In an earlier blog entitled On the Preservation of the Written Word I wrote about the need to preserve written records both digitally and in print. In this blog I would like to expand on that topic and focus more on our increasing dependence on electronic media and documentation. For…

Growing fruit trees in Monmouth, Illinois, has always been a challenge. The climate is not quite right and there is often a cold snap just as the trees are blossoming. Over the years I have planted and lost any number of trees: apple, apricot, pear, cherry, etc. Once I planted…

On June 3, I came across this punny meme on Facebook: I reposted it and was inspired the next day to post this pun: Employment opportunity for loafers at bread factory. That post led to a long stream of daily posts of bread-related puns. These puns are listed here, not…

The beginning of May is the time for many purple-flowered plants to bloom, including lilac, allium, spiderwort and, especially, iris. There are more than two hundred different species of iris and, while the most common color of an iris flower is, indeed, some shade of purple, iris flowers can actually…

Next week a cherished custom takes place in my town of Monmouth Illinois, as well as in many other towns, especially in the Midwest. It is Bulk Trash Week, a time when residents can leave out at the curb almost any trash or unwanted household item and the municipal waste…

Since I had studied Greek in high school, I naively felt qualified to enroll in the Hellenic Traditions Seminar in my freshman year at Holy Cross (in 1968–69). The topic of this two-semester seminar was Aeschylus, probably the most difficult of the surviving Greek tragedians to read, and we were…

A few weeks ago I was inspired by a Facebook post I’d seen to post the following: The Past, the Present and the Future walked into a bar. It was Tense! Suddenly I was hooked and the grammatical terms walking into a bar just started flowing out on my Facebook…

In an earlier blog entitled On the Preservation of the Written Word I wrote about the need to preserve written records both digitally and in print. In this blog I would like to expand on that topic and focus more on our increasing dependence on electronic media and documentation. For…

I was never much interested in athletics and never joined a sports team, but in high school I eagerly joined the band. I did not know how to play a band instrument, but I had taken piano lessons in grade school and the band director offered lessons to prospective band…