Samuel Langley – and getting in our own way.
In the early 1900s, Samuel Pierpont Langley — the namesake of Langley Air Force Base — was one of the most respected scientific minds in the United States. As the secretary of the Smithsonian Institution and a pioneer in aviation, he had funding from the U.S. War Department ($50,000 according to Wikipedia), access to leading […]
4 Questions from Fiskars.
I grew up in a house of scissors. We had little kid scissors, dad’s big metal office scissors, huge shears in the garage, craft scissor, junk drawer scissors, kitchen scissors, mom’s hair cutting scissors, and the orange handled Fiskars – both straight and ‘pinking’ style. And we knew better than to use the orange ‘sewing […]
Chocolate Tasting — and 8 flavors of anger.
In 1929, at the age of 13, Roald Dahl attended Repton School, a prestigious boys’ boarding school in Derbyshire, England. It was during his time at Repton that the Cadbury company sent sample chocolate bars to the school for the boys to taste and evaluate. “It was a tradition that Cadbury’s, the great chocolate manufacturers, […]
Graduation Season – and other spaces.
For many (many!) years, Memorial Day weekend was super stressful for me. It was usually the final push before high school graduation. Graduation – at least back then – was always the first week in June. And my whole job was graduation – making sure every last kid who could walk, did. There were parents […]
The weird noise or the nail.
Photo by Bernd Dittrich It would usually start the same way. A student would raise their hand, look at me with frustrated eyes, and say those five words every math teacher dreads: “I just don’t get it.” It seriously happened almost daily – every summer, in every summer school math class I ever taught. And […]
Scouty Scout and 5 whole years.
My past has some pieces I’ve put away. I don’t have dark hair and bangs any more. I no longer sew clothes, work on math equations, go camping, or ride road bikes. I don’t still sell cupcakes, raft rivers, teach cookie camps, or run races. I’m not currently teaching school or living in New York […]
10 kinds of parked cars
This weekend I have been in the beautiful state of Montana, and, since it’s February, there is snow. And I mean SNOW. The world here is beautiful and snow covered and there are tall, tall piles of it on the side of the roads. All the roads. And so, snow plows are a necessary […]
It was always him – and kairos.
We often think that readiness is what we need to achieve before something good can happen. We try to “get ready” for school or a trip, a job or a move, love, success, healing, etc.. But readiness alone doesn’t always lead to fulfillment – because timing matters just as much. There’s a term in ancient […]
Name and Number – 2024 version.
According to the Harry Ransom Humanities Research Center at the University of Texas at Austin, “For more than 15 years, Gabriel García Márquez worked on a story about the Buendía family and the town of Macondo. In the fall of 1965, with support from his family, friends, and members of the literary group La Mafia, […]
An old tradition and a good sport.
I didn’t grow up in a house with a ton of Christmas traditions – partly because when I was young we were travelling from Minnesota to California for Christmas. Those of you following this blog have read the post about my parents’ sweat and sacrifice for those trips! I imagine the Christmas traveling took all […]
