When he stands here facing the light, with darkness behind, he is at the outer edge of the galaxy looking in. From there he can see everything; the clusters, the nebula, the nova and supernova, sparse dust clouds yearning for birth, drifting hydrogen clumps, and lumps, those cooler and more dense planets where sometimes there [...]

Hippies, music, dogs, outdoors, and yes, some pot. And it just wasn’t occasional, it was regular. Ricoh did it, and did it well and always, in the hippy vernacular he was a “fun hog,” in the good sense. He brought a jug, danced with the fat one, took a set on the drums, never groped [...]

Another one of those very hard days. I know it’s Spring because the waterfall behind my home is running from the snowmelt, and transitions have never been easy for me. Daylight Savings makes it worse; the day elongates at too fast a rate for me to digest properly. I am depressed; why? Berating myself with [...]

My friend described Phoebe as a cocktail lounge singer of extraordinary range and also a contortionist, an absolute must for the Flying Dog Brew Pub. The deal was arranged, and a piano wrestled through the door. She had heard about our sheriff; “I like big men, he’ll turn the music pages for me;” and he [...]

I think of the physics of it. Clay formed into bricks, heated then stacked into walls and compounds. Generations have built a village, a city. Energy expended to reduce entropy, create order. And a mortar shell, so highly structured and ordered and fired precisely, destroys the wall. So much lost. So much disorder produced. Do [...]

Debbie Meier is an educator; it’s what she does and has done with her adult life.  She began teaching elementary school in Chicago, moved to Philly and when she moved to NYC became involved with education at City College. In 1974 Superintendent Tony Alvarado picked her to become the founding teacher of an open classroom [...]

Richard, Marty and I realize that there are differences between perceptions and approach from our side of the mountains to your side. You are in an urban environment, we are in a rural resort environment. You see each other face to face regularly; we see each other face to face less regularly, but nevertheless regularly. [...]