A piece in our local paper seems timely: “Healthy, affordable food frequently hard to find for poor.“ The article by Sarah Chacko brings to light a paradox of nutrition, health and poverty that results in millions being simultaneously overfed and undernourished, a common condition in my state: “Poor nutrition is linked to many health issues …
Author: Matt Mullenix
Truth Be Told
I write occasional press releases and other promotional copy. I found the following disclaimer at the bottom of a piece released by local company rather inspired. I imagine a working scribe somewhere here in town smiling as she put this together… “Certain statements in this release, and other written or oral statements made by ______, …
Revolution in the Subtropics
Is there something about the heat that stirs rebellion? We’ve hit 90 for the past couple days and the Revolutionary Garden is feeling it. The tomatoes love it. The beans love it. But the lettuce just about died on me in a day. So after weighing my options, I tacked up some spare shade cloth. …
“Our” Fulbright Scholar
As Patrick Burns is fond of saying, “The kids are alright.”Happily I know a few who are more than alright. Our campus is full of bright young people, and heralding their accomplishments is one pleasure of my job. But we encounter some rare souls who, like Steve and his blog partners (and our readers), are …
NPR Jumps Shark
As possible evidence of my mixed up political perspectives, I’m a long-time National Public Radio member. I listen to All Things Considered and A Prairie Home Companion on the way home from hunting and catch the business news on my bike commute to work. Is that weird? I’m still waiting for word on the development …
Progress of the revolution
The past month of revolutionary action hath wrought food and rumors of food. Although still another month from the possibility of daily produce–and further from a tradable surplus–we are grazing now on lettuce and berries and basil. Behold, the vast acres:
A Regional Politics
A recent post by Crunchy Con Rod Dreher brings word from England that its conservative Tory party has aligned itself with the “great British institutions” of mom-n-pop shops against the global retail giants. In the larger picture, it’s a defense of regional autonomy and long traditions, two solid conservative values but ones that square off …
A Gardener is Born
My friend Tyler, one of our neighborhood growers, is an Iraq war vet and all-around man’s man who finds some amusement in his new passion for gardening. He emailed this post and gave me permission to share it… