Blog - Page 3 of 80 - Mark Rubin

Summer Travel 2019

June 18, 2019

Summer Travel 2019

Mark Rubin

Summer Travel 2019 involves family. We spent last Wednesday through Sunday in New York and Connecticut, for family Bat Mitzvah and high school graduation celebrations. Mid-July will have us in Rochester New York for my daughter’s wedding party. (A scheduling snafu had us in Rochester for 2+ extra days. Easy solution? Two-plus extra days in Lower Manhattan, after the party.)

New York City

LB and I had not been to NYC together before. She’s had NYC addresses, and I’ve been a many-times visitor. Together, we had a fine time. One hour from landing at LaGuardia to arriving at our place at 75th St. on the West Side. OK dinner at Jacobs’s Pickles. (Best ever greens

Food, The Rest of Everything

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Congress … Oy Vez

June 4, 2019

Mark Rubin

Congress … Oy Vez

Mark Rubin

I wrote FUBarr the other day. I focused on how Special Counsel Robert Mueller explained his treatment of the obstruction of justice issue, given that he could not indict President Donald Trump, and did not have facts which allowed him to clear the president. As well, I took out after Attorney General William Barr and a columnist, on account of their blatant mendaciousness.

One of the smartest people I know, B.A., commented on the post. She noted the “regular person’s” frustration with the nuance, while also observing that Russian interference with the election ought to be mattering more, to President Trump and everyone else.

B.A. nailed it, but I want to go farther. Too,

Donald J. Trump

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FUBarr

May 31, 2019

Mark Rubin

FUBarr

Attorney General William Barr

FUBarr as a title? Facebook applies certain standards. The F-word? Bad. False representations of the U.S. Speaker of the House of Representatives? Nothing to see here; move along.

Thank you, Attorney General William Barr and National Review Poo-Bah Rich Lowry for dragging me back into the fray. Y’all deserve no respect from me or anyone else, as you are mendacious, despicable creatures. But, you can “angry up the blood.”

Critiquing Special Counsel Robert Mueller

General Barr tells us Special Counsel Robert Mueller “could’ve reached a decision” on the alleged obstruction of justice issues. And Rich Lowry wrote:

Mr. Mueller ditched the presumption of innocence, a bedrock of the American legal system.

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See Your Dermatologist

May 28, 2019

Mark Rubin

See Your Dermatologist

Mark Rubin

I fell off the “every six-months dermatology appointments schedule” in the spring of 2018. My dermatologist and I can’t figure out what happened. Regardless, she and I did not meet up for about 18 months.

I’d been a faithful patient for years. I’ve lived in Tucson since 1961, spent my formative summers burning and peeling in pools and on tennis courts, and I have had at least a half-dozen dysplastic nevi removed. ‘Tis a race, between me and the melanoma, and this month I almost lost the race.

I get an annual physical. Lots of old-fashioned stuff like touching toes. Can’t. The reflex hammer. I wish I knew good from bad, when it comes

dermatologist, melanoma

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Memorial Day 2019

May 26, 2019

Mark Rubin

Memorial Day 2019

Mark Rubin

Sunday dinner on Memorial Day 2019 weekend. I arrived moments after the dog walker pulled up. “Can you walk Max, along with Reily?” “Sure,” says she. (It’s the best $5.00 a week I spend.)

I found Irwin weeping, just as Alison Krauss started singing Amazing Grace, fiddle in hand, on PBS. (Irwin’s not a PBS guy, but the traditional networks don’t do right by Memorial Day or Independence Day.) We stood together, through the song, the introductions of the Joint Chiefs of Staff—Irwin the R noted “Make Trump listen to you,” with nary a prompt from me—and the service songs, newest to oldest. Army last, and my pretty soon to be 93-year-old stepdad Army

memorial day 2019

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Free Rolltop Desk

May 7, 2019

Mark Rubin

Free Rolltop Desk

Rolltop Desk

The desk. It nags at me like a millstone around my neck. Huge—72” x 36”—and non-functional, except as a beautiful exemplar of a bygone era, and as a repository for anything and everything which can end up on a table or in large drawer.

The desk came my way in 1980, as an early law school graduation gift. My mom, early on in her interior design career, found the desk for a close friend / client who became a gentleman rancher in his early 40s. MG loved the desk! My mom did too and got MG to promise her he’d sell it back to her before he’d part with it.

Skip ahead a couple /

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Godwin’s Law, and Taking Offense

May 6, 2019

Mark Rubin

Godwin’s Law, and Taking Offense

Mark Rubin

A friend Facebook-posted a litany of informational fragments which equate Hitler to Liberals circa 2019. You’ve seen these things: prepackaged “projectiles” which have as their sole purpose provocation.

Usually, I ignore this crap. In particular, I try to leave my friend’s nonsense alone, for he’s a good soul gone wrong when it comes to politics. But, there’s Godwin’s Law! Attributed to Mike Godwin, it holds that “as an online discussion grows longer, the probability of a comparison involving Nazis or Hitler approaches 1.” Here, the discussion started with Hitler.

So, with trepidation, I responded: “Not guessing you can possibly understand just how offensive your post is.” Not my finest moment, and maybe

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My Sunday Nights

May 1, 2019

Mark Rubin

My Sunday Nights

Mark Rubin

In February 2016 my mom spent several days and nights in the hospital. She’d had a major abdominal insult in 2002. Then, no one expected her to live through the night; we certainly didn’t think she’d be alive and thriving in early 2016.

When the hospital said, “Go home,” the doctor said, “You really need to focus on what you eat.” Lean proteins. Fresh vegetables. No more chazzerai. In English? No more junk food.

I couldn’t do an everyday cooking thing, but I could carve out Sunday nights for my mom and her BFF / LOML Irwin. And I did! Without fail, just about.

Something grilled. Veggies. And roasted potatoes. Max joined me, too.

Food, The Rest of Everything

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The Mueller Report

April 20, 2019

Mark Rubin

The Mueller Report

President Donald Trump

Have you read the Report On The Investigation Into Russian Interference In The 2016 Election aka The Mueller Report? Not me, completely, but I’ve read some key parts, and plenty of commentary from people who have read the whole thing. More than enough to make my points.

The Mueller Report – that’s what I’m calling it, official title be damned – represents the product of what Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein directed Mr. Mueller to do when he appointed him on May 17, 2017. The primary charge? Determine whether there were “any links and/or coordination between the Russian government and individuals associated with the campaign of President Donald J. Trump.” The conclusion? Both

Donald J. Trump, Robert Mueller

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(More) Complete Estate Planning

April 3, 2019

Mark Rubin

(More) Complete Estate Planning

Mark Rubin

Four years ago I wrote Complete Estate Planning. I focused on some of what needs to be done, over and above having a lawyer prepare a fancy-dancy set of documents. Now, I’m back with fresh thoughts on the nuts and bolts of truly planning for what happens when you’re gone.

We learn from our experiences and our errors. The past can help us avoid bad outcomes.

Older people often have annuities or life insurance. These products can serve useful purposes although, in too many cases, annuities purchased later in life offer more benefits for the selling agent than the purchaser. That issue aside, we see plenty of situations in which the policy owner

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