The Blog of Days

In 1972, a security guard walking a routine beat at the Watergate hotel in Washington D.C., noticed that a door had been rudely jimmied, and tape had been applied to the door jamb in an amateurish fashion. The guard called it in, and police began a search of the offices in the building. They found five men ransacking Democratic National Headquarters and getting ready to plant listening devices. When the men were arraigned, four of them evaded the judge’s question about where

A new college semester is about to get underway, and in addition to the usual composition I learned this lesson early. In my second year of college teaching, I was assigned my first literature class – American lit. I was psyched. I took a New Criticism approach, having students interpret the text through close reading, with the idea that the meaning was contained within the walls of the work. To make matters even better, the class was fantastic: Engaged, open-minded, curious.

While broadening this blog beyond the topic of writing, I don’t want to get into politics. I’m of the opinion that there is too much bloviating on that topic and it doesn’t need whatever hot air I could add to it. However, the President’s recent speech on his plan to use Executive Orders to put some gun regulations in place is a topic that is too near and dear to my heart to avoid. I grew up in a hunting culture in Western Pennsylvania. It wasn’t until I moved east that I rea

Time is a fascinating measurement. Leaving aside the physics/metaphysics argument of whether or not time actually exists, the time of day or year governs how we relate to the world. I’m not talking about the regulation of our days – time to rise, get to work, take a break, etc. I’m more fascinated with time as an imprint that causes us to reflexively do certain things. Take this time for instance: The New Year. It starts usually in mid-December when the media begins to slowly