Category: Society at Large
Of Time and Family 1: Scranton, Pennsylvania
The headline of The Scranton Times on December 9, 1914 read THIRTEEN MINERS KILLED, Dropped Dynamite Blows Bottom Out of Cage. Actually there was no dynamite. The elevator that carried miners up and down the Tripp Shaft at the Diamond Mine had a rotten floor. Regulations, moreover, allowed only ten passengers and there were thirteen…
Charm City’s War
Since bicentennials are a once-in-a-lifetime experience, my Dear One and I found it impossible to ignore the “Star-Spangled Sailabration” of the War of 1812. That war is one of those conflicts largely ignored in American education. We’re very big on the War for Independence but leapfrog the War of 1812 to get to the…
The New York Times and the Ethics of Eating Meat
The New York Times sponsored a contest: “Defending your Dinner: An Open Contest for Hungry Ethicists.” I’m a sucker for contests, raffles and such, even though I never win. This effort met with predictable results. Because I was curious about when the “winners” might have their essays printed, I poked around on the Internet. Much…
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…
The Remains of the Deer
There is nothing that speaks to the collision of Suburbia and Nature like an encounter with the skeletal remains of deer inside the city limits. March came in like a lamb and the soft air lures us out to wander through patches of sunshine by creek and through woods and fields. Sometimes we find beautiful…
The “F” Word
Why has the “F” word become so indispensable to—dare I make the pun—daily intercourse? As a verb it exudes hostility. As an adverb it displaces countless positive and negative modifiers more explicit, poetic, and expressive. The “F” word seems to be in constant use, in music, film and television, in conversation, and on Facebook. I…
A Meditation on the Midterm Election or Morons that Vote
I cast my ballot yesterday. Today I wonder how anyone could not have voted—especially considering the preponderance of morons on the rolls. Okay, I understand people who hold political views different from mine are not a priori morons. They may be misguided, perhaps a tad narrow in their social attitudes, possibly ill-informed. It is less…
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…
James and the Giant Fall
The subject line of Emily’s e-mail was “James and the Giant Fall.” The funny headline all but trumpeted the reassuring news contained in the note. James is the sixth of my mother’s grandchildren. A gangly, bearded boy, he is a lover of wild places and high elevations. The Giant Fall took place in Utah far…
Who Wants to be a Millionaire?
It’s true enough that everyone wants be a millionaire, and hope, as they say, springs eternal, which is why the Lottery thrives in times of economic despair and why game shows seduce so many of the viewing audience. I myself have stuffed a few tickets in the Christmas stockings. In 2001 I spent enough time…
