Browsing Archive: December, 2011

California Visit

Posted by Edith Cook on Saturday, December 24, 2011, In : Reading Life

It's mid-December and I once again find myself in the East Bay of California. This time of year people wear shorts and shirt-sleeves; they take their children to playgrounds after school even at four PM, which I do with my grandson today. They ride bikes; they stroll through vineyards. Back in Wyoming a storm dumps snow that turns to ice on the sidewalks; here, we enjoy balmy weather. My grandson and I put a pant into the ground before his father and I went to Farmer's Market where even now ...
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Leaving the Comfort Zone

Posted by Edith Cook on Sunday, December 18, 2011, In : Reading Life

Christopher Hitchens, the prolific writer and atheist, died a few days ago--on December 15, 2011, to be exact--from cancer of the esophagus. It must have been an awful way to go and was almost certainly caused by his incessant smoking. To say that I enjoyed reading his writing does not begin to give him credit. He travelled far and wide, often putting himself in harm's way visiting politically dangerous countries so he might report on rogue governments or on US sins committed, for example, i...
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Conversational Skills and Lack Thereof

Posted by Edith Cook on Sunday, December 11, 2011, In : Reading Life

I have often thought that a course of “Conversation 101” ought to be offered, not just in high schools or colleges but at youth hostels, senior centers, and in office directional meetings. The lessons would cause participants to look at how they converse with others and to examine what tactics undermine their social exchanges. Many times someone has attempted to talk with me, only to lead the conversation to a dead end. Often I have wanted to ask, “Do you understand what damage your tal...

German versus Wyoming Recycling

Posted by Edith Cook on Sunday, December 4, 2011, In : Reading Life

Recycling has been on my mind since last time my cousin (pictured above with her mother, now deceased) visited from Germany. She commented on what seemed to her an appalling American wastefulness, an obliviousness to the need to conserve resources, as if unaware—or unwilling to acknowledge—that resources are finite. Even human-made resources like plastics won’t be with us forever, since plastics are made from petroleum, and there’s only so much recoverable petroleum left in the earth....