Ralph Gardner Jr.

My daughter Lucy tries to create a new adventure for her two-and-a-half-year-old twins, every day. I know.

What was I thinking when I bought a California coast redwood tree online?

I’ve been suffering wardrobe insecurity lately. I’m fine with my old clothes and rarely buy new ones. But my wife recently criticized the way I was dressing for an afternoon art opening.

As much as one might appreciate fall, summer is hard to part with. The heat isn’t always fun but there’s something to be said for walking around with a minimum of clothing.

I have a thing for Wyoming, where I visited last week. If it wasn’t the location of the first hike that I ever took many years ago, it was the first hike that proved that walking long distances over reasonably strenuous terrain need not be a torturous experience.

Eric Wilska said something in passing that I thought profound as he showed me around Shaker Mill Books. “Nobody can throw a book away,” he told me.

The call of a blue jay in the trees isn’t unusual. But the call of a blue jay that was, until recently, a family member, is. “He was released just yesterday,” Sue Geel told me as she led the way into Lucky Rehabilitation Center in Spencertown, NY. She added, “He comes down for snacks.”

Getting a new car was my wife’s idea, not mine. Our old car is virtually brand new. The odometer measures a mere 180,000 miles.

But Fogo de Chao is different, as both my brother and our waiter explained to me. The way it works is that you grab a plate and help yourself to the sprawling salad bar; smoked salmon, Caesar salad, hummus, black bean stew, and fifty other dishes.

Crossing the border leaving and entering the United States is no slam dunk these days, or so news reports would have you believe.