Xcentric Diffractions

Garden

No Poppy Asked for This

Take up our quarrel with the foe: To you from failing hands we throw The torch; be yours to hold it high. If ye break faith with us who die We shall not sleep, though poppies grow In Flanders fields. -- John McCrae, "In Flanders Fields" There are

Humor

Man Kicks Bison While Drunk

There is an appalling headline in The Washington Post this morning! What is our world coming to? First South Dakota Governor Kristi Noem brags about murdering puppies and goats. And now there is this guy, who goes around kicking drunk bison. The first rule of outdoor adventure: Never kick a

Nature

Chasing a Second Blackout

It was always likely to be cloudy. We knew that going in. According to the climatology odds, we had only a 1-in-3 chance of clear skies for viewing the eclipse. And the Thousand Islands region in early April? Well, if it wasn’t freezing cold and raining, at least it

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Commentary

King of the Wild Frontier

Humor

Stoned Grounds

Nothing will get you revved up and ready to go in the morning quite like a coffee bean-sized igneous rock jammed in the burr grinder. Several wrenches, crowbars, and pinched fingers later, all is well that ends well.

Garden

Winter Carrots

Last fall I wrote about the “Carrot Cabana” I set up to protect our little carrot seedlings from the scalding summer sun, which stalks the skies here in August. Well, it was worth it. This mid-winter, with snow on the ground (itself a rare thing in these times), I can

Humor

Organic Salt

How do you make organic sea salt anyway? And why is “Sea Salt” in quotations? Is it really almond salt?

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Commentary

Illegal Immigration by the Numbers

Nature

Winter Solstice Bonfire

Cold but calm. The moon waxing gibbous. A pretty nice excuse for a winter solstice bonfire. We toasted the season with a bottle of Blenheim Farm Red, sculpted a big pile of old wooden lawn furniture, and blessed the sacrificial offering. “To the gods of international supply chains!” But the

Nature

Hope

The mice and voles and chipmunks rule supreme in this kingdom. By their numbers. They are keen to recycle by chewing through the plastic covering on all the wires in the big tin spa that sits mostly parked. Ignorant, they, of the monstrous cost to the slow two-legged creature which

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Technology

Kicking the Tires on Generative Artificial Intelligence

Garden

Thanksgiving Thanks

The American Thanksgiving myth of my youth focused on “The Harvest”. Like the blessing of a large harvest of potatoes from the garden. Enough to live through the winter. Enough to give away. But the harvest allegory encompassed the wider sphere of blessings. I knew it then and I certainly

Garden

Frost Times

SLAM THE TOWN 2024 A National Poetry Month – Virtual Interactivity of POEMS FROM HOME to ALL OVER Frost Times Three nights in a row. Crystal clear below freezing. My old tomato vines, still brave with a blossom or two, on Halloween night felt their cells burst, contents lacerated and crushed

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Commentary

The Perception Paradox

Nature

Searching for the Dark

The Bortle Scale A device for measuring the weight of Bortles? Buzzzzt! No, I’m sorry. That is incorrect. “The Bortle scale is a nine-level numeric scale that measures the night sky’s brightness of a particular location.” The scale was proposed by John E. Bortle in Sky & Telescope

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Commentary

Book Bans by the Numbers

Nature

Ophilia

It is not a hurricane, but still. That's a pretty impressive weather system, looking to drown all the hamlets in its path. Right now the center is sitting over northeast North Carolina with sustained winds of 45 mph. It looks like it is headed straight at Charlottesville, but

Garden

The Carrot Cabana

Each year for several now, I have sown a fall/winter succession of carrots. They grow well in the cooler days of Fall here. And in late December, during the darkest days of the year, it is an emotional and gastronomic delight to dig up iridescent orange carrots out of

Garden

As High As an Elephant's Eye

They call the wind Mariah. I put off growing sweet corn my whole life. It’s too fussy. It takes up too much room. The price of confetti on the Chicago commodities market is too high. You know. The usual. Three years ago I accidentally wandered into the Sweet Corn

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Commentary

Brooks Has Found the Bad Guys

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Commentary

Ron DeSantis and Chris Rufo Are Trying to Herd Cats

Society

July 4th Celebrations

I’ve been mulling over Linda’s email this morning and the decidedly mixed bag regarding the conception, birth, and growth of the country. My fondest memory of July 4th celebrations comes from 1988 when we were on sabbatical in Boston. We spent the whole day on the Charles River

Nature

Talking to Toads

I confess. It’s true. I talk to the toads. Not that I go looking for conversation. But often, as I scuffle hoe the garden, a modest size clump of soil will suddenly take up animation and leap off to one side. “Well, hello there! I see you now.” “It’

Garden

A Garden with Weeds

Five-thirty PM. A wasted day. There was so much to be done and I had done none of it. Hunched over a keyboard. Working on an essay I wanted to finish yesterday. It’s not like I don’t know what to say. Snippets of words, run-on sentences, and half-outlines

Humor

Big Boys Don't Cry

In response to a poem from my friend Jim LaVilla-Havelin “Big boys don’t cry” the mantra often heard in my youth to this day for some ends. The few warned: it could cripple a generation of men. Your voice rings true born by electrons electronically encoded compressed for size.