July 2025 – Keith Robertson

Week in Review – July 27th, 2025

“Eclaircissement”

Monday was what I call an “administrative” day – taking care of a variety of things on the phone and the computer. I booked tickets to see Marc Cohn in Kansas City (he was diagnosed with Parkinson’s 5 years ago and won’t be able to perform much longer), plus hotel and flights. And then did some research on restaurants in what is known as the “Power and Light” area of downtown Kansas City. Then on to buying tickets to see Curtis Stigers at a new to us venue in New Orleans. Next was the really fun stuff – transferring billing for my phone from my old work to a personal account. That took two separate 45 min phone calls. Finally, I worked on seeing when our COBRA health care coverage would kick in – hopefully next week. All of that took the best part of the day and left me feeling like I was back at work. Oh, almost forgot catching up on close to a month of blogs – I have no idea how I got so far behind. I suppose I’ll blame it on travel. And I also forgot about troubleshooting 401K contributions after I had transferred everything out – the joy of automatic contributions and being paid for unused vacation. Hopefully that’s all the admin stuff for a week or more.

While I was doing all that nonsense, Diana met Julia for a walk in the park. As hot and humid as it is, that would have been preferrable.

Diana asked me, “have you noticed the random trash on the side of the house?” I had not. “Well I finally found out where it’s coming from. The crows pick stuff off the street, take it up to the roof and then drop it, like fast food sauce packets.” I know – it’s the silly little things that entertain me.

A swim at the New Orleans Athletic Club (NOAC) started my Tuesday. The steam room wasn’t working, so I had to settle for a pleasant sauna after the swim.

In the afternoon, we enjoyed $6 Tuesdays at the Broad theater and the new “Superman” movie. Diana had fun picking out all the cameos – Bradley Cooper and the guy who was the star of Castle. The movie was better than either of us was expecting. The director was the same guy who did the “Guardians of the Galaxy” series and he brought the same sense of fun and humour to this movie. Krypto the dog was also a fun addition, and showed up as a trivia question later in the day.

The New Yorker had an interesting review of the movie:

https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2025/07/21/superman-movie-review

I joined the krewe for trivia in the evening. Ozzy had died earlier in the day, and Tom (quiz master) was clearly saddened by the news. He played several of his songs and told us that he had been on the road with him many years ago. I had started studying up on Greek mythology in the afternoon but we didn’t get any questions about that. We did get one ridiculously arcane question. “What’s a word beginning with “E” that means “the clearing up of something obscure” and was “the final word in the Scripps spelling bee this year.” “Eclaircissement ” was the answer. No surprise that none of the teams knew that.

We were in 1st place going into the final question, the only one where you can wager (and lose) up to 20 points. This was the correct answer:

“Light years in a parsec.” Really? After that “E” word. Tom was really pushing it this week. Interestingly Alex guessed 3 as the answer, and Nina knew that the Weekend song had been number one for the better part of a year. If we had only listened and wagered a bit. Instead we wagered zero and ended in 4th place.

Relaxing after the stress of that trivia experience, I watched the Saturday Night Live episode with Harry Styles as the musical guest. I remember being very impressed with his performance when seeing the original airing of this episode. Here he is flying around the Isle of Skye:

I made the mistake of reading this New Yorker magazine article on Wednesday morning. Made me angry for quite a while. Kids playing baseball? Where does it end?

ICE agents invade little league field – New Yorker

The guys arrived to restore the marble counters in the kitchen. They were so much quieter than I expected, and did a great job. All the rings and stains are gone and the marble is sealed up. We’ll see how long it lasts. Diana called the set up to protect against dust blowing around their “playpen”.

Thursday was time for another swim at the NOAC. This time the steam room was fully functional. The bar was also open – seems to be a new feature as we haven’t seen it open before. I had a coffee and a frittata for a very reasonable price. Nice!

