Birthday Bash

The Life You've Imagined, Villa René Lalique, Lynn Miles, Lenny Wilkens, Dumpster Divan

Nov 12, 2025

Welcome to my 162nd weekly newsletter. This issue includes ten highly-ranked Michigan sports teams; a novel about love, loss, life, and hope; another Michelin two-star restaurant in France; a Canadian performer who writes brilliantly and sings beautifully; an NBA star who made the Hall of Fame as both a player and coach; and a scrapped sofa. I hope you like the picks and pics.

We experienced a mix of fall leaves and winter snow here in Michigan this week.

To celebrate Barb’s birthday, a group of friends enjoyed a festive dinner at Cantoro Trattoria in Plymouth, Michigan. Eight of the twelve people were name twins: we had two Barbaras, two Davids, two Dianes, and Jeri and Jerry.

Fritto Misto: shrimp, calamari, seasonal squash, calabrian chile honey tempura, fried sage, lemon aioli (shared with the table)

Insalata Cuore di Gemma: little gem lettuce, prosciutto di parma, avocado, shaved pecorino, sicilian oregano vinaigrette, garlic breadcrumbs (shared with Barb)

Pollo alla Sorrentina: chicken scallopini, shallots, mixed mushrooms, artichokes, capers, fresh lemon, white wine, butter, polenta, rapini (my entree)

Today I gave another knowledge management presentation, this one for the UN Human Rights organization’s KNOWvember event.

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Fave Five 162: Birthday Bash

Four Former Friends(The Life You’ve Imagined), Fine French Food (Villa René Lalique), Superb Singer (Lynn Miles), Low-key Len (Lenny Wilkens), and a Dumpster Divan.

Fave Five List: Michigan’s Ten Top Teams

It’s a very good time to be a sports fan in Michigan. Here are the latest rankings and standings of our local college and pro teams.

College Hockey

Michigan State

Michigan

Western Michigan

College Football

Michigan

Men’s College Basketball

Michigan

Michigan State

Women’s College Basketball

Michigan

Michigan State

Detroit Pro Teams

Detroit Pistons - first in the NBA Eastern Conference

Detroit Lions - first in the NFC North Division

Book Best Bet

The Life You’ve Imagined by Kristina Riggle

I bought this book 14 years ago. I enjoyed reading it.

From Amazon: From Kristina Riggle, author of the brilliant debut Real Life & Liars, comes The Life You’ve Imagined, an astonishing new novel about love, loss, life, and hope. It’s the story of four former high school friends who are forced to examine what happened to their high school dreams which are now at odds with their grown-up reality.

A richly woven story laced with unforgettable characters….A beautiful book.
—Therese Walsh, author of The Last Will of Moira Leahy

The Life You’ve Imagined is a terrific novel about love and loss, letting go and holding on. A book to share with family and friends—I loved it.
—Melissa Senate, author of The Secret of Joy

An Interview with Kristina Riggle

Kristina Riggle started out as a newspaper reporter in western Michigan, and continues to work as a freelance journalist. She lives and writes in Grand Rapids, Michigan.

Restaurant Recommendation

Villa René Lalique 18 Rue Bellevue, 67290 Wingen-sur-Moder, France

On last month’s canal cruise in France, there was one evening when we didn’t dine on the barge. Instead, were taken to this fine restaurant in the French countryside that had earned two Michelin stars. We were treated to a luxurious five-course dinner.

Déjeuner à la Villa René Lalique (2020) - Michaël Vessière

Sarah Bernhardt Perfect Egg

Warmed Carabinero

Red Mullet with Yuzu

Selection of Cheese

Cocoa Pod

Marvelous Musician

Lynn Miles

Many years ago I saw Lynn perform at The Ark in Ann Arbor and I especially liked “You Don’t Love Me Anymore.” I bought Slightly Haunted and Chalk This One Up to the Moon. She is one of very favorite singer/songwriters. I love her songs and her voice. She performed in our home on May 29, 2019.

