Beans
It took me less than half a century to get around to reading one of the classic books of my youth, The Milagro Beanfield War (1974) by John Nichols. The book is set in northern New Mexico in 1972....
I Have a Question for You
A few thousand years ago or so, during the Golden Age of his city, a man wandered the streets engaging with just about anyone willing to speak with him. (While I am not typically prone to make judgments about...
Hearts & Minds
“We can’t hope to win the Cold War unless we remember what we [the United States] are for as well as what we are against… I’ve learned that the only time we’re hated is when we stop trying to...
Remember the Ladies
Less than four months before the United States formally declared independence from Great Britain, John Adams and other members of the Second Continental Congress were carefully building their case for political separation based upon the principles of British representative...
Bernie
We have all been discouraged from judging a book by examining only its cover. While the idiom typically stands as metaphor suggesting we should not size up new acquaintances too quickly, it also contains the literal prompt to browse...
The Diggers
In the twenty-first century, Cobalt (Co on the periodic table) has become a highly valued commodity; one of the few elements that make our rechargeable batteries perform as they do. In 2021, 72% of the global supply of cobalt...
Elmore Leonard
I was chatting with my neighbor a while back and he mentioned Elmore Leonard. After a few minutes, it occurred to me that a guy who writes a column titled “Books & Such” always has some homework to do....
Louis Le Prince
In 1888, French inventor Louis Le Prince used a device the world had never seen to capture the first known motion pictures: a two second clip of his family walking in what is now referred to as the Roundhay...
The More Things Change…
After reading American Midnight: The Great War, A Violent Peace, and Democracy’s Forgotten Crisis (2022) by historian Adam Hochschild, it occurs to me that our nation’s current social, cultural, and political problems are not so much a product of...
For the Future
The climate on our planet is changing; and reversing the inevitable seems as if it will require a bit more cooperation than humanity has yet been unable to muster. The alarm bell has been ringing for so long that...
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