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  • Dreamy Hearts, Steady Warmth

    Dreamy Hearts, Steady Warmth

    Happy Valentine’s Day from Knoxville, Tennessee – the city most often ranked by Amazon as “America’s Most Romantic”! To be clear, Knoxville doesn’t currently hold the top spot. That honor goes to San Antonio, Texas, in the most recent Amazon ranking I can locate. That was the 2017 listing. Even after scouring Amazon and Google,…

  • The Twelve Tactlessly Whimsical Anagrams of Christmas

    The Twelve Tactlessly Whimsical Anagrams of Christmas

    The letters in “Twelve Days of Christmas” rearrange to spell “favored, tactless whimsy”. Let’s get us some! This Yuletide observation did, after all, set me wondering: Could I make a similar anagram from each one of the twelve gifts itemized in the classic Christmas carol? Then maybe even weave those into a seasonal poem capturing…

  • Clocks That Don’t Always Tell the Right Time

    Clocks That Don’t Always Tell the Right Time

    Some of us (but not all) remember a world where clocks didn’t always tell the right time. That world is disappearing into the rear-view mirror. With fewer and fewer exceptions, our timepieces connect to the internet and are set by a distant atomic clock. This goes doubly for our mobile devices: cell phones, smart watches,…

  • My Prayer for 2018

    My Prayer for 2018

    May each one of us be happy, healthy, and fully engaged with others (especially those whose views and experience may differ from our own). May our country stand as a beacon for racial healing and harmony, for interfaith understanding, for economic justice, for gender equality, for commitment to science, and for borders open to all…

  • May Your Nights Be Merry and Bright!

    May Your Nights Be Merry and Bright!

    Merry Christmas, dear friends. Plus the happiest of whatever other holidays you may be celebrating this time of year, or any other time. This is a photo I took a couple of days ago of a house just down the street from the East Knoxville home Cheri and I inhabit. A fitting tribute to the…

  • Knoxville in Bloom

    Here’s hoping you’re enjoying spring as much as we are. As Knoxville gears up for its annual Dogwood Arts Festival, all our flowering trees, of whatever species, are getting into the spirit. Here are a couple of photos from our eastside Chilhowee Park neighborhood. This first one is the home of our friends, Pete and…

  • What Our Jonquils Know About Climate Change

    Earlier this month (February 2017) the outdoor temperature was 77 degrees F. Even in the previous month, January, the mercury often registered above 60 degrees — and rarely fell below high 40s to mid 50s. This in East Tennessee! When I moved here in 1977, sub-zero temperatures were commonplace for January and even mid-February. (I…

  • Valentine Anagrams — 2017 Edition!

    Valentine Anagrams — 2017 Edition!

    Happy Valentine’s Day 2017! To all our long-time readers, and to a host of new subscribers: We love you all! Today you’ll see plenty of heart-themed features in the mainstream media. They’ll tell you the history of Valentine’s Day. They’ll tell you funny jokes and sentimental love stories. What they won’t tell you (but I…

  • Our 30th Ana(versary)gram!

    Our 30th Ana(versary)gram!

    I can’t let 2016 escape without noting that this was the year Cheri and I celebrated our 30th anniversary. Three adventure-filled decades ago, we committed ourselves to making our union “as a fortress for well-being and salvation”. That’s how Baha’u’llah describes it in the Prayer for Marriage. That, for us, has been the way it…

  • How to Write a Book by Accident

    How to Write a Book by Accident

    My latest book came into being by accident. The story behind that is fun (for me, anyway). Maybe even useful (for you and me). What really happened is that I was writing one book, but it ended up being two. The second one is the accident. Here’s the scoop: Sometime last year, I started writing…

  • Whatever Happened to the First Robin?

    Whatever Happened to the First Robin?

    The first robin of spring! How long has it been since we’ve heard about that “first robin”? Or seen one? When I was a kid, we took the first robin seriously. Birds had the good sense to fly south for the winter. That was back when we had real winters. At least we did in…

  • One Word: Your Relationship to the Parents of Your Child’s Spouse

    One Word: Your Relationship to the Parents of Your Child’s Spouse

    There is no such word! In English, that is. In some other languages, yes. But not English. This word fascinates me despite the fact that it doesn’t exist. Or, perhaps more aptly, because it doesn’t exist. Either way, it speaks volumes about our English-speaking society, the relationships we value – and those we do not.…

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