Thanksgiving 2020

Richmond, Virginia
​November 26, 2020

A Thanksgiving gift

I am happy to report that Alison and I, all of our children, all of our parents (save one) and all of my siblings voted for the Biden-Harris ticket. In turn, we did our part in their winning all of the states represented by the extended family (Virginia, Maryland, Pennsylvania, New York, California, Massachusetts and Arizona) except one (Indiana).

I am optimistic that President Biden and Vice President Harris will guide all of our lives toward an improved standing on the world and national stages.

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Our Thanksgiving

Here are some photos from our Thanksgiving. Alison and I headed out to my mom's house in the style and comfort of my dad's convertible. We walked around the lake in her neighborhood, enjoying the glorious weather. Ian and two of his best friends spent the day hiking in Zion National Park, while my sister Rachel and her family celebrated at home. We had two feasts, one in the late afternoon at my mom's house and another in the early evening at Cam and Nancy's house, the first in their new home. We were joined by Nancy's parents and brother, and spent all of our time (save for the meal itself) in the garage, with plenty of air circulation. Alison's dad, pictured last here, spent the day with his son Tony and his family.

Bethlehem

I was supposed to join my sisters Liesl and Rachel at CookieCon in Orlando during the first week of September. Sadly, the convention was canceled because of COVID-19 . So, since we wanted to get together somewhere, we decided to meet in Bethlehem, Pennsylvania. Why Bethlehem? Well, it is exactly half-way between Boston (where Rachel lives) and Richmond (where Liesl and I live). We stayed in a local AirBNB, dined outdoors for all of our meals, shopped in downtown Bethlehem, tried out the local zoo, and visited the Crayola Experience.  All in all, it was a pleasurable four days.

More Pictures

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Carson Trexler

On April 4th of 2020, Carson Trexler was ushered into the world. He is the first child of Emelia (née Le Blanc), Cam's very good childhood friend, and her husband Kareem. He is also the first grandchild for Nancy and Chris Le Blanc, our own good friends. There is no doubt whatsoever that Carson is cute as a darned button.

More Pictures

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From the archive

This picture of my sister Rachel and I was taken on Sunday, September 16, 2001. I remember it distinctly, as it was one week after the tragedy of 9/11 and one week before my brother Andrew died suddenly of an undiagnosed heart condition. Despite the tragedies that bookend this photo, this is a favorite of mine. My sister looks as cute as ever, and I had hair 😎.

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This picture of Cameron and his best friend Michael Zacharias was taken sometime in the late 1990s. The looks on their faces are classic, a distinctly disgruntled Cameron and a happy-go-lucky Michael.

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This picture was taken around 1975. It shows me (obviously, the chubby one on the left) and my grandfather (“Papa”), my mom’s dad. We were playing shuffleboard, possibly at Sunny Oaks, a summer getaway in the Catskills. Shuffleboard was a favorite pastime for Papa, and soon became mine also. I still enjoy playing when circumstances permit.

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Notorious RBG

Alison is one of Ruth Bader Ginsburg's biggest fans. After she died, Alison went on a buying spree, purchasing various RBG t-shirts for all of the women in our extended family. Here's a picture of my sister-in-law Ginger in her t-shirt.

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Random pictures

First, we have Nancy, dressed up for Halloween as the mayor from the TV show Schitt's Creek. You can't  see it here, but she was also sporting an impressive beer belly. Next, we have Ian Johnson, our neighbor in Lexington. He's been coming to our home each morning to have Alison oversee his schoolwork. He's an adorable, funny kid. Next, we have my mom, dressed in her Notre Dame finest, to cheer on the Fighting Irish at a recent football game. Lastly, we have our very good friend Beth. She joined us in Lexington for the day recently, at which time Alison presented her with a quilt she had made for her.

Books

It is rare for me to read a book twice, but I recently re-read The Drunkard's Walk, written by Leonard Mlodinow. I was motivated to re-read it after recently reading Feynman's Rainbow, another book by Mlodinow. 

The book introduces concepts like Heisenberg's uncertainty principle, chaos theory, and probability distributions, and explains in relatively simple terms how as humans we often assign meaning and structure to processes that are inherently random.

Mlodinow uses the stock market as a stereotypical example and explains how past performance of a fund manager provides no guidance whatsoever as to how that manager will perform in the future. To illustrate this point, he presents the two charts reproduced below. In the first one, we see 800 fund managers, ranked by their performance over a five year period. In the second one, we see how those same 800 fund managers performed in the next five years. As you can see, it is completely random -- past performance provides no indication whatsoever of future performance.

Any yet, we continue to put unreasonable faith in our fund managers and expect future performance to reflect past performance.

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Music

Here are three of my favorites of late. First, When the Saints Go Marching In, performed by The Preservation Hall Jazz Band and special guests including Paul McCartney, Elvis Costello and Dave Matthews, among others. McCartney plays an absolutely lousy trumpet, but that's part of the charm of this performance. Second, we have That Girl Is You, performed by Dave Matthews and Preservation Hall. Matthews performs a terrific tune, and is a hoot to boot. Lastly, we have This Train Is Bound For Glory, an infectious rendition of this classic tune by Mumford and Sons and The Old Crow Medicine Show. Check them all out. You won't be disappointed!

Tidbit

From the time our nation was founded until Lincoln's presidency, Thanksgiving was celebrated on different dates, varying from state to state. It often coincided with the celebration of Evacuation Day, celebrating the day that the British left the United States after the end of the Revolutionary War. Eventually, Thanksgiving superseded Evacuation Day. 

In 1863, President Lincoln formalized Thanksgiving across the country as the last Thursday in November. In 1939, President Roosevelt changed the date of celebration to the next to last Thursday in November. Finally, in 1941 he changed it again to the fourth Thursday in November, where it has remained ever since.