Glenn Kubish

Blink! It’s the end of the week as we knew it—gone! But, first, three things from all over the map that left behind tracks of happiness and gratitude.  Listen to the Three Things podcast, episode 122:                         1. Tulips   Before I could fire up my simile machine by asking what those tulips reminded me of, those tulips reminded me of Audrey Hepburn. The tulips were planted by a homeowner on a piece of public boulevard that I pedal by most mornings in Crestwood. They’re lovely. The elegant shape and layering of the petals are matched only by the sophisticated chiffon turbans Givenchy crowned Hepburn with.   I was still pedalling and thinking about the tulips and Hepburn and how Shelagh likes tulips and looks like Hepburn when I got to the 142 Street service road, where there is a house not long for this world. A new owner has bought it. Its long-ago Arbor Day trees in the front yard have been razored...

Bonjour tout le monde! Here are three things that made for some happiness and gratitude last week, not because there’s not a pile of other crap out there, but because there is.   Three Things podcast, episode 77:                          1. Pelicans   They are remarkable looking waterbirds, pelicans are. For the last two summers, every time I pedalled across, I made a point of glancing over the railing at the north end of the Quesnell Bridge to see if they were back. I first saw pelicans down there by the mouth of the storm sewer, where the fishin’ is good, in 2019. It was in June of that year that my binoculared friend Nicola pointed out 10 of them as they soared over the downtown farmers market.  That same summer was the first time I saw them at the outfall. I would stop and watch them from above on the bridge deck while eight lanes of traffic streamed by on Whitemud Drive. They were there the next day, an...

  Happy end of the week, friends. To keep the noticing equipment from disintegrating, here are three things I noticed I noticed that made me feel happy or grateful. (Just a little longer today. It takes Arendt awhile to get to the point.) Episode 75:                                1. Taking readings   Monday morning’s first stop, even before the bathroom, even before coffee, was the mailbox. The New York Times Sunday edition is delivered overnight. One pound of news. I scanned the headlines. In Ukraine, an ‘Endless Caravan of Death’ ... How Gun Makers Harness Fear to Supercharge Sales ... A Key Hurdle for Prosecutors: Proving What Trump Believed . I am slightly consoled by the mere organization of the newspaper—all this havoc made to fit in boxes, all the power and greed’s copy neatly standing in perfect towers of print, left and right justified. If the message were the medium, a newspaper would b...