Like a Lycopod

Like a Lycopod

by | Jan 7, 2015 | Blogs, News, Talk Dirt to Me

This winter we haven’t gotten enough snow. “Enough” is what allows for cross-country skiing. Even in New Hampshire, where I spent part of the holidays, the snow cover was patchy or absent. We passed a wet hour tubing at a ski resort. The wet snow and underinflated...

Why I'd Rather Be Farming

by | Nov 15, 2010 | The Public Humanist

Each spring right after my garden beds thaw, little green spears of garlic poke through the leaf mulch. The warmth awakens my compost and the smell begins to draw the neighbors’ ire. I love it: to me it’s the smell of sedition. By producing some of my food...

Re-imagining a liberal art: science

by | Jan 7, 2011 | The Public Humanist

Although the plight of the humanities occupies the ever fretful academy, the sciences also face a dilemma. Are the sciences just technical training, or are they intended to broaden students intellectual horizons? In my experience, current practice in most...

Reader's Companion

by | May 23, 2011 | The Public Humanist

re-reading with electronic bi-focals Unlike most years, II made resolution this January: I’m re-reading some of the many books that have meant something to me over my not quite four decades of reading. As I do this I learn something about the person I used to be...

Music in Middlemarch

by | Aug 30, 2011 | The Public Humanist

As I mentioned in this forum a few months ago, I have been re-reading books this year (https://valleyadvocate.com/blogs/home.cfm?aid=13576). In particular, I have been revisiting and enjoying some favorites from the eighteenth and nineteenth century.George...