Professor Carol
I’m sitting at my brother’s dining-room table looking at piles of stuff, otherwise known as a mess. It has to be sorted out before I can sleep. Tomorrow I head off to Russia with a Smithsonian group for another chance to sail the Russian Waterways. … Read more
Time for “Back-to-School.” Really? Engulfed in August heat, it’s hard to summon up even a smidgen of Norman Rockwellian imagery about the crisp days of fall that once heralded the start of school. Yet, clearly we’re headed back. Stores are piled high with mazes of … Read more
Springtime is concert time. Where? Right in your neighborhood, and at minimal or no cost. In cities and towns across the country, local high school bands, choirs, and orchestras are staging their spring concerts. Some junior highs schedule such performances as well. If you are … Read more
Over the past several years I’ve joined a panel of Classical educators who come together at the large regional conferences known as the Great Homeschool Conventions. Originally entitled “Classical Education Unplugged,” our panel found itself renamed “Classical Education Unhinged” in this year’s program. We laughingly … Read more
Driving back to Texas from the Great Homeschool Convention in Greenville, after a detour to visit friends in Winston-Salem, we stopped overnight in Meridian, Mississippi. As we were pulling off the highway, Hank said, “A State Police patrol car is following us.” You know the … Read more
Since we sold our ranch two years ago, we have been in transition. We presently live in what I like to call a Texas McHouse: one of these huge houses with an open floor plan, 28ft ceilings, and more granite than anybody needs. It’s nestled … Read more
Using a lone figure illuminated by dusty rays of light, the painter Karl Spitzweg juxtaposes the tumult of human consequences against Mercy’s irrevocable dawn. Here we see a man who, only hours before, was cavorting in full-blown pleasure as Carnaval’s excesses wound to a roaring … Read more
The purge is on. It was triggered in this case by a leak from the garage ceiling that began to soak several stacks of boxes. Inside were files from my university career representing three decades of research and teaching materials. For me, it’s excruciatingly difficult … Read more
We followed a wintry storm last week across Texas and Louisiana and up into North Carolina. When we pulled up to our forested Bed & Breakfast near the coast, it looked like a scene from White Christmas. The effect was dazzling. Two images stand out … Read more
Every family has a storyteller. Or else, a story about a storyteller who touched their lives. Growing up, it was my father who told the stories. My mother told almost none, even though both of my parents clawed their way through the same Depression with … Read more