Going To Paris

Departing DC Union Station Heading north November 14, 2026 I’ve done DC to Boston, Charlottesville to DC (~200 times!), Richmond to Charleston, Charlottesville to Atlanta, LA to San Francisco, San Francisco to Richmond through Chicago, Charlottesville to DC to Chicago to LA.. I’m guessing that’s between 7,000 and 8,000 miles.

Washington Union Station November 14, 2026 The primary difference between a Union Station and a Penn Station comes down to who built them and how they were operated: Union Stations: These were built as shared-use or cooperative terminals where multiple independent railroad companies brought their lines together into a single central hub, making it easy for passengers to transfer between different companies. Examples include Washington Union Station and Los Angeles Union Stati

Washington Union Station November 14, 2026 Great music. Great movies!

Amtrak Train Station Alexandria, Virginia November 14, 2026 This theory is a new one for me. Perhaps not as compelling as Victor Frankl’s insights about our search for meaning, but sure seems relevant for our current times. From Google: Dietrich Bonhoeffer’s theory of stupidity is a famous psychological and sociological observation written in 1943 from a Nazi prison cell in his text "After Ten Years" (found in Letters and Papers from Prison). Bonhoeffer tried to understand h

Amtrak Northeast Regional From Charlottesville to Newark November 14, 2026 Lots of stuff has happened in my life the past three months. After a first half of the year of highlights, could I be experiencing a reversion to the mean? Hospital visits, therapies that haven’t worked, stress, anxiety, bad colds and now a tweaked back. Toss in a crashed hard drive with 150 GB of my music on it. Diverticulitis. ☹️ All of this has thrown me off my game — physically, mentally and e

Charlottesville November 13, 2026 Arthur Brooks. I wrote a lot about him several years ago. He taught (teaches?) a class at Harvard Business School on happiness. Wrote (writes) a column for The Atlantic on the same topic. He has quite an interesting background. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Arthur_C._Brooks I appreciate his approach to the topic as it is evidence based. I recently signed up for his weekly newsletter and just received this week's email. As with most of h

Charlottesville November 13, 2026 I must have missed this day in seventh grade grammar class. Glad to know I can 55 years later start to use the words correctly! Why did the grammar book break up with the style guide? Because it couldn't tell the difference between a clause that restricts the meaning and a clause which, by the way, just likes to hang out with extra commas. The main difference between that and which is whether the clause they introduce is essential (restricti

Charlottesville November 12, 2026 Reading this article reminded me of the Charlie Brown TV specials of my youth. The played one night a year and if you missed them, it was wait until next year. The two I remember the best are the Great Pumpkin and the Christmas one. I can still see them in my mind's eye. I thought this article was a great reminder of what I might have learned from watching those specials. https://www.cbr.com/life-lessons-learned-from-charlie-brown/ Since i

Charlottesville October 12, 2026 THINGS FOR YOU TO THINK ABOUT Your body is a lagging indicator of the food you eat. Your knowledge is a lagging indicator of the information you consume. Your happiness is a lagging indicator of the people you care about. “The information you consume is the soil from which your future thoughts grow.” – James Clear ONE THING FOR YOU TO ASK YOURSELF What choices are shaping your future self? THREE THINGS FOR YOU TO TRY THIS WEEK Unfollow one sou