In the 25nd year of providing and protecting
The Go Burglar, by William Pinckard, published in Go World , no. 15, Autumn, 1986 During the Edo period a go club, like a tea-ceremony room or a kyoka poetry meeting, was a place where rank, station, and sex were irrelevant: what amattered most was the skill of the participants. Such people came as close to forming a genuine meritocracy as was possible in classs-conscious Japan in those days, and…
My mom struggled with cancer. Three times. The last time it killed her. But she loved us. And the best time we had was when I stayed with her through chemo, and she did her sudoku and her news programs, and I sat across from her and worked on my computer and we looked up from whatever and smiled at each other, and she blessed me with her and I tried to bless her with me, and it was beautiful.
#writerslife I'm going to tell you writers something you know. NOBODY loves your story as you do. Not your editor. Not your readers. NOBODY. So: you're editor will make your story readable? No. HELLS no. YOU will. It's _ALL_ on you, fam. What does this mean? That means any grammar or spelling or syntax errors? You fix them the INSTANT you see them. If you don't then the error in the next print is…
Dear Dad, Happy Memorial Day, but is it happy that we remember the soldiers who died for … us? Or who died because they died, and that’s just sad. I’m thinking of you, every breakfast I make. I made an olive bread/toast olive-cheese omelet sandwich and had bratwurst with that. But I remember your cinnamon-sugar bagels, and those are my favorite breakfasts, because they’re yummy and because they’re…
I 'love' it when women occasional post that men should be more sensitive, caring, thoughtful, socially-outgoing, ... That men should be women. Look. Why do men never post the opposite? Because men love and respect women as they are. Ladies, you love your man because he's a MAN. And, sure, it'd be great if he crafted you a crème brulée and massaged your feet and lovey-dovied you to death. But don't…
Guessssss who's gonna make dat 'coffee liquir'? If you guessed the ol' el geophf, you guessed right(ly)! 😎 From simplyrecipes.com . Okay. 1 1/2 cups of ground coffee into a bourbon jar. How are we going to do that without spilling? EASY-PEASIES! Well, take 1, anyway. Okay, NOW we've got the hang of it! Pouring coffee grounds into a bourbon jar, taketh twoeth. No disasters, DESPITE my daughter's…
Okay. ('Ope' as my daughter, Li'l Iz, now says) I'mma makin' di Irish Cream. Stand back, people, and watch. #ProAtWork Recipe from allrecipes.com . My slight alteration: I’m using peppermint syrup instead of almond extract to make peppermint Irish cream. Pour Irish cream into peach schnapps bottle. Wait for my cara spoza to make what she thinks is a fuzzy navel. Run. Hide. 😅 Have…
HOW TO MAKE DRAMBUIE! a recipe by geophf from seriouseats DIY Step 1: 1/3 cup honey. ... if the honey doesn't come out of the jar, run water continuously over it until the honey starts to flow. Not that I had this problem ... 🙄 Narrator: He did. Step 2: 1/2 cup filtered water. The better the quality of water, the better the drink. Step 3: 1 tsp ground or crushed fennel seeds. Now, some use mortar…
Guy with the (PINK!) tie, wishing you a Happy and Blessed Columbus Day, 2022, says hi! 👋 Christopher Columbus The story of Christopher Columbus is a funny one: He failed. He set of to round the world for a shorter route to India, and never made it there. God said: "No. I have something better for you." You don't get what you pray for, because God has something better for you. The Rest of the…
HAPPY BIRTHDAY TO YOU! Dearest Sweetie, It's been a hard year. Time after time people come up to me and ask: "How is Diane?" and I tell them, and then they get these wonderful ideas, especially my dad, "Oh, did she try botox? Have they found a Cure?" and Beki: "what remedies is she trying?" There are no easy answers. But there's you. Every day I see you struggle, and every day, you don't always…
Hello, my name is Rod Auclair. I'll be 82 two months from today, and I find that the real pleasure and treasure of being elderly are our memories. God knows, we don't have a lot of time left to make new ones. "Young men shall dream vision and old men shall dream dreams," it says somewhere in the Bible. And some of my best memories came from the beginning of my service in the U.S. Air Force in…
4/26 Dearest Rod, Thank you so much for calling me at work this morning, at 9 a.m., the twenty-third anniversary (to the minute) of our son's birth. Giving birth – giving life – to Douglas was one of the finest things I ever did, and I couldn't have done it withoutyou. That, by the way, goes for a lot of fine things I've done: I couldn't have done them without your cooperation, help, and support.…