We saw three “DiMarco plumbing” trucks on the drive home from the NOAC. This is the name that Adamo gave to the combined entity of Diana and Marco when we were planning Clorinda’s funeral and services. The two of them were quite something.

In New Orleans you don’t “go to the grocery store”, you “make groceries.” We “made groceries” on Friday afternoon. Diana complemented me on being a much better grocery shopper than in the past. Must be a positive feature of retirement. I’ll take the compliment and see if I can keep it up.

We met Anne, Denny and their plus one (Jack) for Happy Hour at the Red Dog Diner. This is next door to and owned by the same folks who run the Rum House, one of our favourite quick and easy restaurants. We’ve passed it hundreds of times and always thought it was some greasy spoon divey place. Not at all – when you go in the back you find a lovely place with very good food, drinks and service. Why am I just finding out about this now?

Diana decided to try a Moose’s Magnificent Mimosa. It’s like an Orange Julius with Strawberry jam vodka. I know – it sounds way too sweet, but was remarkably good.

I got a kick out of Denny ordering snacks. He did not take any input from the girls and ordered up exactly what he thought everyone needed. Easy for me and I’m not sure how he gets away with a lot of his behaviors – I would have been in all kinds of trouble for not asking for input.

The bar manager and another guy were working in the corner to decide on a wine pairing dinner that they will host in August. They gave Anne and Diana a bottle each of what they had been sampling. Such a nice place that we’ve avoided for so long.

I watched a movie called “The Penguin Lessons” on Friday night.

This movie stars Steve Coogan. Sometimes I think he’s really good and other times I don’t care for his performances at all. This was a good movie and he did well. His penguin costar did even better.

I had a final swim for the week on Sunday morning. We followed that with a delicious brunch at Paladar 511, just a short drive from the NOAC. Anne texted Diana during brunch to invite her to meet up with the girls and Mary on her way back to San Diego. I thought I would meet up with Denny and Thom while the girls were doing their thing. Both of them replied that they were planning on taking naps after a very hot tennis session. I decided to join the girls. Guess where they were going. Red Dog Diner. I haven’t been there in all the years I’ve been coming to New Orleans, and then went twice in the same week. May was late leaving Navarre and wasn’t able to join us before she needed to go to the airport.

I started “King of Ashes” by S. A. Crosby this week. I really enjoyed his last few books and have been waiting for this one to become available. I got a few pages in and decided I was in the mood for something different. It’s probably the nightmare of the book that Kelly recommended last week, coming back to haunt me.

I decided to try a book by Mick Herron. I’ve loved the “Slow Horses” series starring Gary Oldman and decided to check out the original books. Wow – I should have done this a long time ago. It’s like a Le Carre book but with better descriptions and language. Right up my alley.

I enjoy Chris Hillock’s guitar playing. I think he learned a lot from Mark Knopfler:

Some great rhythmic entertainment. I need to listen to some more of their stuff:

The great Phil Lynott of Thin Lizzy, and I suspect Gary Moore on guitar but haven’t looked it up yet:

Coexist peacefully, with kindness and patience for all.

Week in Review – July 20th, 2025

“Visit to the Florida panhandle”

Our travel back from San Francisco on Monday was smooth. We had an exit row and nobody in the middle seat – so plenty of room to spread out. On entry to our home, I heard a smoke detector beeping to let us know the battery inside was low. Just what I wanted after a 4 hour flight, but I got up on the six step and disconnected it.

We drove from New Orleans to Navarre Beach on Wednesday, covering 4 states enroute – Louisiana, Mississippi, Alabama, and Florida. It was about a 3.5 hour drive and Kenny, Kara, and Nina rode with us. We were on our way to a funeral service for Anne’s mum, Carolyn, and a celebration of life for Carolyn and her husband, Jack. We broke up the journey with a lunch stop at the Original Oyster House. I remembered it from our last trip to Navarre with Denny and Anne, and it was still very good.

