I kept two plastic cannons on a shelf in my office at SMU. Each was two inches tall, and made of flexible green plastic. The wheels turned and the gun barrel went up and down. They became known as Dr. Reynolds’ cannons. But wait: these … Read more
What’s green, takes up a five-foot bookshelf, and promises to “carry you forward upon this road to the high goal toward which all of us are making our way“? If you shout The Harvard Classics, then you’ve guessed correctly. The 51 green volumes once widely … Read more
My last post chronicled the bumps I weathered along the road to learning history – including a pretty noticeable bump in graduate school. During a semester at Charles University in Prague, I took course on contemporary Czech political history. In that class, I realized I’d … Read more
It has to be the best part of the conferences: meeting the actual students who are using Discovering Music. Increasingly, families are coming up and introducing themselves like this: “Hi, we’re the XYZ’s, and these are our kids. . . .” Usually the kids are shy. Sometimes … Read more
I’d worked late, finishing up a podcast for the Dallas Wind Symphony and polishing up material for Cliburn Conversations, the pre-concert talk for pianist Stephen Hough’s Van Cliburn Concerts Series piano recital the following night. With a head filled with lofty thoughts about the glories … Read more
Growing up in northern Wisconsin, we joked about experiencing two seasons each year: winter and construction. And it wasn’t far from true. As soon as the top layer cleared, crews were busy working on the roads, filling in all the cracks, holes and craters that … Read more
“World Read-Aloud Day”—that’s what the cheerful announcer on the morning newscast declared this morning, as we were eating our breakfast in a hotel near Little Rock, Arkansas. Behind him stood a bevy of young students and a large stuffed “dog” known as “Clifford.” The kids … Read more
For his birthday, my husband scored us ridiculously reasonable tickets, in good seats, to Beethoven’s opera Fidelio. We know that we are in the minority among those our age, taking birthday cash and heading to the opera, but we like it that way. Fidelio has … Read more
Research—such a lofty word. In fact, research is anything but lofty. Research throughout the history of Western Culture has often been a leap off the edge, aimed at an unknown goal. That’s when things start to sizzle! In an earlier post I recalled the joys … Read more
My intention today was to write about my favorite academic resource, The Chicago Manual of Style, the most comprehensive guide for research, writing, and publishing in all of Western culture (as far as I’m concerned). But instead, something came up in the cow pasture that … Read more