. I worry a lot about P, about this phase o

In the bleak midwinter frosty wind made moan, earth stood hard as iron, water like a stone: snow had fallen, snow on snow, snow on snow, in the bleak midwinter, long ago. -Christina Rossetti A six-day hiatus from all this. Probably best. Still sort of reeling from the professional losses that piled up over the last few weeks, and what they say about where I am in my career and my loss of connection with the people I'm paid to persuade. No post on Wednesday because they gave P

"I wasted time, and now doth time wasteth me." -William Shakespeare, Richard II A gray morning in the Southern Tier, leaves all fallen but too warm to snow. We're supposed to see a high of 58 tomorrow, four days before December. So much for the great global warming hoax. And tomorrow is my youngest's 26th birthday. Time flies. I saw a reference in the NYT to the fact that the movie Gladiator , which I've never actually seen, came out a quarter century ago. Is that even possib

“ When I was a boy I was told that anybody could become President. I’m beginning to believe it. ” ― Clarence Darrow I'd been looking for a good Clarence Darrow quote about lawyers, and came across this one. It was too good not to post. My last morning waking up to this for awhile. Closing argument in a couple hours, then jury instructions, deliberation, and eventually verdict. As usual on closing argument day, my GI tract is in full rebellion. I used to think I had a bad habi

" Save us from the time of trial." -Lord's Prayer, BCP, modern version So it's Wednesday, and we'll rest our case here in a couple hours, battle off a motion for directed verdict, and flow into the defense case. Really exhausted by now, up since four working on witness outlines, fine tuning arguments, and otherwise trying to get ready. I did give myself the indulgence before crawling out of bed of scrolling through photos of P and me over the last five or six weeks. Lots of a

Today marks the busiest day of the trial--continue the examination of the client with something like 90 exhibits, then a parade of witnesses including one by video deposition, then the other side moving for directed verdict and us working past that threat. Then it's the other side's turn. Up at 3:38, and out of bed at 4 when it was obvious there was no going back to sleep. If anything breaks me in this trial, it's going to be the utter exhaustion when the last hour of my day

Up since three, after a weekend of doing not much else besides trial preparation and sneaking off to eat oysters with an old friend. I need to be in court in less than two hours. Time to boil my mouthpiece and get ready to play this game I'm so, so tired of playing. It's going to be a long week. Here we go.

Each time I see a little girl Of five, or six, or seven I can't resist the joyous urge To smile and say Thank Heaven for little girls For little girls Get bigger everyday Thank Heaven for little girls They grow up In the most delightful way -Maurice Chevalier Back at my computer doing trial prep as the sun rises out there. Feeling a little better than yesterday, when I told P I was as exhausted as I'd ever been in peacetime. Trial is a young man's game, and I'm sure as hell n

I've been running wide open since I rolled out of bed at 5 a.m., and never got around to posting. Pretrial conference begins in four minutes. Here's a nice view of the bay right now.

And when they ask us, How dangerous it was. Oh! We’ll never tell them, No, we’ll never tell them. We spent our pay in some cafe. And fought wild women night and day, T’was the cushiest job we ever had. And when they ask us, And they’re certainly going to ask us. The reason why we didn’t win the Croix de Guerre. Oh! We’ll never tell them, No! We’ll never tell them. There was a front but damned if we knew where. - We'll Never Tell Them, Fitzrovia Chorus Taking my coffee upstair