No words. A how-to.

Could I be a cowboy?

Manhattan is a wild frontier. But it isn't the frontier. I don't know if the wild, endless wide-open-space ever really existed in the way we fantasize, but I do know that Western stories and movies are my favorite excuse to be ridiculous, outdoorsy, and cowboy-romantic. I'm reading a collection of western stories and I can't believe how absorbed I've become:

"That's a lot of horse," a man in a white apron said. "It takes a man to ride a stallion."

"I ride him," I said, and walked past them into the bar. The man in the white apron followed me. "I drink tequila," I said.

So then I started thinking. Could I be a cowboy?

I like the wide open plains (That's Haiti and one tough cowgirl, Lizzie.)

I'll eat camp food and get dirty (as long as Herman B Wells is along for the ride).

I enjoy a ride (especially when you get a great local story from a personal Haitian historian).

I can wear a hat.

Nah, I think I'll leave it up to the (dirty, hot, swanky) experts.

Zoo story came out today

Congratulations to Tom French on the release of his latest book, Zoo Story!

Here is the original series of articles from the St. Pete Times.

All of your students are proud of you ... and we are so happy we get a Springsteen-loving, name-brand-water-drinking, creative, energized teacher like you who believes in us!

Fourth of July in Ithaca

sailing on the finger lakes (I forget which finger).


Boating shoes used for boating!

Pickled squash

Two summers ago, I lived in the Smoky mountains and learned how to can vegetables from my garden. My grandma and I made bread and butter pickles, pickled beets, squash, zucchini, okra, dilly beans, and canned blackberries. That carried the yum of summer through winter.

This weekend, I canned squash and onions picked straight from a farm in Maryland. I got the chance to write about it and take a few photos. Click pickles!

Good morning.

Remember, in coffee, "purist" is often just another word for "fascist."

Pardon Jack Johnson

Rarely do I get excited about t-shirts, but this idea is too awesome not to notice.

This 4th of July marks the 100th anniversary of boxer Jack Johnson's victory in the “Fight of the Century,” against Jim Jeffries.

Johnson was the first African-American boxing champion. He was also a man of the ladies. One reporter asked him how he kept up such a constant stream of women, and he replied that he would simply "Eat jellied eels and think distant thoughts."