May 22nd, 2010 | Education, General, Society at Large
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...
May 17th, 2010 | General, the world and Mother Nature
Heavens, but the bluebirds are dumb. We love our little azure bits of bliss, and go to great lengths to provide them with their favorite flavors of suet. They flutter berylline around the feeders, uncertain how to cling and unwilling to reach through the mesh to the...
May 13th, 2010 | Education, General
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...
March 13th, 2010 | Cooking, Kitchen and Table, General
Yesterday’s moisting turned into today’s steady downpour—a good thing as I need to correct essays and grade quizzes. In the woods, a muddy stream undulates through the woods, hanging a sharp left to pass under the fallen tree that provided deer shelter during the...
February 20th, 2010 | Cooking, Kitchen and Table, General
My Dear One decided to bake. I noticed because there were a couple of plastic buckets left over from some construction job in the oven—a sure sign of yeast at work. For whatever reason—cabin fever, a short supply of good rye bread in the freezer, the sudden urge to...
February 17th, 2010 | General
The four-dozen roses bought from the expensive on-line purveyor arrived promptly on Thursday, February 4 as promised. They were quickly extracted with their sweet attar from the protective packaging and ice packs; there was a small amount of extra greenery; the red...
