College English majors (literature majors) are rare birds today, an endangered species. No surprise, really. They’ve been in a steady decline since they peaked in the mid-60’s, early 70’s. Now they’re in the trough. It’s the job thing. How are…
Read more
U.S. Route 40 – originally, The National Road — was the first highway over the Appalachians. Construction began in Cumberland, Maryland in 1811, building westward on top of the Washington and Braddock military road, which itself was built on top…
Read more
Back when the colony elites were creating America on paper, Thomas Jefferson and his camp, attuned to the Enlightenment thinking of the day, fought for a leadership based on talents and virtues. A “natural aristocracy,” they called it. The time…
Read more
I get up early Saturday and am at Fred’s by 7:00 when he opens. By 8:00 his waiting room is already overflowing, and who wants to spend two hours flipping through old hunting and fishing magazines. I always enjoy my…
Read more
For a few months now, Monday through Friday I’ve been staying in Shepherdstown, WV, in an attractive old row house, full of character, but which unfortunately sits on a busy street with incessant traffic noise. Like many towns in the…
Read more
Two of my favorite poems are by Robinson Jeffers: “Shine, Perishing Republic,” and “Hurt Hawks.” In the first, he advises his readers to “be in nothing so moderate as in love of man.” In the second, he says that he’d…
Read more