About hessd
Here is all you need to know to follow this blog. I am an old man and I love to think about why we say the things we do. I've taught at the elementary, secondary, collegiate, and doctoral levels. I don't think one is easier than another. They are hard in different ways. I have taught political science for a long time and have practiced politics in and around the Oregon Legislature. I don't think one is easier than another. They are hard in different ways.
My wife, Bette, is the First Reader (FR) of the posts. I have arranged that partly because she helps me write better posts than I would otherwise and partly because I can hold her responsible for the mistakes that I would, otherwise, have to own up to myself..
You'll be seeing a lot about my favorite topics here. There will be religious reflections (I'm a Christian) and political reflections (I'm a Democrat) and a good deal of whimsey. I'm a dilettante.
If you have lived a long time, you have held views you no longer hold. Your choice, from the place you are now, is how to regard those views you once held. [1] I want to emphasize that this is … Continue reading →
In 1975, five years after ending the series featuring Frances the Badger, Russell Hoban wrote Turtle Diary. Turtle Diary is a book for adults—not “an adult book”—about William G and Neaera H., two losers who, in freeing some turtles from … Continue reading →
Would we be better off, do you think, if we were more sensitive to the concerns of others? You would think so, wouldn’t you? That notion has come very close, in the blue bubble where I live [1], to replacing all … Continue reading →
I want to think about trashy news and trashy people today. The United States has enemies, of course, and they act against us in the old style and in the new. [1] The old style is acting against us in … Continue reading →
Apologies to John Milton. I don’t mean at all that I think of Starbucks as Paradise, but it is true that I have seen a Starbucks that was a lot closer than any Starbucks I now know. I feel sad … Continue reading →
To tell you the truth, the “Nazi” metaphor was always too much for me. It treated lightly something I wasn’t ready to treat lightly. I am a veteran of a good deal of post-WW II anti-Nazi propaganda. I remember Nazi … Continue reading →
How shall we see this picture? This is a letter from a fan, on the one hand. Bette and I saw The Wife partly because Glen Close’s performance was getting very high praise–fully justified, I can now say. But what … Continue reading →
