Rob Perez

COMMENTARY Barbara Millicent Roberts came into this world in 1959. She was born in Willows, Wis. “A teenage fashion model,” this girl was white, blonde,… Login to continue reading Login…

Rob The year is 1911. Newark, New Jersey.

BEYOND REASON To write about a thing, like, say, I don’t know, hypothetically, an ode, you might really want to have an intimate knowledge of the thing. Or perhaps you might want to really get to know the thing, so you spend hours and days and weeks researching the thing.

Just what was 2022? Like many years that came before it, 2022 was also a year. But 2022 was different in that it was new. Many experts say 2022 was the newest year thus far. The years that came before 2022 – and this goes for all of the years – were old. They came and went. But 2022 seems to really be hanging around, here and now. It’s almost like 2022 is happening right-this-second. Whereas, other, older years seem to be a thing of the past. On the other hand, 2022 seems really au courant.

BEYOND REASON Mike is a bull moose. Only on our fifth appointment did he finally show up for our tete-a-tete at a moose viewing area up the Gunflint Trail.

University of Glasgow, Scotland. 1848.

The thing about fall is that it’s not winter. Winter is winter. Winter comes right after fall. Fall is, try to stay with me here, directly after summer. The season of fall is named after a guy who first noticed the temperature dropping and, for some reason, coincidentally, was always dropping stuff. And, in another pretty big coincidence, his name was Fall.

BEYOND REASON Friends have asked why I haven’t written about my 4-year-old daughter. Some know me as a dotting dad and conjectured that I was too deeply in love to make fun of her.

Decades are like snowflakes. They’re white and pointy, and all a little different. Sometimes I think about the 20th century and the decades therein. Nobody knows exactly how many decades were in that century, but it almost seems like there’s one every ten years or so.

Beyond REason by Rob Perez Due to the overwhelming response (glad you liked it, Mom) to a recent column about nautical terminology, this is a kind of follow-up. Thus, I give you boat names.