I got into a bad habit a few years ago that I thought I had broken. Over the past several years I have had a dozen or so letters to the editor published by our local city newspaper, usually in response to someone else’s letter to the editor that annoyed the hell out of me. I read the paper on-line, and soon discovered that it is possible to comment on any letter or article immediately, with postings collecting underneath the... Read more
It’s the end of the semester–students are looking for help! Read more
A quick reflection on this past week in New England. Returning from the cafeteria to my office prior to class this morning, I walked past “McPhail’s,” our on-campus pub and eating establishment. Apparently last Saturday a group called “Cactus Gang” played there–the poster describes Cactus Gang as “New England’s Premier Country Band.” One of the great things about living in New England, for me at least, is recognizing the oxymoronic nature of that description. New England and country music are... Read more
On one of my family’s summer western treks, we pulled into a Phillips 66 station to fill up. “What does the 66 stand for?” my dad asked, to which I immediately guessed “the 66 books of the Bible?” “Right,” he said. Although I found out many years later that this is not true, don’t blame my dad for feeding me false information. Many people thought that the number in Phillips 66 came from the books of the Bible, and the... Read more
Please pray for those affected by the tragedy in Boston yesterday. Read more
I went to Minnesota five years ago to begin sabbatical in the middle of January. Throughout the winter, native Minnesotans kept promising that the ice would eventually leave Stumpf Lake and winter would give way to spring, although they didn’t say that when May began most of the tree buds still would be buds. One native added that I would know when it would not snow again when the loons returned to the lake, because the loons never show up... Read more
Still under construction–but growing! Read more
“A foolish consistency is the hobgoblin of little minds,” writes Ralph Waldo Emerson in “Self-Reliance.” I’ve relied on this line many times over the years when needing to provide myself with an out after faced with an inconsistency between two important things I hold to be true. The line is less useful when faced with such inconsistencies in others, since I always enjoy pointing out to students that certain commitments cannot easily coexist, such as being pro-life on the abortion... Read more
During my senior year in high school, I joined a record club for the first time, one of those “buy ten for ten cents, then buy five more at regular price over the next three years” sort of deals. These were vinyl records, of course, LPs that no one seems to know what to do with any more except try to sell them on Ebay or make dishes and ash trays out of them. The albums in our house were... Read more
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