Kansas 17
Intellectual Grounding: A Conversation with Wes Jackson
It’s hard to escape from beauty if you’re ready to observe the biotic activity and geologic history of the world. Beauty is essential, and I’m saying that, even with the…
Crunchy Judge: Stegall Confirmed
Congratulations to Caleb Stegall who was confirmed last week to a seat on the Kansas Court of Appeals. Excerpt from an article from a Kansas Newspaper: Legislators discussed his views…
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…
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…
Global Warming, Local Farming, and Naomi Klein: A Trip to the Land Institute
[Cross-posted to In Medias Res] Wichita, KS A couple of weeks ago some fine intellectuals, political figures, journalists, and activists associated with this blog gathered together to talk about localism,…
… Neither Proud Nor Lonely
C.S. Lewis noted that “If you had asked Lazamon or Chaucer ‘Why do you not make up a brand-new story of your own?’ I think they might have replied (in…
False Economics and Malignant Growth
Patrick Deneen's excellent post this morning on populism, directly invoking Kansas, gives me the occassion to repost a short essay I wrote last year for my on again off again (more off…
The Front Porch Cyclist talks Autarchy
I have been remiss in following up on some superb thinking that has been going on, partly prompted by my earlier link to his blog, but mostly prompted by the…
Every Jar a Victory
[Cross-posted to In Medias Res] Wichita, Kansas We feared that we'd missed out on fresh strawberries this year, both because there was an early April freeze and snowstorm that killed…
David Byrne tells us to Ride our Bikes
When hipsters like the former lead singer of the band Talking Heads are coming out in favor of the "pedaling revolution", can the masses be far behind? It's a sign…
Whaddya Know, the Hicks Can Spell
Allow me a moment to bask in some regional pride. Kavya is from just down the road, and I love her Kansan's dialect, flat midwestern accent, and plain manner of…
Farm Stories: The Flag of Rough Branch
Drilling with the Pitchfork (photo by AMS) JEFFERSON COUNTY, KANSAS. The call came from the neighbor yesterday at about four in the afternoon. Your cows are out. Damn! I was…
Life Amid the Suicide Machines
JEFFERSON COUNTY, KANSAS. In small town America, business owners get to sponsor everything from the high school wrestling team to the "pride committee" chili cook off. One of the events…
I Did Taste!
Under consideration: Michael Pollan, The Omnivor's Dilemma: A Natural History of Four Meals, Penguin (2006), 464 pages; and In Defense of Food: An Eater's Manifesto, Penguin (2008), 256 pages.* JEFFERSON…
Politics in Kansas hasn’t changed much. Still a wild and wooly blood sport.
http://www.amconmag.com/article/2009/mar/23/00014/
No Wealth But Life
JEFFERSON COUNTY, KANSAS. William Allen White, the noted editorialist of Emporia, once named our shared home country America’s tenth muse—the muse of prophecy. If Kansas is muse, surely one of…
Churches with Porches
JEFFERSON COUNTY, KANSAS. In the comments somewhere below, Prof. Fox mentions the regional artist John Steuart Curry. A fitting topic for my first foray into this space, not only because…