If Only

We shouldn’t presume that a group of experts somehow knows what’s best. –Rand Paul, proud U.S. senator Many years ago, the woman who taught me history in high school, who then moved on to teach it at the college level, gave a talk at Western’s Headwaters conference in which she decried anti-intellectualism. One of the […]

An Ill Wind

I have many things on my mind this morning, which is not helping any effort to focus. It may have frozen a few wee hours ago, on July 1. July. You might want to worry about everything you thought would happen only if Hell froze over. It is 2020 after all, the year where things […]

Primarily a Mail-In State

I am voting today, an act that usually cheers me, but feels kind of sad this year. I have a shirt down at work waiting to be adorned with “Voting Matters,” because I believe that with all my being, and I’m still voting, but it’s not with the fanfare that usually accomplishes such an act […]

Working It Through

Yesterday DJ was sort of glad to see me, and sort of not. DJ is one of the owners of my wood shop/makers space, and when I arrived at 2:45, I was the first appearance any member had put in all day. So I think he was glad someone showed up, but my timing was […]

Critical of Thinking

Just so you know, conspiracies are real, and I’m currently in one that doesn’t want me sleeping through the night. Last night, in my carefree Flonase-assisted sleep, the smoke detector went off. For no apparent reason other than to jerk me awake at 3:40. When Facebook first started attracting widespread attention (can you remember back […]

Nothin’ Good

I was working on a post for today when technology failed once again, and now I am at work with plenty of things to do besides blog. So I will tell you instead that along about Wednesday, we had at the house another one of those little power outages the electrical co-op insists don’t exist […]

Mysterious Maladies

Spotty internet service, slow computers . . . the last two days have shaken my limited faith in technology. I understand that nothing in the world is more dreary than listening to old people discussing their endless ailments. But that’s what we’ve got at this house, aging people and pets, and that’s what we’ve got […]

A Place at the (Corporate) Table

Comedian and TV show host Trevor Noah, who is an illegal human being, has of late been focused — like so many of his peers — on the issues of racism. Racism is an issue all of us must address (it’s not just a “black problem”), but Mr. Noah brings a lot of first-hand experience […]

Down on the Farm

My dad was raised on a dairy farm in upstate New York. I don’t know at what point this became the family avocation, but it’s what his father did, and his brother, and presumably still my cousins. But when it comes to me, we are looking at a lot of spilled milk. I think it’s […]

Woodn’t It Be Nice?

I think woodworking could be more hazardous for me than I was expecting. Sure, there’s the nail gun, which in my hands becomes an object of randomness — although at least I haven’t shot anyone with it (yet) as I understand a fellow makers’ space member did inadvertently. But of course I am on my […]