The hell I won’t
by chuckofish
Hope you had a great Memorial Day! Mine was very nice.
We had a beautiful day for driveway sittin’ and the boy bbq-ed to perfection. Good times.
Don’t forget: today is John Wayne’s birthday, so celebrate appropriately!
dual personalities
Category: Uncategorized
May 25, 2026
Nothing fancy
by chuckofish
Happy Memorial Day!
It’s been a busy long weekend so far. I played cards at someone’s house on Friday night! Of course, I shut that party down too, but it was fun while [I] lasted. On Saturday daughter #1 took me to a shindig at her club where they were celebrating their 125th anniversary. We had dinner and drank wine on the patio and listened to live music–the Boomer’s favorite playlist of ’70s tunes. It was very fun.
In the middle of all that I went to a funeral for an old acquaintance from my old church. It was at the PCUSA church she had attended for the last 15 years or so, which was interesting. It was a very pretty church, but the service, to me, was pretty lackluster. When we sang “Abide With Me” at the end of the service, I started to cry right on cue. Sacré bleu!
On Sunday we held our service out on the church lawn. We started doing these outdoor services during COVID and we continue now two or three times a year as weather permits. The youth provided the music. But everything else was as usual. We heard a good sermon on Joshua 23:1-16 which is Joshua’s last speech before he dies. We sang good hymns, including my favorite, Come Ye Sinners, Poor and Needy. The tears streamed down my face. The sun broke through the clouds at the end of the service and the birds flew overhead. The bud said, “I guess God wanted the sun to shine on us!” Indeed.
Yesterday was Bob Dylan’s 85th birthday! I hope you celebrated appropriately! God loves you, Bob, and so do we.
As is my tradition, in honor of Memorial Day, I watched my favorite WWII movie, They Were Expendable (1945). It is just the best.
Listen, son: you and I are professionals. If the manager says, “Sacrifice”, we lay down a bunt and let somebody else hit the home runs. We know all about those destroyers out of commission, tied up around San Diego. We could use them here. But they’re not around. They won’t be. Our job is to lay down that sacrifice. That’s what we were trained for, and that’s what we’ll do. Understand?
A toast to all the sailors and hunters home from the hill.
Today daughter #1 and the boy and his family are coming over to my house to enjoy some driveway sittin’. The boy will do the honors of bbq-ing some hamburgers. We’ll have chips ‘n dip, French Fries, salad, and something yummy for dessert. Nothing fancy. Just the way we like it. I hope you enjoy your day as well.
And this made me laugh:
May 22, 2026
Your faith is the low E of your life
by chuckofish
Well, we are well into the year and May is almost over! We ask ourselves, how did that happen?
It is graduation season and the commencement speeches range from the banal to the excruciating. I saw a clip of Harrison Ford that was just embarrassing.
But this is really good–watch the whole thing:
And in honor of Memorial Day, we salute Johnny ‘Joey’ Jones of Fox News, who re-enlisted in the U.S. Marine Corps on Wednesday. God bless him.
Have a good weekend. Keep it real.
May 21, 2026
Our own imperfect thoughts and vain opinions
by chuckofish
I had a very busy day yesterday with three–count ’em–events to attend. It was crazy, but I survived.
The first was a very chichi luncheon in Tower Grove Park to which I was invited by a dear friend. I had a lovely time and caught up with another old friend and talked to some people with whom I had weird connections.
The featured speaker was a “leading voice in ecological landscape design, pioneering a plant-systems approach that anticipates a changing future”–zut alors! It was actually quite interesting.
Then I went to the opening reception of an art and photography show at the Kirkwood Performing Arts Center where my co-editor of the Kirkwood Historical Review’s work was featured. I was so impressed with Ron’s photos! He has traveled all over the world, but his pictures are not, here’s the Eiffel Tower. They’re like, here’s a wall that looks like a Mondrian painting or here’s a crack in the ceiling that looks like Winston Churchill. Who knew 90-year old Ron was an artiste!
