Christmas at Cranbrook
Bed and Breakfast, Ethnic Eats, Dan Fogelberg, Jim Leyland, Squashed Sant-O'-Lantern
Welcome to my weekly newsletter. This issue includes a celebration of my son Roger, a Christmas novel, two ethnic lunches, a singer/songwriter who died too young, the last manager to lead the Detroit Tigers to the World Series, and a pummeled pumpkin. I hope you like the picks and pics.
Barb is a volunteer docent at Cranbrook House and Gardens in Bloomfield Hills, Michigan. She decorated a Christmas tree with winter hats in Cranbrook House this year, with all of the hats then being donated to local children who needed them. She and the other Cranbrook volunteers and members were invited to the annual Christmas party last night, and I attended as her guest. We enjoyed the food, beverages, sweets, and music in a festive, nicely decorated setting.
Barb’s most recent prescription refill order made a circuitous journey before being delivered. Starting out in Illinois on December 3, it made its way to Detroit, Pontiac, Detroit again, Dearborn, Livonia, Farmington, Northville, Plymouth, Garden City, Inkster, and Northville again. Finally, eight days after being mailed, it arrived at our house in Northville on December 11. I had to enlist the services of a USPS specialist to help track down the package and get it delivered.
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Fave Five 115: Christmas at Cranbrook
Carolina Christmas (Bed and Breakfast), Ethnic Eats (Joya’s and Viet Pho & Grill), Part of the Plan (Dan Fogelberg), Pride of Perrysburg (Jim Leyland), and a Squashed Sant-O'-Lantern.
Fave Five List: Fantastic Forty
Our son Roger turned 40 yesterday. Barb and I have always been very proud of him. Here are a dozen pairs of roles he has played, each pair representing two sides of the same coin, that reveal the fine man that he is.
Teacher and coach: A beloved English teacher at Mater Dei School in Bethesda, and a key assistant basketball coach at Gonzaga College High School in DC.
Athlete and sports fan: A former NCAA basketball and baseball player at Kalamazoo College, and a diehard fan of the University of Michigan and the Detroit Lions, Tigers, and Pistons.
Reader and writer: A thoughtful reader, and a very talented writer who was a sports editor at the Daily News Journal in Murfreesboro, Tennessee and had an article published in Mother Jones.
Singer and music lover: A member of Backbeat (Northville High School’s 8-voice a cappella group), and a great fan of Dave Matthews, Maggie Rogers, and many other singers and bands.
Cook and gourmand: Loves to cook (his mac and cheese features a near-infinite variety of cheeses), and loves to eat (we have been on many food crawls together).
Jokester and laugher: His great sense of humor allows him to both make people laugh and to be easily cracked up by others (especially me).
Card player and teacher: Skilled at playing euchre and casino with me, and teaches his kids to play Old Maid and Go Fish.
Friend and pet lover: Has stayed close to friends from his basketball teams, high school, college, work, coaching, and other parts of his life (and he introduces them to each other), and stays close to man’s best friend (his dog Jalen).
Nephew and uncle: Stays connected to his aunts (Ann Olszewski, Joan Garfield, Deb (Hayes) Fleming, and Lauren Hayes) and uncles (David Garfield, the late David Olszewski, Michael Luxenberg, Buzz Hayes, and the late Bill Hayes), and loves his nephews (Julian and Noah Kahlscheuer and Tommy and Declan Moran).
Cousin/brother-in-law and brother: treats his cousins (Zach Hayes, Walker Hayes, Ed Olszewski, and Harlan Luxenberg) and brothers-in-law (Matt Kahlscheuer and Tom Moran) like brothers, and is a fabulous big brother to his sisters (Tracy Kahlscheuer and Kathy Garfield).
Husband and father: A devoted husband to Cristi and a doting father to Sommer and Kieran.
Son-in-law and son: A wonderful son-in-law to Gina and Jim Farrell, and a treasured son to Barb and me.
Book Best Bet
Bed and Breakfast by Lois Battle
This is a book I bought from a display table at Barnes & Noble. It is a good one to read at Christmastime.
From Amazon: After her best friend's narrow brush with death, Josie decides that life is too short to let old grievances stand in the way of family togetherness. This year, she resolves, her three grown daughters—the girls she raised so carefully yet with such mixed results—will come home for Christmas. With her uncanny ear for Southern sensibility and her sharp-eyed wit, Battle gives us the perfect upstairs/downstairs comedy and a portrait of a family in all its tender, touching, and flawed glory that readers young and old will cherish.