We arrived at Saint Peter church in Mary Ester (just beyond Navarre) in time to have a coffee before the service began. The service seemed to follow a traditional Catholic approach, although apparently the response words have changed since Diana last attended one. We laughed that they do that every decade or so to see when folks were last in church.

Here’s a link to Carolyn’s obituary, she was my blues music buddy:

https://www.daviswatkins.com/obituary/Carolyn-Bauer

After the services we checked into the condo that we had rented. The door code was 10 digits long, and I couldn’t get it to be accepted. At least 5 attempts before I gained access. The girls were happy to point out that they always got it on the first try.

I’m sure Anne was touched that everyone from her friend group made the trip: Alex and Laura, Thom and Libby, Kelly and Fred, Greg and Colleen, Julia, and Jancy, and then all of her local Florida girlfriends, Courtney, Bob, Tammy, and Sue. I enjoyed “facilitating” a conversation between Courtney and Fred.

There was a reception at Juana’s – the divey bar complex next to Carolyn and Jack’s condo. Carolyn had apparently picked out the menu of snacks to be served. Once the reception time ended, the pool tables were placed back in position and everyone enjoyed them. It might not seem appropriate for a celebration of life, but Carolyn would have wanted it that way.

I treated the group to my mini quiches on Thursday morning. They really are a bit of work to complete, but I enjoyed it.

Double red flags were flying at the beach on Thursday, signifying nobody allowed in the water for any reason due to currents and rip tides. It was also pretty windy at the beach. We opted to set up on the “Sound” side behind the condo. It has a beach, you can swim, and it’s nicely sheltered. Jack set up the blue awning and we were all able to avoid too much sun.

After a day in the sun and water, pizza and salad sounded like the perfect dinner. We all ate together at Carolyn and Jack’s condo.

Friday was very much a repeat of Thursday. The girls did spend some time on the beautiful beach – still no swimming. About time to leave to pack up and drive home, Diana suggested staying another night. I called the rental company and we were booked for an extra night. What a weak moment I had. We joined the group at Dewey Destin’s for dinner. We all enjoyed very fresh seafood – excellent shrimp and scallops, and another good Denny recommendation.

We got a decently early start on Saturday for our drive back to New Orleans, deciding to stop for breakfast after clearing the thrombosis that is the Mobile, Alabama tunnel. Diana’s research showed the Breakfast Spot as a good option. We parked, after passing a street pole vaulting competition, but the place was too busy and we didn’t want to wait very long. We had passed Bob’s on the way and remarked on the brass band playing outside – let’s walk over there. We sat outside and enjoyed a yummy breakfast and some great traditional New Orleans music. The band had an eclectic makeup – all ages and ethnicities represented, including an older lady on the tuba (don’t see that often).

The drive was uneventful – the usual slow downs as trucks pass each other, or sit beside each other occupying both lanes and going at almost the same speed, and some very heavy rain for a few minutes on the approach to New Orleans.

We enjoyed a walk/run in Audubon park to stretch out our legs before it got too hot on Sunday.

Our friend Dr. Thom, professor of infectious diseases at Tulane, had this article published this week. It tells a bit of a heartbreaking story about all the years he has spent eradicating malaria around the world, and how funding cuts are impacting that.

https://tulane.edu/research/malaria-control?utm_source=tt&utm_medium=content

I watched an interesting movie this week – “The Way We Speak”.

The movie tells the story of a writer who refuses to cancel a debate with his friend who has died of a heart attack. Instead, he insists on going ahead with a replacement opponent. And then everything starts to come apart…

My read this week was “River is Waiting” by Wally Lamb. Kelly recommended it with this text, “Just finished this book. Absolutely gutted. Dark content but really good book.” She summarized things well. The last paragraph of the first chapter was almost too much for me. And the writing and characters are very good. Not sure I recommend this unless you are ready for some very dark material.

Wally was listening to Irma Thomas when writing and realized that her song, “River is Waiting”, from the wonderful “Simply Grand” album had just inspired his title.

