Waking Up Pa Ingalls’ Fiddle
Pa Ingalls’ fiddle was sitting on the table of the museum archive room. Still in its case.
The curator, Tana Redman, smiled at me.
“You’ll need to wash your hands before you play it,” she said.
Art
Teeth Sharpening: Telling the Stories of Grown Men Through Children’s Books
Can a 5-year-old with sharpened teeth tell the story of grown men? If you give him a talented author and illustrator, 30 pages and 60 words, why, yes. Yes, he can. David Shannon wrote “No, David!” nearly three decades ago. He based it on a book he made and illustrated as a child. The only words in it were “no” and “David.” Who can’t relate?
Atlas Rebooted: When the Department of War Decides Your Company Belongs to the State
In Atlas Shrugged, the government doesn’t seize Rearden Metal with bayonets. It does something far more modern. It surrounds it with emergency language, regulatory edicts, patriotic necessity, and administrative suffocation until saying “no” becomes illegal in everything but name. The state never shouts, “We are stealing this.” It simply declares the product too important to be privately controlled.
The Righteous Hunter: Because Protecting Children Is a Holy Calling
America has officially reached the point where a country singer has to remind a billionaire music mogul that he does not, in fact, own the souls of America’s children.
Is the Age of the Printed Book on the Brink of Demise?
During a discussion in a journalism class I was teaching at the University of Illinois a few years ago, I posited the following question: What do you think has been the greatest, most impactful invention in the world during the past 1,000 years?
See Rock City Barns
Interstate 59 shot past our windows like a streak of pigeon excrement on a commercial airline windshield. We crossed into Tennessee, heading northward to New Jersey. The radio played Jerry Reed. And I was busy counting barns.
The Book on My Coffee Table
Whenever I am feeling sad and blue, I visit my living room coffee table. There, I consult a book that sits on my coffee table. I open this book and almost always feel better.