Random Selections from the Blog
Click here for another random selectionWWI: Belle Skinner’s Passion
The visitor’s guide to Hattonchâtel opens with a discussion of geology established 150 million years ago as rivers cut down through soft strata leaving limestone bluffs to tower over the plain, a perfect natural fortification and a position that provides gorgeous views to each of the compass points. Its “modern” history dates to the ninth…
Ode to Joy
Monday was my third guitar lesson and the JazzMan, my teacher, introduced me to the third string and the notes G and A. The first week I had three notes: E, F and G. My assignment was an exercise that familiarized me with those notes, up and down and changing back and forth. I had…
An English Wedding 9: A Parking Tale
Do you know what happens if you are a little late returning to the car you left in the car park just below Windsor Castle? The warden boots your car–locks on a wheel clamp–and charges you 120£ (125£ if you use a charge card instead of a debit card or cash) to remove it. The…
Crocheted Colors and Knotted Lives
The effect is not quite as I wanted. Pam’s bridal bouquet included flowers that shone like molten gold in the Texas sun. The stripes I hook are wine-red, heather-ish green, coral, eggshell and black. The colors are close enough, though. The blanket is for the baby, a first child, who is due somewhere around February….
It’s Not Over Until It’s Over
No effort to accommodate an individual student goes unpunished. It’s true. A student when informed that the midterm will be on the first day back from Spring Break says that she will not be back from Switzerland yet. When a time for a make-up exam is scheduled, her return is twice delayed by airline strikes….
Texas and the Terrible Waste of Minds
As Michael Birnbaum writes in today’s Washington Post, “The Texas state school board gave final approval Friday to controversial social studies standards that minimize the separation of church and state and say that America is not a democracy but a ‘constitutional republic’.” Cynthia Dunbar (Republican) explained the new premise on which Texas will build its…
Florida Shivers
It’s only hours until we depart Florida and we’ll be as cold when we leave as we will be when we get home. Not to complain, of course. We came here to have a week of comparative warmth and that it what we got. It was much worse in Maryland. How cold is it in…
It’s a Lovely Day to be a Little Groundhog
My parents apparently intended to name me “Maggie,” but settled on “John” when they became convinced I would be a boy; my mother, in a postnatal stupor, responded to a badgering nurse that my name was “Ellen” and that’s what stuck. They still like the name Maggie, though, and went out and bought a toy…
Let It Snow, Let It Snow…
I got so excited I just had to post of Facebook: “It’s snowing!!!! It’s Christmas Eve and it’s snowing!!!!!” Yes, way too many exclamation marks. I remember one year quite some time ago, I think probably 1965 or 1966. We were at the grandparents’ home, 161 Main Street in Hingham, Massachusetts, and it was Christmas…
Procreation, Politics and Power or What I Learned in High School that I Need to Know in this Election Year
A few years back I found myself on camera with Regis Philbin on the quiz show “Who Wants to be a Millionaire.” A few days prior to that encounter, a factoid learned when I was sixteen drifted into my brain during a trivia-cramming-induced stupor. The information that floated back concerned the 19th century Englishman Thomas…