Hi. My name is Doug Auclair, and I served, Active Duty, as an officer in the United States Coast Guard from 1989 to 1995 after graduating from the US Coast Guard Academy. When I told my wife that'd I'd be speaking here at the Newport Vets Town Hall 2021, ... IN VERMONT, she asked me: "Why? Are you special?" And I'd like to think about that question, because I'm not special. And I'm sure many of…
The military is family, it's a way of life. And nothing gets you thinking about life more than death. I came up to Vermont because the headstone was laid for my mom just this week. And, I am at a point in my life where my friends are dying. It will be my turn someday, too. This past year, I went to the funeral of my best man, Mike Malovic, Master Sargent in the US Army Chorus, and I accompanied my…
Hi. My name is Doug Auclair, and I served, Active Duty, as an officer in the United States Coast Guard from 1989 to 1995 after graduating from the US Coast Guard Academy. When I told my wife that'd I'd be speaking here at the Newport Vets Town Hall 2021, ... IN VERMONT, she asked me: "Why? Are you special?" And I'd like to think about that question, because I'm not special. And I'm sure many of…
The ancient Greek word for 'a man' is 'ἥρως' ('hero'). And, ... men are heroic, stoic ones at that. (Although the ladies may argue that a man with a cold is nothing like a stoic hero). But we're also supposed to 'open up.' We're supposed to share our thoughts and feelings. Because that builds better relationships and happier families. But does it? Where does this advice come from, because, it…
So, I've gotten my whole family to read Salinger's " For Esme: with Love and Squalor ," so: my work here is done. Mission: accomplished. Life: complete. Dad level: shining star. What is the point of "For Esme: with Love and Squalor"? And why is it Salinger's Magnum Opus? (No, not "Catcher in the Rye," that unfortunately generation-defining work.) World War II changed us. Read Wilfred Owen's "Dulce…
So, okay, you've been baited into a meeting under a pretense, then, BAM! they switcheroo'd on you. Now you in this ... 'meeting'? do I call it a 'meeting,' when really it's an inquisition. So, you're in this thing, and your back is against the wall. What do you do? Here's what you don't do. What I did: I played along, played nice, and survived the 'meeting' with this or that platitude, as…
This is the second 'Bait-and-switch'-meeting I've gone to, and I don't appreciate it. If, at the beginning of the meeting, you say: "Oh, and besides X, I also want to talk about you, and your Y," then you've just committed a bait-and-switch. The meeting's agenda is the meeting's agenda, and if you have different things you want to talk about, you set up a different meeting. Now, you may say:…
My friend, Mike Malovic, far left in the picture, just died. Cancer. Mike was a good man. I moved to the Washington, D.C. area in 1992 and met Mike soon after at the St. Michael's choir. We were both military, so we connected in that way, and he asked me if I kept my options open for business opportunities. I did. So we talked, and I joined his organization in Amway. Now, I'm sorry if you had a…
meditations on Divine Mercy Chaplet. "Why are you religionists so bound to this patriarchal imposition on you? Be happy! Be free! Get rid of your superstitions and join us Shiny, Happy People." Let's talk, for one second, about you shiny, happy people: you atheists. Where is your joy? I've met several kinds of atheists, some are very ill-informed, spouting The Narrative that they've been fed from…
Hi. I'm back. So. I'm Doug Auclair, 'Paula's son, and it's so hard for me to say her name: 'Paula,' because, to me, she was always, "Mom." And I wonder, looking at you, who she was to you and what she meant to you, and, if you want to tell me, I'd really like to know that. Because I'm going to tell you now who she was to me, and maybe you'll see something in her, from my words, that you didn't see…
Before I start, I'd like to preface my remarks with gratitude: for my family, of course, my sister, Lynda, Uncle Jeff, Aunt Gretchen, their children, ... and their children, Sissy, the Verandah staff and residents, Lonelle and the staff at the Johnson Funeral Home, but especially to Beki. If you know me, and you know Beki, as most of you do not, then you know what an honor, and what great trust…
So, this is my beef stroganoff-in-a-pot recipe Ingredients: 1 package egg noodles two cans of cream of mushroom soup ½ onion, diced 1 ½ lbs ground beef (organic) with seasonings (garlic powder, salt, pepper to taste) 1 package sliced mushrooms (you can get them whole, I guess, but why) Directions: Dice mushrooms, put in YUGE pot, sautéing with olive oil. Add ground beef, seasoning, and mushrooms,…
"Hey, you! I'm just now leavin' Can I come around sometime this evening?" It's such a sad song, because he keep texting his (ex-)gf, and she keep not texting back. "I know it's not the truth when you say 'I'm fine.' So, go ahead and break my heart again, And leaving me wondering why the hell I ever let you in!" Yes, I keep listening to FINNEAS' songs, over and over and over again. Ugh. But no,…