September 14-18, 2015 This week was a blend of the old and the new, the past and the present—and how the two connect. On Monday, Christie reduxes a post about her former life as a researcher, and the mundaneness that is a part of science. Erik was thinking about Donald Trump before the rest of […]
The first time I ever saw a marching band I ran away and cried. The band wasn’t even really marching–it was cooped up inside a small music hall. Maybe that was the problem. The timpani and the tubas, trapped in a single room, were far too loud for a little kid’s ears. When I finally saw […]
When I was six I had my very own windmill. At least that’s what my dad told me. We were driving to camp through Altamont Pass, which held one of the first wind farms in the country. He squinted up at the golden hills and pointed. “There,” he said. “That’s the one.” Later, he explained […]
I often buy presents for my kids that are really for me. This time, it was a special string for doing Cat’s Cradle. (Of course, it’s funny that I even bought a string, instead of tying a piece of yarn into a loop like I once did.) When they unwrapped it, they saw a rainbow […]
August 10–14, 2015 It was redux week here at LWON, in which some People of LWON chose posts that Other People of LWON and our guests wrote. Ann on Michelle’s post about using bourbon as mouthwash: “This post is one of LWON’s public services unto humankind. . . By re-running it here and now, we […]
July 20-24, 2015 A Saturday puzzler for your amusement: see if you can spot this week’s loose theme. Abstruse Goose (and Ann)—each a superhero of LWON–lament that being a mad scientist (or a mad writer) is not as fun as it looks in the movies. Helen has a number of brilliant ideas for Ant-Man sequels; […]
The park where I first saw the dog is a patch of green that’s separated from the mountains by several highways and several hills. There’s a coast guard station on one side, houses on the other, a mid-speed thoroughfare bordering its front. Early one morning, when it was foggy and my eyes were foggy, too, […]
I quit glassblowing because it pissed me off too much. It’s been ten years since I’ve done it, so I don’t remember much about how to make a goblet or a vase or a Christmas ornament. What I do remember is the bright eye of the furnace, the relentless heat, and the crazy dreams that I […]