My Insights

My latest thoughts, stories, and  content here.

Satellite view, Chevigny Castle, 11th Century fortification, now a farm

Our Town: Gleason; Our Town, Chevigny

with apologies to Thornton Wilder I am a local history buff, intrigued with the ghosts that had formerly walked the forest trails, roads and streets where I have walked.  Old...
Airlift Memorial, Tempelhof Airport, Berlin, Germany

Birthday in Berlin

Airlift Memorial, Tempelhof Airport, Berlin, Germany On my 77th birthday,  27 October 2024,  Patrice and I traveled from Paris to Berlin for four days. It was disappointing.We should have spent...
Sigint Site, Marienfelde

A Berlin Affair

Long ago, I started a novel, working title, 'Berlin Diary', set it aside, and wrote four others. I will soon take it up. On October 7, 1973, the combined Arab...
Lower Pasture, Fall

Northwoods Wisconsin, 2025

Lower Pasture, Fall MERRILL Wisconsin In April (16-25, 2025), I booked a trip 'home' to Gleason, Wisconsin, because my older sister, Arlene, a resident of Pine Crest, was ill.  It...
LuftBrucke, Berlin Tempelhof

A Berlin Affair

Tempelhof Central Airport, October 1973, a scene A cupola of fog enveloped the square before Tempelhof Central Airport. The Berlin Airlift Memorial disappeared into a translucent roof twenty feet in...
Chevigny Friends

Friends

Anonymous Authors Friends, dear friends,  Berlin friends Friends visited Patrice and I in France last week (June 18-22, 2025). I had met Alexandra, Jill, and Garrit in 1972 (thereabout) when...
Gerald Depardieu

False Friends

Fabienne, A neighbor and health food fanatic, had invited Patrice and me, and some three dozens of her (mostly) French friends to a soiree. Thus, the evening’s language was French....
Book cover: Spirit Falls by Robert E. Townsend.

Spirit Falls by Robert Townsend now free on Kindle Select

Free 15-20 July 2025 Robert Townsend has re-released the first novel, Spirit Falls, of his five-novel series, The Long War. Spirit Falls is free on KDP Select 15-20 July 2025....
My brother-in-law, Chu Lai, RVN, 1968

The Fragility of Truth

In the shadow of a global stand-off, the official narrative of a nation often clashed with the memories of its people. Ideology dictated what was true, and the line between...