Quiet resistance

Air temperature 4 F, wind near calm, partly cloudy with dog walkers. An assortment of minor irritating chores awaits. May suit up for a neighborhood slog later. Winter is here.

A receding tide

Was killing time yesterday and stopped over at the local mall to get in a snow-free hike. Time was, we wouldn't want to go within a couple of miles of the place between Thanksgiving and Xmas. Now I can park right outside of an entry and I think there may have been as many mall-walkers as there were shoppers. They still have big-box anchors at three ends of the hike, but the interior is at least half empty storefronts and some of the occupied space is periodic use like a church and a couple of semi-pro theater companies . . . .

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"You cannot qualify war in harsher terms than I will. War is cruelty, and you cannot refine it; and those who brought war into our Country deserve all the curses and maledictions a people can pour out."

W. T. Sherman 1864

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Extraordinary Popular Delusions and the Madness of Crowds