I felt an upwelling of nostalgia for dear River Falls when 21 inches of snow fell on the Washington D.C. area the night before our church choir (I sing bass) was scheduled to put on its big Christmas-season concert―“Amahl and the Night Visitors.” The church was incapable of plowing its parking lot, streets were impassable, the snow stopped everything in town except the esteemed members of Congress―I almost said “those idiots”―who were still mucking around with the health bill. So I longed affectionately for the old fellows who faithfully and competently plow the state highway, then the county roads, then finally the tertiary roads in Pierce County. In 1966 we were renting a farm house on a back road outside R.F., and when the old guy finally came chugging up my driveway with his snowplow I gestured through my kitchen window―coffee percolator in one hand, bottle of whiskey in the other hand. He waved, shook his head, and chugged on. Nothing like that in D.C.

Why are Ronnie and I now on the 17th floor of a retirement community in Arlington? Because our children decreed that we have to be close to one of them―we NEED SUPERVISION, they say. So we go where our son Paul and his family go. Last year he was Senior Re-search Scholar at Stanford, this year he’s Assistant Secretary of Defense and right now he’s sending aid to Haiti.

I haven’t quite mastered the intricacies of of tweeting at people, squawking, or nudging people on the internet. But I’ve finally figured out e-mail. I’d love to hear from anybody UWRF-ish at cnstockton@sbcglobal.net.

In addition to the "crooked politicians from Illinois" talk I gave on election day. I shall be presenting, at Glenwood Inn and Little House Senior Center, a talk titled "So Who Else Discovered America?" with honorable mention of the Celtic ogham inscription at Perot State Park (upstream from La Crosse) and dishonorable mention of the the Kensington, Minnesota, rune stone.

We're fine, although not delighted with being Glenwood Inn Inn-mates.  What have I been doing that might amuse RFers?

Just finished giving a six-class once-a week course, "Great Religions of the World," repeating it first here and then at the Little House senior center.

Next Lincoln's Birthday I'm scheduled to give at the Little House a talk, "Abraham Lincoln: An Illinois Perspective." My great-great-uncle, Judge James H. Matheny (aka "Colonel Jim,") was a close friend of Lincoln between the time that Lincoln arrived in Springfield in 1837 and L's marriage. After Lincoln's shocking and tragic death, biographers converged on "Colonel Jim" for details about Lincoln's life and opinions. Jolly, eloquent, and verbose, "Colonel Jim" told them about Lincoln's chronic depression, his love of Burns, Byron and Shakespeare, his views on religion (which locals called "infidel" and which Lincoln afterwards cleverly hid), his odd marriage (the first time, Lincoln didn't show up for the wedding; while everybody waited, Lincoln was having a nervous breakdown), etc. One wonders how much of what he told the biographers was bare-faced bull-#!*!?

"Noble" says that on retiring in 1989 he moved back to California, abandoned serious philosophical and historical work, and never looked back. His more frivolous activities have included leading art deco architectural tours in downtown Los Angeles, cataloging old pictures at Los Angeles Public Library (he's so old he recognized where they were taken from), writing a guidebook of Victorian architecture in Pacific Grove, CA for a state historic preservation group and organizing their tour, serving on the editorial committee and as book review editor for the quarterly published by the Monterey History and Art Assn.--and he has attained the dubious immortality of the Monterey Public Library's book catalog with his index of documents in a valuable collection at a small private historical library in Monterey.

Since Noble's and Ronnie's very recent move to Menlo Park, half an hour south of San Francisco (to be near their son Paul, research prof at Stanford, and his family), he's enjoying concerts and art exhibitions, unpacking boxes and reading middle-brow 19th century novels. He invites correspondence at cnstockton@sbcglobal.net.