Unhappy the land that is in need of heroes. ~Bertolt Brecht We all know that television heroes aren’t the real deal. But when I was a kid, there were many characters who–at least on screen–represented the best in human behavior. This post is a salute to a few of my favorites. Yes, in my unplugged […]
Television Heroes from the ’50s & ’60s Read More »
“…to Junior’s mind, there had always been cicadas. But sometime, long before he could remember, he’d been on his father’s hip, looking up into a tree at a cicada for the first time—for the very first time; that buzzing saw had always been there, but to know where it came from—to see the frantic flutter
Cicadas — Menace or Manna? Read More »
From garden to jar, canning is a celebration of nature’s gifts. ~ Unknown Back in the 70s, I would do a little canning every summer, but it was almost always tomatoes, and the process was a choice, not a necessity. The situation was entirely different for my grandmothers, who were born more than seventy years
A Fading Practice – Home Canning Read More »
Shallow men believe in luck or in circumstance. Strong men believe in cause and effect. ~ Ralph Waldo Emerson Put more succinctly by my brother, “You make your own luck.” All that said, I wouldn’t say that people who believe in luck are shallow. However, I do think that whether someone is encountering good fortune or
What’s Luck Got To Do With It? Read More »
There is a great deal of ambiguity in Merriam-Webster’s definition of the word reckless: marked by lack of property caution: careless of consequences. What I would consider a lack of caution, others might view as appropriate for the circumstances, as demonstrated in a previous blog post. In most scenarios, it’s a talking point, but when
Reckless enough to get noticed? It Depends. Read More »
Build good fences, make good friends, and keep your laundry indoors. ~ A.J. Hackwith, The Library of the Unwritten All good advice, though some might argue with the laundry bit. In any case, this post primarily focuses on fences, which humans have been building for much longer than you might think, and for reasons that transcend cultural
Fences – A Bit of Etymology, A Modicum History Read More »
Sculpture is something you bump into when you back up to look at a painting. ~Adolph “Ad” Reinhardt Guilty as charged. Bucolic scenes such as the Hudson River School paintings draw me in like flies to honey. I admit I haven’t always granted sculpture the respect it is owed. I have given it thought lately,
Sculpture – Creating the Essence of the Wild Read More »
You should write because you love the shape of stories and sentences and the creation of different words on a page. Writing comes from reading, and reading is the finest teacher of how to write. ~Annie Proulx It isn’t just the shape of stories that I love. It’s the shape of the letters. When the
Does it Matter How You Write It? Read More »
To me, there is nothing more soothing than the song of a mosquito that can’t get through the mesh to bite you. Madison Smartt Bell Spring has sprung and summer will be here before we know it. With the heat’s arrival, we will also hear more birds and more buzzing. Some of those buzzes are
That Bites! But Does It Bite You More Than Me? Read More »
The first scone is what I like to call the practice scone. It not until the third -nay fourth- that you develop any kind of scone-eating expertise. ~ Jennifer Lynn Barnes I have enjoyed scones many times, and while I don’t think I could consume four at one sitting, I wish I could. American Biscuits are
Scones – Better Than Sliced Bread Read More »
What you see and what you hear depends a great deal on where you are standing. It also depends on what sort of person you are. ~ C.S. Lewis, The Magician’s Nephew I have observed that people of equal intelligence do not necessarily arrive at the same conclusions when given identical data. Yes, this was mentioned
Perception and Physiology Read More »
For my grandmother’s generation, the big invention was cake mix; for our moms, it was the microwave, and for me, it’s the iPhone. And that’s enabled us to do so many different things more efficiently at home. ~ Brit Morin A few weeks back, my brother suggested microwave ovens as a topic. This sounded good
Microwave Ovens – Blessing or Curse? Read More »
We receive our inheritance the day we learn a skill from a parent. How we use that skill will determine how far we go! ~Andrew-Knox B Kaniki Most of us have likely compared our physical characteristics to family members to determine where we got the shape of our eyes or the length of our fingers.
Your Inheritance – What’s in it for You? Read More »
Smiling, he smuggled me an extra-tender ear of buttery sweet corn, which I gnawed to cob in three seconds. Aware I no longer ate human. Rather like a homeless dog. ~ Robert Newton Peck, Cowboy Ghost I can relate. I do love corn on the cob, slathered in butter, lightly salted, heavily peppered. Makes my mouth water
For the Love of Corn – Food and Fuel Read More »
In the argot of the cycle world, the Harley is a “hog,” and the outlaw bike is a “chopped hog.” ~Hunter S. Thompson I always thought that Harleys were called “hogs” because compared to other motorcycles, they used a lot of gas. While I’ve seen alternate stories, that isn’t one of them. Here are two
The Origin and Naming of Hogs – Harley Davidson Read More »
Why should I stretch? Does a cheetah stretch before it chases its prey? ~ Ken Griffey, Jr. I’d argue that Mr. Griffey, fast as he was, wasn’t built the same way as the fastest land creature on earth. While humans win at endurance against any other land animal, even Usain Bolt could not beat a
This Will Be A Fast One – About Cheetahs Read More »
The viewer watching the view is also being watched by the view! So every viewer is also a view and every view, a viewer! ~ Mehmet Murat ildan Back in 2022 I tackled an awareness topic, but the focus of What Do You See, Really? was primarily protecting your bubble. For example, be sure to determine
Watch yourself–and Everything Else Read More »
The family farm is the foundation for who we are as a Commonwealth. And for over a century, the family farm in Kentucky has centered around one crop: tobacco. ~Jim Bunning Even if the biggest garden you ever tended was the size of a postage stamp and you only grew tomatoes, you know how much labor
Tobacco & a Different Kind of War Read More »
When I heard about Humpty Dumpty I wondered did he fall or was he pushed? ~ P.D. James It’s a fair question, as we’ll see in a few paragraphs. But before we get to the Stephen King block, here’s a traditional rhyme that’s one of my favorites. Content in brackets provides contemporary adjectives to replace those
Rhymes – Monday’s Child and Others Read More »
It is a narrow mind which cannot look at a subject from various points of view. ~ George Eliot, Middlemarch It has been my experience that when a friend tells me a story, I tend to adopt her–or his–perspective. Whoever was the “bad” guy in the story continues to be the villain in my mind, too.
Looking the Other Way – Perspective Read More »
Caramelization is the sweet dance of sugar under heat, transforming from crystalline to a rich, golden elixir, a testament to the delicate balance between time and temperature. ~Unknown I’ve never made caramel candy myself, but I do confess that I love caramel far more than the ubiquitous chocolate. As I was treating myself to a
Sweet & Salty – Caramel Read More »
Our ancestors are totally essential to our every waking moment, although most of us don’t even have the faintest idea about their lives, their trials, their hardships or challenges. ~Annie Lennox I’m not sure what Ms. Lennox meant by “essential to our every waking moment,” but she is absolutely correct that we don’t know much
Ancestors. The struggle is real. Read More »
Overthinking is the art of creating problems that weren’t even there. ~Anonymous That was certainly not the case in my high school English class. Not for me; not one of my teachers ever accused me of overthinking anything. That, and I was always dead last when it came to figuring out the hidden meanings in
When is a story just a story? Read More »
You’ve done it before and you can do it now. See the positive possibilities. Redirect the substantial energy of your frustration and turn it into positive, effective, unstoppable determination. ~Ralph Marston With all due respect to Mr. Marston, determination takes you only so far. And, no, I’m not talking about the try, try, try again
Done and Not done (Yet) Read More »