Losing (Some of) the Local Commons
The annual Prairie Festival at The Land Institute just outside Salina, KS, was held two months ago, but it's been much on my mind...
Prairie Fires and Prairie Romances
Caroline Fraser's wonderful Prairie Fires is many things. Primarily it's a biography of Laura Ingalls Wilder, author of the justly famous Little House books,...
Breaking Through the Screen Door: The Jayhawks’ Hollywood Town Hall, Twenty-Five...
A couple of years ago my wife had a minor accident, the kind that results in an older car being mysteriously “totaled.” Before the...
To Bail or not to Bail
Recently David Brooks posted a New York Times op-ed lamenting an increase in “bailing,” which he defines as “flaking” on social commitments. The title...
Mr. Sillypants Goes to Washington
In a folder of papers at my desk there are reminders of things to do sometime, although they aren’t urgent. Waiting to be filed...
On Place, Permanence, and Microbrews
“It is a pleasure to carry out one’s duties of a citizen and to receive in return a receipt or a neat styrene card...
On Dreher’s Benedict Option, the Christians and Localists Who Can Live...
Rod Dreher and I aren't close friends, but like many Front Porch Regulars, I've been blessed with the opportunity to associate with and learn...
Does Wendell Berry Have Rose-Colored Glasses?
Given the unpopular and uncompromising stands that Wendell Berry takes, it’s only natural that many readers fiercely disagree with him. Some of these disagreements...
Bob Dylan: The Lyricist
Bob Dylan: The Lyrics, 1961-2012
Reviewed by Robert Dean Lurie
I am one of the infected; I am a Bob Dylan fan.
It wasn’t always this way....
Some Thoughts on Leonard Cohen – Going Home
Grand Rapids, MI
Leonard Cohen has done his last show, composed his last song, and breathed his last breath. When the news popped up on...