I read about a third of “Letters to John” by Joan Didion as what I hoped would be a bit of a palette cleanser. These are letters to her husband relaying what happened in her weekly therapy sessions. I have a hard time relating to someone who puts this much thought into their thoughts and then rehashes them in written form for her husband. And I have been a huge Didion fan for many years. “The Year of Magical Thinking” is in my top 10.

The annual literature edition of the New Yorker magazine is always a treat. I particularly enjoyed an article on the impact of AI on learning.

https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2025/07/07/the-end-of-the-english-paper

A couple of paragraphs that caught my attention:

“One study, published last year, found that fifty-eight percent of students at two Midwestern universities had so much trouble interpreting the opening paragraphs of “Bleak House” by Charles Dickens that “they would not be able to read the novel on their own.” And these were English majors.”

“The London cabdrivers rigorously trained in “the knowledge” famously developed abnormally large posterior hippocampi, the part of the brain crucial for long term memory and spatial awareness. And yet, in the end, most people would probably rather have swifter travel than sharper memories.”

Interestingly, the next story in the magazine had this:

“The taxi-drivers of London, my parents told me, knew every street and lane, every address by heart.”

It’s so strange how things that you haven’t thought about in years come up repeatedly within minutes of each other.

Here’s that Irma song that gave Wally Lamb his title:

This album is wonderful from start to finish. Each track has a different pianist – Norah Jones, Dr. John etc.. It’s fun to try and pick out who is on each track. Who do you think this is?

Such an excellent Randy Newman song.

Coexist peacefully, with kindness and patience for all.

Week in Review – July 13th, 2025

“Back to California”

It’s been years since I visited the New Orleans aquarium, and I had heard the remodel is very nice. We got culture passes from the library for Tuesday – they offer free admission to many of the main museums and attractions for up to five people. This is a very nice perk of being a library member.

We started on the aquarium side and then looped back for the insectarium. The very first exhibit, upside down jellyfish, was quite striking.

The penguins were pretty mellow on our first visit, a bit more animated and looking for attention at the side of their tank on our second.

Diana was not excited by the huge alligator.

The lionfish looks interesting, and is not so nice – it has venomous spines and eats almost anything, making it a threat to coral reef ecosystems.

The insectarium was a fun exhibit – we spent most of our time trying to find the well camouflaged insects. Once you find one, all the rest suddenly come into view. The millipede (elongated centipede) was a highlight.

I think the highlight of the entire visit for both of us was the butterfly enclosure. You walked through a kind of airlock to prevent the butterflies exiting, and then were amongst thousands of beautiful butterflies. I could have sat in there looking for quite a while.

Our flight to San Francisco on Wednesday evening was delayed a couple of hours due to not having pilots. They eventually rounded a couple up and we enjoyed the non-stop flight for a change. We would have missed any connections with the delay. It was after 11pm when we finally arrived and went in search of an Uber.

Jeff was due to arrive around the same time and as it approached 1pm we were starting to get concerned, given that we knew he had landed at 11:30pm. I guessed correctly that all food options in the airport were closed, and Jeff had gone off in search of some fast food. Sure enough, when he arrived he had a bag from In-N-Out burger in his hand. Silly boy.

It was an early start on Thursday to drive down to Saratoga for the funeral of Julie’s dad, Ken. Here’s a link to his obituary:

https://www.darlingfischer.com/obituaries/Kenneth-Wayne-Davis-Jr?obId=43159041

Julie’s brother, Scott, did a wonderful eulogy – lots of dry, deadpan humour, and very comfortable speaking once he got going. Marco led off the section where anyone could speak with his usual beautifully constructed and delivered speech.

There was a very nice reception following the funeral service, albeit quite hot outside in a suit and tie. It’s easy to forget the extremes of the Bay Area microclimates – highs in the 60s in San Francisco/Pacifica and in the 90s in Saratoga.

