Region & Place 427

[Cross-posted to In Medias Res] This morning, I completed a series of lectures and discussions with a local civic group here in Wichita. The topic for this morning was the…

When $100 million is being spent on the governor and senate campaigns in their state, Michiganders might want to sit up and take notice.

Louisville, Kentucky.  One of the things I found on moving home to Kentucky 22 years ago is that our love of country is a very little and very local thing.…

Holland, MI Most “beer ranking lists” have Michigan somewhere in the top 5 of best beer states. I don’t need a list to tell me that I already know Michigan…

Or, "Shaken and Stirred: The Cosmopolitan, the City, and the Regime of God" Queens, NY The following essay was presented at FPR's annual conference in Louisville on September 27. What…

[Cross-posted to In Medias Res] It's clear to me that one of the primary things people (in the United States, certainly, but also elsewhere) think about when trying to understand…

[Cross-posted to In Medias Res] Some years ago, some of the folks behind F5, an alternative weekly newspaper here in Wichita, started a different (and, as it turned out, short-lived)…

[Cross-posted to In Medias Res] On Thursday, voters in Scotland will go to the polls and either choose "Yes," meaning that they want Scotland to become an independent state, or…

Hillsdale, Michigan. Three years ago or so when the missus and I moved to Michigan from Philadelphia, we wondered how we would manage. Not only is the state's economy at…

Ingham County, MI As darkness falls upon what a friend of mine charitably calls “Jack-Ass Acres,” and as the promise of rain comes with the moving clouds at the end…

[This post is adapted with permission from “The Space Was Ours Before We Were the Place’s,” an essay in the anthology Why Place Matters: Geography, Identity, and Civic Life in…

[Cross-posted to In Medias Res] The story has exploded all over the internet : Debra Harrell, a Georgia woman, dropped her 9-year-old child off at a park–not an isolated and…

It’s the Big One. Tell the kids I love them. Wait at least a week to remarry.

[This post is adapted with permission from “Metaphysical Realism, Modernity, and Traditional Cultures of Building,” an essay in the anthology Why Place Matters: Geography, Identity, and Civic Life in Modern…

Situate the preference where it is, not where it isn’t.

[This post is adapted with permission from “Making Places: The Cosmopolitan Temptation,” an essay in the anthology Why Place Matters: Geography, Identity, and Civic Life in Modern America, edited by…

Hillsdale, Michigan: While Americans are gearing up for fireworks, automobile sales, and burnt hot dogs, the Scots are debating whether to declare their independence from the United Kingdom.   It…

Hidden Springs Lane. We’re building fence this summer. I purchased 150 eight foot posts and we’ve been slowly planting them. We’re putting a paddock in the front and a larger…

Historically, the locals have called Pompaples, Switzerland the “milieu du monde.” Not to be confused as a claim about its importance as a cultural or political influence, the title refers…

In a full bottle of whisky are all the aspirations of mankind, and in an empty one are all the failures of man. Mike Drury As we emerge into adulthood,…

[Cross-posted to In Medias Res] Yesterday was the final day of the school year at Peterson Elementary School, the public school which three of our four daughters have attended. It…

Hidden Springs Lane. There is something especially sad about opening up a hive full of dead bees. Several weeks ago I wrote about my hives and my hope that they…

Louisville, Kentucky.  It's Derby time here. If you have business to do with someone in Louisville this week, don't expect a quick reply. I have always run hot and cold…

This Christmas my daughter bought for me a CD of Welsh hymns, folk songs, and patriotic anthems, sung by the burly baritone Bryn Terfel. He's a tremendous performer, apparently renowned…