“The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock”

I've been thinking quite a bit about a poem written over one hundred years ago by the poet T.S. Eliot, "The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock."  Written in 1910, the poem was immediately cast into a new category of poetry called modernism, "a literary movement at the turn of the 20th century that emphasized …

It’s All in a Morning

I have a preference for poetry and short stories over novels and non-fiction.  I read a story a day, and maybe a few poems when I have time. Certainly reading and writing take up the bulk of my days now.  Winter is coming and I know that this will be even more true as the …

Republiturds or Libertards?

A recent comment on a blog: "It's not about what I'm saying about them. It's about what I want to do to them, and that is unprintable." .....putzes, diabolical, dangerous, narcissistic, con artists, a dangerous cult, The Great White Hope, the Great White Hoax, drumpf, T-rump, perverts, sex traffickers, cannibals, democRATS.... "Trumpism as innuendo and …

Heritage Oaks

Three of us stood under trees at the end of a long crumbling asphalt driveway joking and talking about the upcoming election. To our right, a large culvert, filled with water from recent rains punctuated the bottom of green grassy slopes leading upward on either side to distant houses that couldn't have been more different. …

Greta Thunberg: How She Became a Leader of the Global Climate Movement – Rolling Stone

https://www.rollingstone.com/politics/politics-features/greta-thunberg-climate-crisis-cover-965949/ Greta is an amazing young activist who inspires so many of us. You can read more about her here.

Natural Resources as Our Legacy

I don't usually get political on my blog posts, but today I am going to. So if that upsets you, you might want to go back and read a different post. This one is about our environment. Christina Wood, an environmental law professor at the University of Oregon, lives in Eugene, Oregon and is the …

Come On, Team America!

In the 80's a fellow teacher and I put together a multi-disciplinary unit based on Hot Zone, a book by Richard Preston written about an Ebola outbreak. In this true story, monkeys imported from Asia to Reston, Virginia for research purposes were suddenly getting sick. Originally, the monkey handler didn't know what was going on …

Co-existing With Corona Nervosa

Me and Dad Back in the Day It's been said that each generation has its own worldly burdens to bear and finding the entire world grinding to a halt as we confront this unprecedented pandemic is certainly one of ours. We will feel the economic impact of what is happening for months and perhaps years …

A Fifty Mile Trip

Captain Stewart, shame on you! Your greed in selling that salt and those shingles made you venture out, short handed, along a heavily fog encrusted coast in Northern Michigan. With a crew of only three to battle the wintry gale that blew in that Friday evening in early May? Did you not stop to consider …

A Northern Perspective

"Up North" is a land of wizened souls and the courageous .  My people tell tales of great migrations: Indians in canoes, sowing rice in shallow rivers; of Blacks running up from the South seeking freedom; French fur trappers sent by LaSalle, and farmers from all parts of Europe clamoring for fruit growing land. Yes, the …