Strange as it is to believe, I have been writing on this blog for TWENTY YEARS. Somehow, you and I are both still alive! I looked it up, and the traditional gift for this one is china, the modern “theme” is platinum, the gemstone is emerald, the colors are emerald and white and the flower is the daylily. God willing, in just ten days time, Mrs. TD and I will be celebrating our thirtieth wedding anniversary. And so here we are. Well, not all of us. I lost TD Dad about six years ago, for example, and many of you...

So here we are! Several things happening at once. This is all a bit awkward for me today, for several reasons. First are the uncomfortable memories of “my own private 9-11,” which, if you don’t know, involved my going to work at my office on Church Street in lower Manhattan one city block north of the World Trade Center complex to get ready for a trial I had scheduled for that particular Tuesday morning. Thus, I bore witness to events from that vantage point– close enough to see some of the poor souls falling out of high floors of the...

Just wanted to say hi y’all! A little technical problems of the plague year bogged us down for the last, oh four months, but we’re back! Didn’t want to miss… September 11th… the most wonderful time of the year (if you’re Dick Cheney!)

I would be remiss if I allowed another month to go by without mentioning one of life’s milestones here in Stately Dog Manor, specifically, the college graduation (with high honors, no less!) of the Loquacious Pup. Proud Mom and Dad were privileged to have the opportunity to actually attend a physical graduation, conducted a little over a week ago, in two parts to enable social distancing among parents, on the football field of the small-ish liberal arts college that the LP attended. As some of you will recall, the Plague Year began for Familia Talking Dog in Merry Old Spain,...

Earler today, in a tense courtroom in Minneapolis, MN, former police officer Derek Chauvin was found guilty on all three charges against him (murder in the second and third degree and manslaughter) for the killing last year of George Floyd. As Mr. Chauvin is white, and as Mr. Floyd was black, and as the killing was captured on video and established that Chauvin’s knee was on or near Floyd’s neck until Floyd passed out and died, one wonders, quite frankly, why the trial took so damned long. The harsh reality is that in the United States it is extremely rare...

With all the good stuff happening, such as over 100 million vaccines (at least the first dose) administered to Americans (with one in eight American adults fully vaccinated), we take a moment to note that the COVID-45 plague has already resulted in the deaths of over 500,000 Americans as well as over 30 million Americans infected according to the Johns Hopkins Univ. World-o-meter. I should add that my fair city commemorated the first COVID-45 death a year ago yesterday. Meaning… we are in year 2… of the plague year. The COVID-45 plague has also resulted in significant economic devastation, including...

There is an interesting question about whether the plague year can be more than twelve months, as clearly, COVID-45 was on our shores by this time a year ago (although I count it from the date in mid-March when most things in New York shut down). But like the reign of terror under now former President Donald J. Trump (“acquitted” for the second time by a complicit Republican senate caucus, although seven Republicans voted to convict him for inciting insurrection), time and space seem more “flexible” than we give them credit for being. IMHO. And so, COVID-45 is seemingly going...

Meet the new year, same as the old year. Sure, COVID-45 numbers continue to explode, now over 22 million confirmed cases with record new numbers of cases and deaths. But is the new year the same? Not exactly… we had the soon to be erstwhile “President” literally incite a riot directed at the United States Capitol, where the Vice President and a joint session of Congress were meeting to officially pronounce Joe Biden as the next President. The repercussions of this event, where thousands of pro-Trump rioters were permitted to enter the United States Capitol and came within a few...

And so it looks like with Joe Biden’s electoral college victory in hand, Donald Trump’s “operation warped vision” looks like it is all but over, notwithstanding Senator Josh Hawley’s commitment to being an asshole on January 6th. Let’s just say that Mr. Trump is as committed to smashing on (indeed, urinating on) established Washington norms with almost the same vigor that Barack Obama employed to defending norms. Sigh. Where was I? Well, a few hours of 2020 to go, before we all say good riddance to it. Familia TD is home (though the Loquacious Pup will be out and about,...

It is now ten days after the November 3rd election, and six days after the major television networks and the Associated Press called the Presidential election for Democrat Joe Biden, by a 306 to 232 margin in the electoral college (and now well over 5,000,000 more popular votes, and rising). Nonetheless, “President” Donald Trump still refuses to concede the election, including a refusal to cooperate in the transition process. Former Vice President Biden is pressing on with the transition, as best he can. Today, the last two states not previously called by the major news services– North Carolina for Trump...