Region & Place 430
Ruthie Leming’s (and Rod Dreher’s) Little Way
[Cross-posted to In Medias Res] Rod Dreher's 2006 manifesto, Crunchy Cons, was an inspiration (and provocation) to many, on both the left and the right. It wasn't that the book…
U.S. ‘Intervention’ in Syria Unlawful
Proponents of Syria “intervention” did not seem to notice any irony as Secretary of State John Kerry, on the one hand, chastened Iraq for letting Iran use its airspace to…
Eating Local–Or Local Enough
If I earn ten pennies in heaven for being a local food supplier, do I get five for being regional?
Going Home Again? Not Likely.
If I am correct, it seems there is a certain kind of arch-typical narrative that has become quite popular here at FPR, and in some sense, emblematic of its defense…
On the Localism of the Spheres
I have a friend who is a cloistered Trappist monk and his current obsession is the ‘outer’ and decidedly non-sedentary goal of running a marathon (on the back forty of…
Life Under Compulsion: Music and the Itch
Like dew on the gowan lying Is the fa’ o’ her fairy feet; Like winds in summer sighing, Her voice is low and sweet. Her voice is low and sweet,…
The Journey Home
If you had told me, a happy and professionally satisfied D.C. lawyer living on Capitol Hill, just over a year ago, that I would be back someday soon living in…
Exurban Dream? What Exurbs and Suburbs Have in Common
When in 1967 my parents were the thirteenth family to move into newly minted Columbia, Maryland, I was three months old. The American dream at that time generally took the…
Lives Lived Worthily: On Hunting
A little over a year ago, after hearing my bitter protests about another pathetic talk by some expert on education whose vision of life I find basically revolting but whose…
The Country That Banned Milk
What would we think of a government that banned milk? Would we think it over-reaching, even oppressive? Would we condemn it for rejecting a great gift from God? Would we…
The Economics of Splitting Wood by Hand
Hilaire Belloc once wrote that he never burned anything but oak in the huge fireplace of his ancient home in West Sussex. For a while I considered doing the same…
Free to Share
When SueAnne Bassett learned that she had stage four cervical cancer eight years ago, her doctors gave her a 20 percent chance that she would live five years, and that…
The March for Life, Poetry, and ‘Epimethean Men’
“Perhaps the truth depends on a walk around the lake.” --Wallace Stevens January 25, the 40th anniversary of Roe v. Wade, will mark the fifth time in the last decade that…
Modesty’s Retreat
Over a drink with a fellow Canadian ex-pat about a month ago, I rather wistfully (and irresponsibly) indulged in some wishful thinking as I expressed my longing for the solid…
Behind the Beautiful Forevers, and the Ground on Which Communities Are Built
[Cross-posted to In Medias Res] The final sentence in Behind the Beautiful Forevers--Katherine Boo's wonderfully written, devastatingly detailed narrative of several fascinating, despairing stories that took place over the period…
Where Will You Die?
Hidden Spring Lane. “I plan on dying here.” The words came quite unbidden and surprised me. We were in the process of building a house on a few acres in…
Life Under Compulsion: Curricular Mire
In my last essay, I took issue with the inescapable computer, that costly thing on the student’s desk in “good” schools, inducing the itch for instant “information” at the expense…
I’ll Take My Economy Black, Please
I woke up early last Friday morning, still in a slump from my post-Thanksgiving food-coma. Not too keen on the idea of braving an icy north wind just yet, I…
Life Under Compulsion: If Teachers Were Plumbers
This is Part IV of a series of essays. For previous installments of "Life Under Compulsion," see Part I, Part II, and Part III. “Good morning, Mr. Jones,” says the man…
The View from Your Front Porch
The View from My Front Porch, or Why We Bought the Farm by Andrea Kirk Assaf Remus, Michigan. The view from my gray…
Memory and the Damming State
The family’s life in this village had come to an end when the lake was dammed in 1958. One wonders who would consider such things worth it.
A Post-Election Symposium
The following is a series of reflections and ruminations on Decision 2012, courtesy of FPR writers-at-large. Winnebago County, IL. Following Standard Operating Procedures, Republican bosses in Washington [and their lackeys…
The View from Your Front Porch
LEXINGTON, Mass. -- It is not a porch, but a long cement slab that stretches the width of our home, which we make on the lower level of a small…
Of Bees and Boys
My brother Brett and I were polite but rambunctious children who made a game of killing bees and dumping their carcasses into buckets of rainwater. Having heard that bees, like…
