A short story by Doug Richardson The new girl started work last Monday. The diner has been short-staffed since Barbara left; she said 23 years is long enough. The new girl, Rachael, looked like she wasn’t from around here, had more of a city look, like the girls who grow up on the outskirts, on […]
California Hills
It’s been two months since I returned from my outrageous drive all the way to California and back for the suspect reason of helping my wife’s parents move. They are old; they really did need the help. But candidly, half the reason I signed myself up for the excursion was just to take a road […]
The Whole Struggle is Lost
Appalchian State University Mr. Childress RC-2001 9/2/2022 The Whole Struggle is Lost Edward R. Murrow chose the 1958 Radio Television Digital News Association (RTDNA) convention as the venue for his speech critical of the media, portrayed in the movie, Good Night and Good Luck. The decision had some benefits but suffered serious drawbacks to the […]
Farley Mowat, Freedom of the Sailing Life
Appachian State University Mr. Childress RC-2001 10/29/2022 Freedom of the Sailing Life A primal attraction to sailing is the idea that anyone with a reasonable boat and enough gumption can leave the rat race in their wake and sail around the world to a life of perpetual vacation. Farley Mowat, in The Boat Who Wouldn’t […]
Neil Postman, from Fashion to the Future
Postman begins his book Amusing ourselves to Death with a review of communication evolution from the invention of cuneiform writing through the invention of the printing press and up to the near present of television media. His work in education led him to see that integrating mass media into education was not working, and further […]