A recurrent image from trips to the Middle East is the caravan. I saw two, in Tunis and Sudan, scruffy versions of movie ones. Noisy and smelly, they resembled nightmares. Modern trucks have replaced them in volume, but only where the original routes were charted centuries ago. Some trucks haul several containers in a bizarre conga line, like those crossing the Australian deserts. Faster versions, then, of the old caravans.
However…
Company towns are strange holdovers from the middle ages. In my mom’s hometown of Ware Shoals, the bank, church, clothing store, housing and, of course, work—all were owned by the textile mill. Money didn’t matter—whatever the company paid out, it got back in profits and rents. Step out of line and you better move along. […]
Recently, on a lovely Saturday, I drove up to New York City to see the site where my grandfather, Jacob, worked in a nursery in Queens. He had just moved from Cincinnati, where he’d finished an 1890s era, “live-in” apprenticeship in his early teens. Then he spent a few years in rural western Long Island, outside the town of Flushing, known for its many German immigrants and nurseries, as well…
What can you say about a garden that you visited once and loved? That it was beautiful? That the extent of the exotic and the unusual was beyond that of any other private garden you’ve seen? That it was so magically and artistically arranged in its setting that anyone easily could be swept up in its spell? That once you entered it, you didn’t want to leave?
I am in the…
Among the earliest gardeners in America are the Irish who traditionally plant potatoes on St. Patrick’s Day, often in the cold and blowing wind. Many Americans know that the failure of the potato crop caused an exodus of Irish natives to the United States. The subsequent contributions of the Irish Americans and their descendents range […]
Abraham Lincoln had a modest library, befitting his focused outlook and humble origins. He possessed some law books, since he passed the bar exam by reading and memorizing all he could get his hands on. He famously never set foot in college, much less law school. (Today most states prohibit this; in fact, I don’t […]
My dad hated “throwing money at problems”, yet he was as guilty as most folks in business, and even more of us in our personal lives. Money easily seduces its owners into madness. Its abuse leaves long and terrible hangovers. Always better to “work the problem”.
Just as mythological as the silver bullet of money is the magical power of technology. Money does nothing more than buy
Most of us wake up to three feet of snow and feel overwhelmed by the daunting task of shoveling and piling up all the white stuff just to get to work or school. We also anticipate many weeks of boredom ahead as the cold wind blows across the icy snow. But while we are curled […]
February 15, 2008 Mr. Paul Lagasse Columbia University Press 136 S. Broadway Irvington, NY 10533-2599 Dear Mr. Lagasse: I very much enjoy and admire The Columbia Encyclopedia Sixth Edition. The writing and editing is absolutely fantastic. There are to my knowledge only two related errors I wish to point out. Also, I offer a few […]
The Sunday Star, Easton Md, Sunday, February 10, 2008. As an estimated 40 million US gardeners select their seeds to sow for fall harvest, the nation’s voters choose their candidates for November’s presidential election. Resonant horticultural metaphors are not coincidental, but spring from the roots of civilization. Gardens illustrate the processes of democratic governments, from the […]
