I Made a Coffee Sandwich

...I used to speculate about what a “coffee sandwich” would consist of every time we went past the place. It took may years but I decided this month to bring some closure to this idle speculation. I based my prompt on the dessert sandwiches I ate on our recent trip to Japan. Typically, those sandwiches consist of a fruit and whipped cream filling served on fluffy Japanese milk bread called Hokkaido (北海道). I guess I could have invented a savory coffe...

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Kelly’s New Desk

...he past and to this day in many places in the world. As this was the first time I’ve ever built this type of table, mistakes were made but I’m pleased with the end result. Schwartz emphasizes hand tools which means that this desk could be made with just a few tools in a small workshop (though it does kinda call for a drill press to cut the circular holes for the legs). In my tiny garage workshop I use a mix of power and hand tools: power tools for...

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Our Radioactive Cat

...leged to have lived with this feline in all his ups and downs and when the time came to make the decision on this treatment I didn’t think about it long. We’re fortunate to be able to afford it and I felt an obligation to make whatever time we have left with him as comfortable as possible. Until this absence this week, I didn’t fully realize what a presence he is, the way he bosses the dog, the other cat and even us around. The house is haunted by...

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Every Day Carry Revisited

...seful. 2. Field Sketchbook I’ve tried the sketchbook thing before but this time around I’ve actually made a habit of it after a key insight I had about how to keep one going. Here’s that insight: notebooks and sketchbooks need to be private and are not for public consumption. In my case this is not because there’s anything in it that I wouldn’t want to share but that doing so would make my notes and sketches performative rather than useful. There...

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Join or Die: Why You Should Join a Club

...most family households to have jobs and how this drastically cuts down on time available for joining groups. That said, I do wonder if the particularly insidious form of capitalism we’re enmeshed in, variously called “neo-liberalism” or “late stage capitalism” has more to do with the decline of organizations than people simply not wanting to join groups. One of qualities of neoliberalism, is a capitalism that has penetrated every single social re...

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