Greetings from Batman,
Just before our daughter was born I was getting my teeth cleaned, and I mentioned to the hygienist that my wife and I were about to have a baby. She said, “You mean a grandbaby?” I said, “No, a baby.” She said,“Oh you're getting a puppy!”
Well, who can blame her?
I can't wait till I can take her to baby daycare. I already feel like Jack Nicholson’s Joker character in the first Batman movie:
“Wait’ll they get a load of me!”
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Contents of This Newsletter
1. Bon Voyage to Little Dexter
2. Newest series of my stories at Substack: Race
3. Ireland 2028 (briefly)
4. Song of the Month: Saving It Up for Winter
5. Wisdom for dark times from Chris Rock & Groucho Marx
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1. Bon Voyage, Dexter…
Just after we welcomed our daughter into the world we had to say goodbye to an old family member: our little mutt Dexter. He weighed 10 pounds but thought he weighed 100. He terrorized the neighborhood, his bark hastened my hearing loss, and God knows how many times he bit me.
Damn, we loved him.
2. Four new stories
Since my last newsletter I've added four new stories to Substack. The first story is a very short one about a time I was introduced to Dolly Parton.
A new series on Race follows Dolly.
—Race, Part One: What we talk about when we can’t talk about it
—Race, Part Two: Ghosts in the family tree
—Race, Part Three: Is it true what they say about Dixie?
(This will be a six part series, one story posted around every week.)
To read any/all of my stories, visit my Substack home page:
tomkimmel222395.substack.com
Note: To read without subscribing, just click on No Thanks, and you’re in. With a free subscription you’ll get each new story emailed to you. There’s a optional paid subscription too. No pressure ever to subscribe. I just hope you’ll enjoy them.
photo: Hanaan Dove
3. Ireland 2028
My 2027 summer tour is sold out, but we’ll start taking reservations for 2028 in February.
Dates: Sunday, April 30–Tuesday, May 9, 2028
Where: Counties Cork, Kerry & Clare
For all the info: Visit my Ireland webpage:
https://tomkimmel.com/ireland
4. Song of the Month—a new one: Saving It Up for Winter
Last year I spent some time at a writing retreat in Sweden, and I really enjoyed writing this one with Norwegian artist Monzie Blue.
This track is a vocal/guitar work tape I recorded for her to show her band.
To listen, download and share—all for free—visit my website at www.tomkimmel.com and scroll down the page. You’ll see it.
Please, however, don’t post to social media or add to YouTube etc.
And to visit Monzie Blue’s website and listen to her music:
https://monzieblue.com/home
4. Wisdom for this scary, crazy-making time
“What I want to know is, if y’all are losing, who’s winning?”
—Chris Rock (b. 1965), comedian & filmmaker
photo: Colleen Sturtevan
“If you don't like my principles, I have others.”
—Groucho Marx (1890–1977), comedian & filmmaker
photo: Public Domain
Till next month, Maximum Peace, Love, and Understanding,
TK
PS Thanks always to the folks at Elixir Strings for keeping me playing the world's best strings for 30 years.