I did have a new experience on this trip – figuring out how to charge Adamo’s tiny mouse car. We make fun of it and are very thankful that we didn’t have to rent a car on each of our many trips this year. After downloading an app and figuring a few things out, the process was fairly simple.

Another new experience awaited me on Sunday when visiting Amy and Adamo’s home. Francesca wanted to paint somebody’s face and I volunteered. Thankfully that’s watercolour paint. She was very attentive to the pattern she wanted to duplicate, apparently something unicorn related.

Here’s a good trivia question. “What country has the unicorn as a national animal?” Answer after this video:

Did you know the answer? Can you believe it’s Scotland? I can tell that you are suspicious – a quick Google search will confirm.

We had a good time getting together with Andy, Jude, Marco (who rode his fancy triathlon bike from Redwood City), and Julie on Sunday evening.

I finished “Mad Honey” this week and would give it a strong recommendation. I certainly didn’t see the final twist coming, thinking I had solved the murder much earlier in the book.

I have often read how John Cheever’s short stories are very well written, and so decided to try a few. I read “The Swimmer” (supposedly his best and my least favourite of the three I read), “The Enormous Radio” (my favourite), and “Goodbye, My Brother” (second place). I would say these are well written and evocative of the time period when they were written (late 40s to early 60s).

Something from the master of guitar tones:

A cover of Led Zeppelin by one of the great rock voices:

Coexist peacefully, with kindness and compassion for all.

Week in Review – July 6th, 2025

“Last Work Day”

Monday was my final work day. The technicians helped me reimage my laptop and phone to take away most traces of EZCORP. All of my important personal messages and pictures were carefully saved off to a portable SSD (Solid State Drive).

Tuesday was very much an administrative day. Figuring out how to sign up for COBRA (Consolidated Omnibus Budget Reconciliation Act) took a while. You would never know what this is from the name or acronym. It’s the ability for retirees and other folks with employment events to continue their employers sponsored (and much less expensive) healthcare for 18 months after departure. Getting Windows 11 to work the way I wanted with some applications also took a bit of work.

Later in the day on Tuesday, we met with Paul, our financial advisor, to make sure we really had enough money to retire. I know – great timing indeed. The good news is I don’t have to (at least in the near term) look for another job.

Kenny came over on Wednesday morning and helped change out the air conditioning filter – in way too tricky a spot for me to trust myself not to fall on that hutch with all the crystal glasses. We had intended to replace the can lights going up the stairwell, but our ladder is too wide and hangs over the nifty tool that Diana found for using ladders on stairs. That will have to wait until we can borrow a regular ladder.

A late lunch on Wednesday took us to La Petite Grocery. They had advertised a rhubarb pavlova (two of my favourites in one) for the summer and we were excited to try it.

You can imagine our disappointment when the waitress told us the pavlova had been replaced. “But that’s the main reason we came.” “Let me see what I can do.” We knew there was no way they were whipping up a pavlova just for us. Our main dishes were wonderful – I had fusilli pasta with mushrooms and peas, Diana a shrimp yozu sauce thing and an heirloom tomato salad. Then came a surprise – the manager brought us some limoncello cheesecake ice cream on top of a rhubarb and strawberry jam they had made with the last of the rhubarb. Apparently it was a very short season this year and the chef wasn’t happy with the most recent product. No charge for dessert and we were very happy with the extra effort to make us happy. Such a local gem of a restaurant.

We visited the Broadside on Thursday evening for a performance by Valerie Sassyfrass, followed by a showing of her documentary. Kenny, Kara, Thom, Denny and Jack joined. Most all agreed that we’ve maxed out on Valerie for a while.

I suggested to Diana that we celebrate July 4th (my 4th day of independence from the working life) with a burger. I suggested three options and she chose Toups Meatery. We hadn’t been there in years and so it seemed like a great idea. They run a summer program to feed kids that typically rely on school meals for nutrition – another good reason to support the restaurant.

