Point Made

 ...said the turkey, who was not amused. I applied my lessons learned over the holiday. First, when offered a free meal, a single man always says yes. Second, I'll credit my deep dive to honor women when I wrote my novel,  26 Women , men should listen more and talk less. I learned a long time ago that when Michelle Mooney invites me to any meal, I go.  The food will be good, and the conversation at least as good as the food, if not better. So the invitation was subtitled as Thanksgiving dinner for people who didn't have anywhere else to go. Michelle also mentioned they were people she knew from St. Mark's. While I'm not a member of the St. Marks Episcopal church, I knew I would know some of them, if not all of them, because I have been embedded in the congregation over the years through my friendship with Michelle and my affiliation with Common Ground. Michelle is an ambitious host of gatherings such as this. This celebration allowed her to test her new kitchen at St Jo...

 If there is a humbling moment in the pursuit of trying to express yourself with paint, it's that moment when you're honest with yourself and admit, "This is hopeless." I'm not ready to give my watercolors away yet, but I'm close. So I ordered a minimal amount of acrylic paint. I've found a U tube video on the basics of painting with acrylics and completed the tutorial painting. Was it the uh-huh moment I had when Pam Frautchi mentioned that I might be trying to write screen or stage plays instead of novels? Not really, but let's just say that I'm not going to frame my first effort, but I'm not going to throw it away either. My problem with watercolors seen to stem from two things. First, no matter how you mix, blend or apply watercolors, they always look different when they dry. It's frustrating.  Second, with the transparency of watercolor paint, you always have to paint the lightest of colors first and layer up to the darkest. For some r...

 Premier League One of the things I've been doing lately is watching Premier League Football on weekends. Because of the time difference between Britain and Midwestern USA, the games are featured in the morning. It takes about two hours to play the game. And you really can (excuse the pun) count on that time.  When they play soccer, the clock, ticking off the two forty-five-minute halves, does not stop. It doesn't stop because the ball goes out of bounds. It doesn't stop because a player is hurt. It doesn't even stop when players are substituted. It doesn't stop when players celebrate a goal score. It's true; referees can add time to the ends of halves called stoppage time, but it amounts to a few minutes. I'm learning to watch the game, as I did when I learned to watch baseball and football.  I've learned a lot from the commentators. It's more complicated with what the rest of the world calls football, and we call soccer, because the commentators ca...

 As I write this, it's Saturday morning. I'm watching a Premier League soccer game.  It has been twenty-four hours since I rolled into the recovery area of the hospital operation theater. Dr. Meyer and his pit crew, like beave of nurses and technicians, have repaired my hernia. By the way, one of the nurses referred to the nurses gathering around me, hooking me up to various contraptions and aiding the doctor in setting up his equipment as 'the pit crew.' These people are talented, professional, and damn it, just plain nice. I asked my room nurse Tracy about the morale since COVID is beginning to slow down. She explained that they didn't see COVID patients in their department. ( I had to take a COVID test to be operated on.) But it was apparent that many elective surgeries were being delayed by patients not wanting to go to the hospital for fear of contracting the virus. Tracy also pointed out they were getting an above-average amount of referrals from the ER. Unfor...

 Of course, there are all of those cliche indications that fall is upon us. The leaves falling. The NFL now is in its seventh week. They tell me that the NBA schedule has started. I'd add that hockey and soccer are in progress, but they are the games that never stop. But pleasantly, the significant indicator hasn't shown its ugly face yet. We've unseasonably warm weather almost through October. And while it's still the case, two events happened last week that have to be considered benchmarks. First, mainly because the overnight temperatures were getting cooler, I pulled my window fan out to close the window. The following day I woke to a smell that made me think I had left something on the stove with the heat on. It turned out to be the radiators that were cooking the dust off of themselves. The building's heating system was on. For late October, it is still comfortable. Even with the nighttime temps along the Shore of the Inland Sea reaching down into the forties, ...

It was a bit overwhelming last week. I had five columns to write for Urban Milwaukee and my commitment to Two Many Wives' screenplay. All writing and no play make Jeff a confused old man.  The columns for Urban Milwaukee are all previews of Plays opening up in Milwaukee regional theater this fall. Not only were companies touting their opening shot at live in-person theater but announcing their season selections. I don't care if you're looking for edgy drama or a frothy musical; Milwaukee has some great stuff coming.  I addition to writing, I took my pencil in hand and resumed my sketch-a-day habit. Primarily gleaning my subjects from posting on Instagram.  This leads me to another subject. That is the daily emergence of myself into the evil empire of social media. It got me thinking about my use of Facebook, Google, Instagram & WhatsApp.  I know my comments will sound like the people who blame the opiate-addicted instead of the big Pharma and their marketing for ...

 First, let me share a sketch I did, using as a model, a painting by Bill Haas, a Milwaukee-born internationally known artist. I swiped it from his Instagram posting. This young lady has a bit of attitude that I liked. The image also challenged me to practice drawing hands. If there are areas of portrait drawing, I need to work on drawing ears, noses, and hands. My hunch is she is a handful to raise. (Pun intended.)   Here's a short video that might make your day a better one. Via My classmate and friend Dave Nitz The next step is working from another image I harvested from Instagram. If this pose looks familiar, it's because it evokes the same kind of mystery as The Dancing Girl, which I wrote about a couple of weeks ago.  If you don't admit you are curious about her and hoping she'll turn around, you aren't looking hard enough. This is from a photo collection the features children around the world. The copy beneath this image told me that she is an Asian girl.  My...