To avoid interstate traffic when I head to Durham to visit my daughter, I travel the backroads and rely on my GPS, but I cringe at the first direction, “Turn right onto Concord Road,” because the GPS lady pronounces it “con/kerd,” like she’s from New Hampshire. It’s one thing to mispronounce a road name, but don’t even think […]
A Hole is to Dig
Remember Maurice Sendak’s playful pen and ink drawings of children in Ruth Knauss’s A HOLE IS TO DIG? In that book, boys and girls roll in the snow and hold kittens and bow to each other in party hats. The subtitle is “A First Book of First Definitions.” During a month that has been shot full […]
Small Spaces & Big Trucks: A Quaker House
When I was around four years old, I thought my dad could do anything. He taught me how to tie my shoes, how to say my prayers, and how to, instead of stick figures, draw a person’s profile. I thought my mother could do anything, too. When she knitted me a little hat, I told her […]
Lorimer Press Mourns the Loss of Beloved Associate
Many Lorimer Press authors recall, most with fondness, the publisher’s feline assistant, Jezebel. She was present at nearly every home office meeting for 17 of her 18 years and our hearts have been heavy since her disappearance Sunday, May 21. A very social creature, Jezebel was well known and loved by many in Davidson. She […]
When What If Becomes What Is
If my doctor told me I had only six minutes to live, I wouldn’t brood. I’d type a little faster. —Isaac Asimov The unthinkable happened last week. Okla Elliott, a Facebook friend, poet, writer, professor, champion of small presses, died at age 39 of a heart attack in his sleep. I posted that I was shocked […]
Musings on prehistoric technology, the wheel of life, and my “What If?” Year
A million years ago, before the internet, before CD’s, but after eight tracks, we had cassette tapes. … Some musings on prehistoric technology and the wheel of life.
Loose Ends
3/11/17. Two days ago, it was over 70º and this morning, there was more than an inch of snow on the ground. Had T. S. Eliot lived in the Carolinas, “The Waste Land” might have read, March is the cruellest month, breeding Lilacs out of the dead land, mixing Memory and desire, stirring Dull roots with […]
What If?
So it was my birthday this week, which got me thinking about how I could make this year special. A few years ago, a local artist, Elizabeth Bradford, decided to paint one painting every day for a year. Her creative output knew no bounds and the resulting gallery showing of her 365 paintings was amazing. […]
Groan Up Children
Scanning radio stations during a recent road trip, I heard a public radio host introduce the author of When Will My Grown Up Child Grow Up and Move Out. I turned the volume a bit to the right. This sounded more interesting than the recent Republican rants or Adele’s latest hit (or as I think […]
Who’s Snooty? Certainly not Davidson!
Nick James, bless his heart, took on the arduous task of determining the most snobby places in the great state of North Carolina and deemed our little village of Davidson as the #1 most snobby Tarheel town (roadsnacks.net). While Davidsonians thrive on list-topping, here we beg to differ. It’s not that we’re putting on airs, […]