For the last few years, I have been providing a list of the year’s most popular blog posts. People seem to enjoy that, so here is the list for 2025. The list sorted by 2025 rank. Some posts from previous years were still popular enough in 2025 to make the list, and I have noted those cases.  To read the blog post, just click on the title.

#1: Politics and age: how do we compare with neighboring CCRCs? This post from May compares our average age and political registration with the other 13 members of the CCRC Area Council. Kendal is somewhat younger and has far higher Democratic registration than average. This post was popular among KCC residents and, to a lesser extent, among residents of other Council CCRCs.

#2: Is your floor too cold, but your ceiling is too hot? You have a stratification problem—and you’re not alone. This report, from back in 2021, is based on a study that used equipment devised by Charles Robertson to show that temperature stratification is a problem in some of our cottages, and that it can be solved relatively easily. This post continues to be the all-time #1 most popular post, and Google Analytics tells me it is read by thousands of people from around the world. People everywhere have this problem, and it seems that a straightforward explanation is helpful to many of them.  

#3: The improbable business success of NanoDrop. This post, describing how Charles Robertson’s clever invention became the basis for a hugely successful scientific instrument company, was another example of an article that was widely read beyond Kendal.

#4 & #5: My choices to replace Trader Joe’s “Bay Blend” coffee beans (2023) and What happened to Trader Joe’s Bay Blend coffee? (2022) describe my effort to find a substitute for a favorite type of coffee bean. Most of the readers are not Kendal people. Those beans haven’t been carried by Trader Joe’s for years, so it’s not clear why there is still strong interest in these posts.

#6: Strategic planning: the starting point, and the input residents are asked to provide This post is my take on the initial presentation for residents on the process leading to a strategic plan for KCC. We expect to see the resulting strategic plan within the next few months, and it will be interesting to see how many of the questions proposed in this blog post are addressed in the actual plan.

#7:  The problem with our heat pump thermostats—and possible solutions This blog post builds on work done by Crosslands resident Ben James to understand why our heat pumps are not saving the amount of electricity they should be. Since it was written, many of the Crosslands thermostats have been upgraded for better performance by Ben’s team of resident volunteers, and the same process will soon start at Kendal.

#8: Two retirement communities compared: Kendal and Waverly Heights Waverly Heights is a member of the CCRC Area Council, of which Kendal and Crosslands are also members. Waverly Heights is arguably much more upscale (and certainly more expensive) than Kendal and Crosslands. This blog post explores the differences.

#9: The results of resident brainstorming: a list of ideas for KCC’s strategic plan This post lists the major items that came out of the extensive resident brainstorming sessions concerning the content of the forthcoming strategic plan. Most of the ideas listed here are probably much too specific to include in the actual strategic plan, but many (most?) of them will likely fall into the general parameters that the plan will outline.   

#10: Here’s how Trump got elected: a remarkable book and an extraordinary article. This post, from last January, reviews a book and an article: Patrick Rufini’s “Party of the People: Inside the Multiracial Populist Coalition Remaking the GOP” and Stephanie McCrummen’s Atlantic article “The Army of God Comes Out of the Shadows”. Rufini, a Republican pollster, wrote his prescient book a year ahead of the election (when it seemed everyone was discounting Trump) and showed how the forces were in place for a Trump win. McCrummen wrote about the way a little-noticed but powerful and fast-growing Christian group, called the “New Apostolic Reformation”, played a key role in Trump’s win.

Briefly, here are the next 10:

#11: Kendal and Crosslands: topography and its unanticipated consequences How terrain affects community.

#12: Strategic planning: the opportunity for resident input Residents were invited to brainstorming sessions.

#13: Is Randy Newman the greatest popular songwriter of the last 50 years? I think Newman deserves more recognition.

#14: Retirement community terms and contracts, explained More than you wanted to know about “active adult communities”, “CCRCs”, “Type A contracts”, etc.

#15: Resident Voices Speak to KCC’s Future: A Story of Collaboration Betty Warner describes the remarkable story of how large numbers of residents got their chance to provide input on the strategic planning process.

#16: Let’s get together to combat the chaos in our country Announcement of the meeting that led to the creation of the We the People organization (and ultimately Forward Together).

#17: Three perspectives on how to bridge the divide in this country Three book reviews: I Never Thought of It That Way, by Monica Guzman; How to Think, by Alan Jacobs; and Beyond the Politics of Contempt by Douglass Teschner, Beth Malow, and Becky Robinson.

#18: 10 Steps Toward a Humane, Functioning Civil Society Clem Dinsmore’s recipe for fixing what’s wrong with the US.

#19: At Kendal-Crosslands, we move in younger than at most CCRCs. How voter registration data shows that KCC residents average around 78 at move-in (vs. the national average of 81).

#20: The short history of “We the People” at Kendal The short, but important, history of the We the People organization, from its start in February to its merger with Way Forward in April, to form Forward Together.