My kids reallyreally like bananas and I am reallyreally glad about that. As some of you know, we are greeny-greensters, so we grow our own veggie garden, make compost, and buy organic and local. Well, sometimes. If we started to apply the “locally-grown” condition to our food (250-mile radius), what would be have to give…
The Unfinished Basement is Not Worth Examining
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So I’m just emptying the dishwasher this morning and number one son runs out the the kitchen and says: “Mom! I just saw this guy on TV! He says he can finish your basement!” “Oh yeah?” My mind is spinning. I start to do the math. Local news is on. Commercial jingles ring. TiVo has…
The Recurring Potato
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We accidentally have perennial potatoes in our garden. These potatoes are unstoppable. We “planted” these them two seasons ago, on a whim. “Whim” = they had actually started growing from a few rotten potatoes we’d thrown out into the compost pile. Colin said “Hey, look. Potatoes are growing!” and dug ’em out and put them…
Fighting Back Against Planned Obsolescence
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Or, Why you MUST Attend my Electronics Recycling Event this Weekend Or Or, Why You MUST, at least, Start Recycling Electronics SOMEWHERE In the world of electronics, planned obsolescence rules. What makes the iPod (sorry, no iPhone! Ooops what’s that? The IPAD, I mean!) so appealing? Eternal updates, that make it better faster, more capable…
I’m Not Mowing The Lawn…
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… and the reason I’m not is not at all simple. Despite the fact that I drive the heck out of our zippy five-speed manual transmission Mazda, and the fact that I drive our minivan like I need to get the kids to the raceway poddy–NOW! — despite both of THOSE facts, I feel complete…
The Look you are Looking For
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Blogs are NOT what they used to be– which is mostly good. Fine– I’ll get the bad part out of the way quick– I’m typing this post on my iLhjvd (iPhone) which makes fir Manu typkys (many typos) and a cramp in my left hand. The good change is paired with plethora: ie. The abundance…
The Tweet is a Lonely Hunter
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Today ScoutieGirl posed an interesting question about how the internet shapes and changes our creativity. She and I seem to agree that, like all things that are woven to the human form, the Web has the innate ability to remind us that we are alone in the universe. She asked: “as sister diane pointed out…
Life is Too Short to Just Wear Black
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Or, An Ode To Candied Fabrics, Who Is Very Busy Quilting, Yet Commented on my Blog Anyway Everyday, the grass pushes up through the dirt And Everyday We swing the doors of our houses In and out– (My front door is red, chipping red paint With chipping brass fixtures)– And Everyday, we knit our wardrobe…
Experiential Blogger Seeks Single Robot for Poetic Amalgamation
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Or, How to Write a Blog Post that No One Understands and Yet Still Find the Solution to World Peace I love this post from ScoutieGirl about Experiential Blogging so much that I’ve decided to give up my calling as a freelance circus masseur and start only being experiential. Dastardly cruel as it is (yes,…
Boobquake, Milkshakes and Our Diabolical Plan
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As a professor (all right! just an adjunct…) of rhetoric, I can spot and identify logical fallacy when I see one. So did the awesome BlagHag blogger Jen McCreight when a Muslim cleric managed to twist the logic so profoundly of protecting women from their own immodesty that he accidentally predicted that free-moving, free-ranging cellulite…
“It’s All Up in the Air”
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Valerie Weaver-Zercher’s musings on “The Philo-Lilac” (available only in hardcopy… not yet available online) in Orion Magazine this month poses the question I am pondering myself– what’s that emptiness and loss of rejection in the work world– even when it’s something you are pretty sure you don’t want? Previously I blogged about the political in-fighting…
Earth Day, Imagined
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I found that my iPhone’s App Store “What’s Hot” as Green Apps featured today, as part of Earth Day celebration and I am thrilled. Earth Day is 40 years old today, and now it is almost ubiquitous. Everywhere there are thousands of events, so many that it is impossible to even get to all of…
Afraid of what?
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There’ve been long gaps between my posts. I suppose that reflects the long blank spaces in my mind. Almost like broken bridges leaving a traveler stranded at the gorge, staring down the chasm and thinking, “Hmmm well, what now?” I had to explain to a student what “existential” meant the other day. Go ahead, try…
The South End and The North End
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My friend Bonnie wants to know what is wrong with our town. Well, I have an opinion about that. Here it is. The Pieces First, there are a bunch of us liberals that live in one area of town, up North here. We are mostly white, Judeo-Christians, or has-beens like me who jumped ship and…
The Internet Sent Me
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Yes, Karin, I do have 972 blogs. The Internet called me recently and asked if I’d start a blog of haikus for IT guys. I figured, why not? I’m not that busy. Phew… the Internet is a demanding master. When we meetup each day, it’s always asking me to look over here, click this link,…
