Region & Place 428
The Mishawaka Cruisers
They make their measured circuit along three blocks of neon fast-food chains, the darkened panes of auto dealerships, the Checks-Cashed, and the boarded Dollar Store.
A Sheeshah Pipe for the Porch?
I came to Cairo to get a better sense of the prospects for such a global conversation. If the battle over values is likely to play out globally in this…
Getting the Garden Going, One Baby-Step at a Time
[Cross-posted to In Medias Res] This academic year Friends University found itself wondering what to do with a plot of land, directly beside and behind some student dormitories. Through a…
On Being a Worthy Heir of the Agrarian Contrarians
But, as Shakespeare wrote, we sometimes “by indirections find directions out.”
April Advent
While April first brought April Fools’ Day with all of its jokes and gags, the foolish part of the first of April was not its primary value for me. It…
The Eckhart Tolle of Space
“Many propositions involving temporal concepts which seem obviously and necessarily true are just as necessarily but not obviously true when formulated in terms of spatial relations.” [1] In 2011, the…
In the Creeks and Along the Rails: Tales from Pollock
I was born in Natchitoches, Louisiana, a town known, if it is known at all, for four things: it is the oldest city in the Louisiana Purchase Territory; the movie…
Among the Mad Farmers: Chicago Good Food Festival and Conference
“If you’ve never worked a tradeshow booth,” a business pal once remarked to me, “you’re not a real American.” True dat. At the Good Food Festival and Conference in Chicago…
Carbuncles, Bedbugs, Boils and Politics
To paraphrase an observation of Chesterton on the subjects of poets, silence and cheese: Political scientists have been mysteriously silent on the subject of soap, or at least until now.[1 ]…
A Burke for Our Times
In a wonderful article published here at FPR a few weeks ago, Jason Peters argued that a proper education ought to provoke a kind of spiritual or intellectual crisis among…
“You Ever Get Back There Any More?”
Down on the Square (as we East Texas natives refer to the downtown in Henderson, pop. 11,000), I make a visit to the backroom of the Strong-Hurt Pharmacy, site for…
Running for President? How About Running Somewhere Else.
Holland MI. As if my beloved state of Michigan hasn’t had enough problems, we now have Republican presidential candidates skittering across our fair soil and bucolic shorelines, plugging up our phone…
Driving Around the Panopticon
Plenty of space, I concluded with a glance at the approaching headlights in my left mirror. I let the clutch out smoothly and started what felt like a routine merge…
What’s Wrong With Iowa? (A Transplanted Professor Knows)
If you think you may legitimately enjoy the physical benefits of a place while dwelling in the airy regions of judgment above it, you’d better think again.
Education and the Way Home
Holland, MI The recent dispute between Joe Carter over at First Things and various occupants of the Porch has already received a good deal of attention, but also demonstrated a…
Homesick Nation
In 1852, the first piano arrived in Stockton, California. Imported from Cincinnati, it was a gift to Mary Kroh from her father, a minister who had traveled west to preach…
Agrarian Hypocrisy and the Evils of Distributism
One thing that has amused me in these first three years of FPR’s existence is the tendency of some readers to single out one or two articles and lament that…
Iowa is for Peace-Lovers
BURNED-OVER DISTRICT, NY---Our daughter will be spending the snowy months rehearsing her role as Marian the Librarian in her high school’s production of Meredith Willson’s “The Music Man,” that tuneful…
Occupy Food! (And Other Simple Things)
[Cross-posted to In Medias Res] As Christmas and the end of 2011 approaches, I find myself thinking gratefully about what Leroy Hershberger has enabled my students and me to learn…
The Founding Gardeners
I’ve just finished Andrea Wulf’s beguiling book entitled “ Founding Gardeners, The Revolutionary Generation, Nature and the Shaping of the American Nation”. Published this year by Knopf, it delves into…
The View From Your Front Porch
Queens, NY -- The idea was to design an English village from scratch, within railroad-commuting distance of Manhattan. It was meant to include homes for families of different income levels,…
The View From Your Front Porch
Nashville, Tennessee -- This is a tale of two neighborhoods, a move from one to the other, and the inherent contradictions of gentrification. Our old neighborhood, close to downtown, was…
Homage to our Jailer
We lived now in a wrecked forest, but this is only the beginning.
The View From Your Front Porch
Mayville, North Dakota -- You're looking northwest from our front porch in Mayville, North Dakota. The picture, taken Sunday afternoon, November 13, casts doubt on what everyone knows about the…