Hoshino and Joseph
I love this pole. It is a master of one art form memorializing a master of another. The figure at the base of the pole is the wildlife photographer Michio Hoshino. Even if you don’t ...
Year: 2017
Market genorosity
Today’s lesson in unintended consequences: King Mansa Musa of Mali was the wealthiest person the world has ever seen. Mali was a center of trade with abundant salt and gold, and being south of the ...
Fatima al-Fihri
Today, in “women I wish we knew more about,” Fatima al-Fihri. Fatima bint Muhammad Al-Fihriya Al-Qurashiya was probably born around 810 AD in Kairouan, modern-day Tunisia. Her father was a wealthy merchant who ended up ...
The Politics of Waiting
Politicians and pundits really like Christmas, but then everyone likes a baby shower. You can show off your Christian bona fides in a nice safe manner, adoring the helpless baby before he has a chance ...
Whale oil is no more. Petroleum is next.
A week ago, Shannon and I were crawling through the remains of the U. S. whaling industry. At one point, the industry accounted for one fifth of the nation’s economy, and it really was no ...
Death Penalty
This week, we have a stark example of one of the reasons I strongly oppose the death penalty. Ledell Lee’s trial was overseen by a judge who was having an affair with the assistant prosecutor. ...
Radicalization
This week, a man walked into a school where his estranged wife worked. He shot her, and two of her students, in front of a room full of children. I have yet to see anyone ...
Coffee Forthright!
What happens when you are having blood-work done in the morning which requires fasting? Well, if you are me you apparently dismember Sondheim. To the tune of Comedy Tonight… Bring Coffee Forthright! Something inviting, something ...
Pictures on the wall: Miriam Daniel Mann
If I were a more patient person or a better communicator, I would be a high school civics instructor. There is a fundamental problem with the way we teach civics, we don’t give our students ...
First they came…
Well. You know the poem. I learned this poem at St. Olaf, a college of the Evangelical Lutheran Church. Harold Ditmanson, a professor held in such regard that the college named a wing of the ...
But who will pay the piper?
The patron who pays the piper picks the tune. For as long as I can remember, in Alaska the patron has been the oil industry. With more than 85% of the State’s general fund revenue ...
Nature comes to you.
As far as urban areas go, you won’t find many cities as integrated into nature as this one. We have a fantastic trail system, we have moose and wolves that live within our city boundaries, ...
Holidays.
There are three holidays of note this week. The one that I got off from work is the least significant. On the 14th, we had the holiday of Saint Valentine of Rome. According to legend ...