We were very pleased with the burger – the pickles really made it. A crab salad added something marginally healthy to the mix.

In the evening we joined the rest of the Krewe for swimming and celebration at Greg and Colleen’s home.

Saturday was the 10th anniversary celebration for the Dirty Coast t-shirt company. I own a number of their shirts and they were donating the proceeds from a silent auction and ticket sales to guess who? The Toups Family Meal organization. The first band was a movie and TV themes cover band – very entertaining.

Those folks were followed by Where Y’acht – a “Yacht Rock” band. Here are a couple of samples.

Do you like McD’s yacht captain hat?

I started but did not finish “Mad Honey” by Jodi Picoult and Jennifer Finney Boylan this week.

I just got far enough to read the first big bombshell of the book – not going to spoil it for anyone planning to give this book a try. I recommend doing that – at a minimum you’ll learn a ton about beekeeping. And hopefully even more about tolerance of differences.

If you do read this book, see if you can figure out which chapters the authors swapped on. Jodi writes all of Olivia and Jennifer all of Lily, but they swapped for one chapter.

Here’s the online summary:

“Olivia McAfee knows what it feels like to start over. Her picture-perfect life—living in Boston, married to a brilliant cardiothoracic surgeon, raising their beautiful son, Asher—was upended when her husband revealed a darker side. She never imagined that she would end up back in her sleepy New Hampshire hometown, living in the house she grew up in and taking over her father’s beekeeping business.

Lily Campanello is familiar with do-overs, too. When she and her mom relocate to Adams, New Hampshire, for her final year of high school, they both hope it will be a fresh start.

And for just a short while, these new beginnings are exactly what Olivia and Lily need. Their paths cross when Asher falls for the new girl in school, and Lily can’t help but fall for him, too. With Ash, she feels happy for the first time. Yet she wonders if she can trust him completely.”

Lily is a talented musician. I smiled at this paragraph – not many people know that the first section of “Money” by Pink Floyd is in 7/4 time:

“I hate this song,” I mutter. He glances at me. “You want me to change the station?” I shake my head. “It’s in seven-four. It’s a weird time signature.” Asher doesn’t say anything right away. “So the time signature is what upset you?” I don’t want to go into it. “You know what else is in seven-four? ‘All You Need Is Love.’ The Beatles. And Blondie’s ‘Heart of Glass.’ Soundgarden’s ‘Spoonman.’ ” Asher smiles. “I can’t believe the stuff you remember,” he says.”

An example of the interesting bee information to be found in the “Olivia” chapters:

“One of the bees starts moving in a figure eight, a crazy little rumba meant to tell the others where her food source is. Using the sun as a compass, her moves are a code: the direction of the dance is the route toward the food; the length of the dance is a measure of total distance. Several other bees watch, too, and then fly away, armed with GPS choreography.”

“This waggle dance is also used when a colony swarms. Some foragers will come back and waggle-dance to describe a new location they’ve found. The jazziest dances get the biggest response. If more bees are impressed, they join in the waggling. There may be several factions competing in this dance-off, each advocating for a different home, but once one of those groups has convinced about fifteen bees, democracy wins.”

Revealing the inspiration for the title:

“THERE IS ONE type of honey you should avoid at all costs. Mad honey comes from bees that forage on rhododendrons and mountain laurel, and it’s full of poisonous grayanotoxins. It causes dizziness, nausea and vomiting, convulsions, cardiac disorders, and more. Symptoms last for twenty-four hours, and although rarely, if left untreated, can be fatal.”

How Asher feels after acquittal:

“You cannot ever really go back to normal. You can approximate the axis of what your life used to be like, but as with an asymptote, all you’ll ever really do is get close and never intersect the sweet spot. It is true that the way the legal system works, once you are acquitted you are free to go home, but there’s a cognitive dissonance in the realization that the world has spun away without you. Even innocent, you will still be the boy who was involved in that murder trial. You are blameless, but stained.”