Monday, June 22, 2009

Billy Hults


My friend Billy died on Friday. He was a rascal. He was wild and irreverent and generous and funny. I'll miss him.

Thursday, June 18, 2009

my question about the Iranian election


Today BBC had a program discussing Iran's election. I sent this question and they read it on the air..........

How can we have a discussion about the stolen election in Iran without mentioning the two stolen elections in the US? The primary difference seems to be that the Iranian people are more serious about democracy than we Americans.

Wednesday, June 17, 2009

the day I fell in love and lost all hope of earning a living wage


I hardly knew Chuck when he came to the bar where I worked years ago and gave me a copy of Ivan Illich's book, Deschooling Society. I read it and dropped out of college. Illich, in case you don't know, argues that education isn't really about learning but about maintaining class structure. More broadly, he argues against experts mediating and defining our experience.
Chuck says that if he had his way no employer would be able to discriminate based on educational background.

chekhov and twitter


I signed up for Twitter once, and, although I never got past creating an account, I get messages that people are following me on it. Really? I think Chekhov, if he were alive, might be a Twitter fan.
"I have developed a mania for brevity. No matter what I read —my own or others' writing—everything strikes me as too long." ~Anton Chekhov

the self-absorbed traveler


I've discovered that there is, after all, something more self-absorbed than a writer with a newly published book, and that is me, getting ready for a trip.

Wednesday, June 03, 2009

end of the school year librarian question


How can the kids figure out how to take care of the world we're leaving them if they can't take care of their dang library books? This is one of the philosophical questions I wrestle with.