Finally, I went to the “Poetry Corner” at the Schaeffer House at my church to, yes, read poetry and discuss. I enjoyed it, but the chairs were very uncomfortable and it had been a long day, so I went home at the earliest opportunity. As daughter #1 says, I know how to break up a party.
Well, it’s good to get outside your comfort zone once in awhile. Read some poetry!
May 20, 2026
“Write what should not be forgotten”*
by chuckofish
A blog I read recently asked the question Have you ever met an author in person? That got me thinking. The answer is not many, but, yes, a few come to mind. And by “met”, I mean “shaken their hand”.
I met Frederick Buechner when he preached at Christ Church Cathedral here in town. He came at the invitation of his old friend Hays Rockwell, the Bishop. I shook his hand after the service and he shook my children’s hands as well.
I heard John Updike speak at my flyover university one afternoon in the “chapel”. And I sat behind Marilyn Robinson when she spoke at my university. I could have reached out and touched her mass of frizzy hair, but I restrained myself. I had a good view of her when she spoke to the relatively small audience (at least compared to Updike).
I met Nancy Willard when she was a speaker at my old high school and I was the alumna representative of the writing contest back in the ’90s. I drove her to and from the event and ate dinner with her. She was very nice.
Madeleine L’Engle spoke at my church 35+ years ago and I exchanged a few words with her afterwards. I went to the Ethical Society to hear Nathaniel Philbrick and he signed my copy of Blind Ambition. Amor Towles came to town, but I had to see him on Zoom.
All of these sightings meant something at the time, but I don’t remember much about them now. Words of great wisdom were not imparted that I recall. The best was Buechner and half the people there were shocked when he asked the people (and children) in the back of the church to be quiet. But his message was always pay attention!, wasn’t it?
The lesson I think is that authors are much less interesting than their books are. Most of them just want to be left alone to work–traveling and speaking is something they do to please their publishers and sell books. If you have the good luck to actually know a writer, more power to you, but meeting them randomly at an event isn’t much.
So read a book!
“What really knocks me out is a book that, when you’re all done reading it, you wish the author that wrote it was a terrific friend of yours and you could call him up on the phone whenever you felt like it. That doesn’t happen much, though.”
–J.D. Salinger, The Catcher in the Rye
*Isabel Allende
May 18, 2026
Tune my heart to sing thy grace*
by chuckofish
Good weekend! How about you? I had to recover some from my windy drive back from the prairie in the speedwagon, but I did. I can report that the prairie is greening up nicely. On Saturday, even in the rain, daughter #1 and I ventured to an estate sale and did pretty well, finding something for daughter #2. We had lunch at the Village Bar and then we went to the dollar store and our favorite Presbyterian re-sale shop where we picked up some DVDs for $1.50. Score! Then we wandered around our local antique mall for awhile–always a fun thing to do. The simple pleasures.
That night I watched We Are Marshall (2006), the DVD of which I had bought earlier in the day. It is the true story of the aftermath of the plane crash in 1970 that killed the entire Marshall University football team, the coaching staff and a lot of fans. Matthew McConaughey is excellent as the new coach, as are all the actors, and the directing by McG is impressive. I cried through the whole movie. I love a good sports movie, don’t you? I remember watching it with the OM when it first came out. He played football in high school (All ABC League!) and that was important to him. Some of those relationships impacted his whole life. When he died and the email went out to his classmates, almost the entire subsequent thread was about football.
I really liked it and I recommend it.
I went to church on Sunday, sang some favorite hymns, heard a good sermon on Joshua 13:8-14; 22:1-6,10-34, and saw the assistant Pastor’s new baby, Asa, who is two weeks old. The Kindergartners also received their Bibles–always a highlight. I went to the bud’s last lacrosse game of the season. It was very hot!
