I’m posting about items and events I find interesting:
memories of second grade, visiting William Faulkner’s
home town, starting a diet to combat diabetes.
You get the range.
John
2 Comments ↓
This may seem a bit grim, this blog, but as I look it over, I don’t think so. I think it’s kind of hopeful.
Still, sometimes things come straight at us and we start thinking about heavy, hard subjects. Lately one of these has been forced into my mind;
…
In 1980 I started going to Florida to watch spring training baseball during my spring breaks from teaching. It was a way to assure myself that the long New England winter was ending, after all. The first time I flew with my bicycle to Orlando, because my car was a 1951 Chevrolet named Aunt Emma,
…
John
2 Comments ↓
I’ve just finished reading two books, both very different, polar opposites actually, yet with some interesting commonalities. Both are nonfiction, both new. Both were written by friends. Both move with compelling and provoking intelligence. But they are indeed dissimilar. One is by a man, one by a woman. One is about noise,
…
John
5 Comments ↓
On Failure: A Baccalaureate Speech
[In 2008, at the end of my Andover teaching career, I was invited to give the baccalaureate speech at graduation. It was a singular honor, and I wanted to say something that the graduating seniors had not heard before. Here is what I said.]
Thank you so much for inviting me to speak with you tonight.
…
John
3 Comments ↓
Perhaps I have always believed in the great value, even the sanctity, of books. Certainly it has been so ever since I read my first one at the age of six, when my aunt gave me the Landmark series edition of The Wright Brothers.
…
John
7 Comments ↓
Old Blue Rides Again
Had an old car and his name was Blue,
Had an old car and his name was Blue.
Had an old car and his name was Blue,
Betcha five dollars he’s a good car,
…
John
6 Comments ↓
Last December Jane and I moved west from Massachusetts to Long Beach, California. We wanted to come out here to be close to our sons, both of whom have settled in the Golden State, Gardy in Los Angeles, Sam in San Francisco. As any old guy who moves to a new state knows,
…
John
4 Comments ↓
Depression has built up like a block of ice in my gut. I can’t sleep. I’ve been tossing around in bed for a couple hours, and I’ve finally gotten up to face the computer and to write this for my blog. It may be the last piece I post here.
…
The following essay is an old one, originally published in Yankee, Vol. 55, no. 5, May, 1991, pp. 68-70. I’m still fond of it.
Calypso bulbosa
Every year in my English classes I teach the Odyssey,
…
Odysseus’ Tree
It’s August 29, 2016, and I’m in Andover, standing behind Bulfinch Hall, where I taught English for 26 years, from 1982 to 2008. I’ve come here today to attend the interment of Jean St. Pierre, who was my department chair during my first five years here.
…