Ah. Memories of Florida. Building Collapses in Miami on June 24, 2021 After a lifetime of watching movies about the romance of living next to the ocean, I once spent 2 years in Florida. My memories of Florida are somewhat different than those of Johnnie Mathis. It was more like living in a front load washer than a romantic walk alone on a pristine beach silent except for the soft […]
In the early twentieth century, education was believed to be the best way to ensure a democratic society. Protecting a democratic society, even one controlled by the majority, requires an education policy that ensures access to the information and critical thinking skills sufficient to understand how to participate intelligently in local and national government and civic affairs. The freedom to choose is limited by the ability to understand. Similarly, we […]
My grandmother’s house was a white frame cottage, very neat and tidy, on the corner of two unpaved roads and with an outhouse in the backyard next to an apple tree. A rusted barrel was used to burn trash. The neighborhood smelled of burning coal all winter. To the west were acres of cornfields; to the east a block of 12 identical houses, six on each side of the street. […]
Well, not exactly depressed for no good reason. It’s the fifty-first day of my shelter-in-place sojourn for covid and I finished reading Sarah Kendzior’s Hiding in Plain Sight: The Invention of Donald Trump and the Erosion of America this morning. As a specialist, Kendzior explains the development of autocracies and kleptocracies and chronicles all the steps in Donald Trump’s rise to power. Good book but not an upper. Hiding in Plain Sight is […]
Watching the News Coronavirus Counting Game It will make watching the news worth it when there isn’t any. Which journalists have books on their walls? Or paintings? Or photographs? Or certificates? How many books by Stephen King can you count? By Rachel Maddow? About Trump? How many mix fiction and nonfiction? New and old? And do you see any old books? Percentage of unadorned white walls to bookshelves? Are certificates framed, […]
The Craftsman Book Company has been publishing books & software for the construction industry for 70 years. Craftsman has over 500 publications. They are used by contractors, remodelers, custom builders, appraisers, adjusters, estimators, architects, engineers and other construction professionals in the United States and Canada. Uniquely for one price you have access to all their books for one year. At this writing, the cost for this service is $129.99. The […]
Every year, the USDA publishes the average land values for farm real estate. The statistics are broken down into types of land—pasture, cropland, irrigated/non-irrigated, land and buildings. The attached copy of the 2019 report includes all the statistics, including trends, some from 2015-2019 and others from 2005-2019. This map is a snapshot of farm real estate values in different states. The report includes more such maps. USDA Land Values 2019 PDF […]
Explaining to a seven-year-old how to tell when 5 hours had passed, I pointed to the clock. No, she said. I know how to tell time, but I don’t comprehend it. How long is it? What can I do in five hours? I was almost 70 then and I couldn’t comprehend time either. Hours, yes. But I was in the decades. How long my life had been—how long anything […]
Roger Ebert ranked this of “Views of Grand Rapids” the best music video ever made. After Newsweek pronounced the city one of the top ten dying the cities in the nation, residents sang and danced back. This world-record setting 9+ minute lip dub features every willing resident of Grand Rapids and they sing, dance, and move in formation to Bye, Bye, Miss American Pie. In the background is Grand Rapids—probably […]
Pattern in Islamic Art is an online archive of over 5,000 beautiful Islamic patterns. Images sortable by museum, monument, region, town, materials used (ceramic tiles, plasterwork, wood, etc.), or by architectural feature (decorative panel, doors & doorways, lattice-work, etc.) Excellent images and documentation. Images are also available in prints. The image above is from Pattern in Islamic Art: Grand Mosquée de Paris This mosque was founded in 1926 and built […]