Yes, it’s all-of-a-sudden summer in my neck of the woods!
And I guess you have to be pretty old to get this one:
Enjoy your Monday!
*Robert Robinson, 1758
May 15, 2026
I lift my eyes
by chuckofish
I’m heading home from the prairie today. I had a super fun time with daughter #2 and her sweet family. We didn’t take many pics (and none where I didn’t look 100 years old) so sorry about that.
We hung up some pictures…
(The two Marys) and…
the American poets over Wes’s crib!
And we went to Costco…and picked up Katie at school three times…
I watched music videos on my phone with Ida and we sang along to our faves.
Best days or my worst
If I’m last or if I’m first
Sunshine or rain
The sky might fall but You remainIf the whole world’s in your hands Lord
And mercy’s always new
Then why would I be anxious
When it’s all just the same to you
Just the usual stuff. It was a beautiful week in flyover country.
May 13, 2026
Not quite ready for the weekend.
by marycompton
Hello, readers. Daughter #1 here. It has been quite awhile since I last did a blog post. I have been very busy the past few weeks and I came down with a cold last week (on top of a wild week at work). Anyway, I’m back today. And will make all of you think it is Friday when it is (sadly) only Wednesday.
Given the lack of any new programming to watch, I have been filling my evenings with Inspector Lewis on Britbox. A spinoff of the Inspector Morse series, the show ran from 2006-2015. It takes place in Oxford which has real Sunnydale vibes given the number of murders that take place in each episode. It’s not a great show—but it keeps my interest. Although, by now I have figured out the formula and can identify the killer pretty early on (tooting my own horn, yes).
In more exciting news, I am having my deck (it has proven too delicious for the backyard squirrels and a giant groundhog that lives there) replaced with a patio. The work begins tomorrow and hopefully I’ll have a picture to share in my next blogpost. Fingers crossed it all goes according to plan.
Finally, Mr. Smith got a haircut. He was getting really quite shaggy and now you can see his eyes and he can see out of his eyes!
I hope the rest of your week is pleasant. I am, of course, already ready for the weekend.
May 12, 2026
Morning by morning new mercies I see
by chuckofish
Another beautiful day in flyover land–perfect for running errands, which I did in preparation for hitting the road today. Yes, I am heading again to the prairie! Pray for smooth travels in the speedwagon, good weather and good health to everyone involved!
I also went over to my friend Eleanor’s house yesterday to watch a movie on her bigscreen TV (she has a new, even bigger TV now). We watched Hamnet (2025). I had low expectations for the movie and it was, in reality, much worse than imagined. Dark, unremittingly dreary. Hardly anyone smiles during the entire movie. I knew it would be very earthy–yes, we get to watch Agnes give birth three times in 16th century England where everyone is portrayed as unclean and disheveled. There is lots of screaming and groaning then and then again when her children are older and have bubonic plague. I guess this is what passes for great acting these days. But it is a one-note movie. The pace never changes. It asks the question, did Shakespeare write Hamlet as a way to process his grief over his son Hamnet’s death? The answer would be yes, but the movie never presents Will Shakespeare as a person remotely capable of doing so.
“What a piece of work is a man! How noble in reason, how infinite in faculty! In form and moving how express and admirable! In action how like an Angel! in apprehension how like a god! The beauty of the world! The paragon of animals! And yet to me, what is this quintessence of dust? Man delights not me; no, nor Woman neither; though by your smiling you seem to say so…” (Hamlet, Act 2 Scene 2)
And, of course, there is no spiritual element in the movie. Agnes is basically a pagan woman of the wood. Please.
If I had been watching it at home, I would have turned it off, but, alas, I could not.
In the meantime, I could really relate to this article by a Garden & Gun editor about hints for traveling with your boomer Mom. On a trip to Ireland, the author and her mother even took a side trip to Cong after watching The Quiet Man. If they are “unhinged” then so are we.
Enjoy your Tuesday!