Full of warmth, humor, and characters I completely adore — as delicious as a weekend at your favorite inn. — Dorothea Benton Frank, New York Times
From Goodreads: Lois Battle combines her rare intuition about Southern life with her own sharp-eyed wit to write her most emotional novel to date. Ten years of family secrets, misunderstandings, and recriminations have kept the Taternall family apart until Josie, a military widow suddenly alerted to her own mortality, impulsively asks her three grown daughters home for the holidays at her gracious South Carolina bed and breakfast.
A literate, witty, and affectionate tale that’s perfect to curl up with at home, or better yet, in a B & B. starred — Kirkus Reviews
Lois Battle (1940-2014) was the New York Times bestselling author of seven novels include Bed and Breakfast, Storyville, War Brides, and A Habit of the Blood. She was a proud resident of Beaufort, South Carolina, where she was known as a beloved champion of the arts.
Restaurant Recommendations
Ethnic Eats
Joya’s 657 High Street, Worthington, Ohio 43085
On our rip to DC last month, we stopped in Columbus, Ohio for a quick lunch with my sister Ann. We walked from Ann’s house to downtown Worthington and carried out from this popular ethnic spot.
Not Pad Thai 🌶️ Fresh rice noodle, char siu pork, fried omelet, wok veggies, charred peanut chili crisp
Viet Pho & Grill 1640 Elton Road, Silver Spring, MD 20903
This Vietnamese diner was in a strip mall right across the street from our hotel in Silver Spring. I stopped for a quick bite before starting my daily one-hour walk.
Banh Mi Op-La: Fried egg, pate, cucumber, cilantro, jalapeño, carrot, daikon, pickles, onions, and mayo.
Marvelous Musician
Dan died on this day in 2007. He is one of my five favorite pop singer/songwriters. I bought Souvenirs in 1974 and listened to the first song "Part of the Plan" over and over. I then bought his first album Home Free (1972) and listened to it while writing papers for my college classes. I subsequently bought and loved Captured Angel (1975), Nether Lands (1977), Twin Sons of Different Mothers (with Tim Weisberg; 1978), Phoenix (1979), and The Innocent Age (1981). When Barb and I planned our first big road trip out west, one of the cassettes I made was a collection of our favorite Dan Fogelberg songs.
From Wikipedia: Daniel Grayling Fogelberg (born August 13, 1951 in Peoria, Illinois; died December 16, 2007 in Deer Isle, Maine) was an American musician, songwriter, composer, and multi-instrumentalist. Dan often related his memory of his father allowing him to "conduct" the school band when he was only four years old. At the time, his father was band director at Bradley University in Peoria.
From Bruce Eder: If James Taylor epitomized the definition and the original, late-'60s incarnation of the term singer/songwriter, Dan Fogelberg exemplified the late-'70s equivalent of that term at its most highly developed and successful, with a string of platinum-selling albums and singles into the early '80s and a long career afterward, interrupted only by a health crisis that led to his untimely death in 2007.
Part of the Plan
There's a Place in the World for a Gambler
Nexus
My Playlist
Sports Star
Jim shares a birthday with Roger, and yesterday he turned exactly twice as old, as he celebrated his 80th birthday. I loved Jim when he was the manager of the Detroit Tigers. The first year he took over, he led them to the World Series, losing to my former favorite team, the St. Louis Cardinals. He combined a gruff, no-nonsense exterior with a sensitive interior, which sometimes resulted in tears shed in emotional moments. I was glad to see him inducted into the Baseball Hall of Fame this year.
From Wikipedia: James Richard Leyland (born December 15, 1944 in Perrysburg, Ohio) is an American former professional baseball player, coach and manager. He serves as a special assistant to the Detroit Tigers of Major League Baseball (MLB).
Leyland led the Florida Marlins to the 1997 World Series championship over the Cleveland Indians, and previously won three straight division titles (1990, 1991, and 1992) with the Pittsburgh Pirates. He is one of eleven managers to lead three different teams to the postseason. With the Tigers' victory in the 2006 American League Championship Series, Leyland became the seventh manager in history to win pennants in both the National and American Leagues.
Leyland is a three-time Manager of the Year Award winner, twice in the National League (1990 and 1992), and once in the American League (2006). He managed the United States national team at the 2017 World Baseball Classic, leading the team to its first gold medal finish.
On May 30, 2017, Leyland was one of eight new inductees announced for the Michigan Sports Hall of Fame in Detroit. The ceremony took place on September 15, 2017. On December 3, 2023, Leyland was elected to the National Baseball Hall of Fame Class of 2024 and was enshrined on July 21, 2024. He was subsequently selected to the Pittsburgh Pirates Hall of Fame in May 2024. Leyland's number 10 was retired by the Tigers on August 3, 2024.
Hall of Fame Speech
Picture Pun
It’s just a flesh wound.