Performing in our living room on May 29, 2019

Lynn Miles has the kind of voice that insists that you pull the car over. Call the radio station. Change your citizenship. Buy a home in Toronto. She’s been blessed with such a drop dead beautiful honey smooth voice that it’s impossible to not fall in love with it. It rides along the ebb and flow of a gifted sense of melody. She’s the kind of lyricist that renders whatever heartache you feel into something both beautiful and aching. She also is extremely funny. Like she’s carrying an antidote to inject you with between songs to cure you of the snake bite.—Ellis Paul

From Wikipedia: Lynn Miles (born September 29, 1958 in Cowansville, Quebec) is a Canadian singer-songwriter. She has won the Juno Award and three Canadian Folk Music Awards.

Lynn Miles with Barb and me in our home on May 29, 2019

You Don’t Love Me Anymore

Fearless Heart

My Road

Black Flowers

Three Chords and the Truth

My Playlist

Sports Star

Lenny Wilkens (Coaching Career)

Lenny passed away on Sunday. He played eight seasons for the St. Louis Hawks, including the 1963-64 season when I first lived in St. Louis. He was both one of the greatest players and greatest coaches in NBA history.

A man in red shorts and shirt dribbles a basketball past another player.

Lenny Wilkens, N.B.A. Hall of Famer as Both Player and Coach, Dies at 88

A perennial All Star, he was cited as one of the league’s 50 greatest players and one of its top 10 coaches, winning 1,332 games and leading Seattle to a championship.

Paul Silas, a Sonics forward on that championship team, described him as “a very, very low‐key guy.”

“Nothing ever seems to excite him,” Silas said. “He doesn’t intimidate players. He never points fingers at individuals, win or lose, which perhaps is his greatest quality.”

Wilkens’s 1979 Sonics had a solid but unspectacular lineup that featured Dennis Johnson and Gus Williams in the backcourt and Jack Sikma, John Johnson, Lonnie Shelton and Silas up front. The team was the underdog in the playoff final against a Washington team led by Elvin Hayes and Wes Unseld, both Hall of Famers. The Bullets had beaten the Sonics in the previous season’s final. But in their second matchup, the Sonics captured the championship in five games.

A man in a leather jacket stands on a sideline of a basketball court.

From Wikipedia: Leonard Randolph Wilkens (born October 28, 1937 in New York City; died November 9, 2025 in Medina, Washington) was an American professional basketball player and coach in the National Basketball Association (NBA). He has been inducted three times into the Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame, first in 1989 as a player, as a coach in 1998, and in 2010 as part of the 1992 United States Olympic “Dream Team” for which he was an assistant coach. In 1996, Wilkens was named to the NBA 50th Anniversary Team, and in 2021 he was named to the NBA 75th Anniversary Team. In addition, in 2022 he was also named to the list of the 15 Greatest Coaches in NBA History, being the only person to be in both NBA 75th season celebration lists, as a player and as a coach. He is also a 2006 inductee into the College Basketball Hall of Fame.

Wilkens made a combined 13-time NBA All-Star Game appearances as a player (nine times) and as a head coach (four times), was the 1994 NBA Coach of the Year, won the 1979 NBA championship as the head coach of the Seattle SuperSonics, and was the head coach of the Olympic gold medal winning 1996 U.S. men’s basketball team.

During the 1994–95 season, Wilkens set the record for most regular season coaching wins in NBA history, a record he held when he retired with 1,332 victories. He is now in third place on the list, behind Don Nelson and Gregg Popovich. Wilkens won the Chuck Daly Lifetime Achievement Award for the 2010–11 NBA season. Wilkens is also the most prolific coach in NBA history, at 2,487 regular-season games, 89 more games than Nelson, and over 400 more than any other coach, and has more losses than any other coach in NBA history, at 1,155.

Career Highlights

As player: