Author Archives: kihm
Holiday Dinners
December 14, 2005 There is perhaps nothing so special as a holiday dinner where a family can gather and create memories that last a lifetime. All my best holiday dinner memories, however, were created by other people’s families. On his first leave from the Air Force, in December of 1968, one of my fellow students […]
Long Nights, Strong Beers
This article was written for Zymurgy in 1987, rewritten for the Syracuse New Times in 1996. * * * Long Nights, Strong Beers: The Holiday Beer Tradition If, as the days grow shorter and the holidays approach, you feel an urge to put a little something extra into your homebrew, you are not alone. Rather, […]
My Golf Story
January 31, 2005 My sophomore year at Syracuse University, fall semester, I signed up for Golf to fulfill my physical education requirement. The first week, we met in the gym, lined up in a long row, and practiced our swings, teeing off on imaginary golf balls. At the end of the class, our instructors took […]
Fun in Clumps
September 5, 2000 Sometimes, fun comes in clumps. A week ago Friday, Laurie and I saw the Incredible Shrinking Violinist, Hilary Hahn, at the high school. Hilary herself did not shrink. She shrank the pianist, a very large man in a white dinner jacket. He hit the first note as an internationally renowned concert pianist, […]
Fruit Beers
This article appeared in the Syracuse New Times, August 20-27, 1997. * * * Imagine for a moment that Adam had shown some backbone. That when Eve advanced and held out the apple, Adam said, “Thank you, but no.” Might not Eve have huddled once more with the serpent and returned saying, “Adam, how about […]
Fried Food
February 25, 2001 Laurie was returning from Virginia and coming home from the airport we decided that neither of us wanted to cook. This was a task best left to the hands of professionals, and we chose the Hilltop. The Hilltop is a part of a compound just outside the Village, just past the tasteful […]
Fragments
This writing comes from fragments, literally, from a file that sat for 20 years, and notebooks that haven’t been opened in a long time. I don’t know what they all mean, but if I put them here, I can throw away the scraps of paper. * * * Paul set the leatherette controls to Full […]
A Fine Line
November 7, 2002 When I wrote a piece about a chain of beer rings that circumnavigated my living room in Monterey in 1969, I felt the need to research both the completion of the first transcontinental railroad in 1869 and Ermal “Ernie” Fraze’s perfection of the pop-top can in 1963. The story was going to […]
Flu and Funerals
July 8, 2007 When I was a young boy, I was fascinated by death. I read a great deal about war, torture, gladiators. Given my bent, I listened raptly to any family stories having to do with death and dying. My mother told me this one: When she was a little girl, an older relative […]
Fashion
April 2001 I took my green tweed sport coat out for a show and dinner on Saturday. It seemed to be the least I could do; we’ve been together now for many years, and I am not sure how many more good times we’re going to be having. My mother bought the green coat for […]
Faithful Readers 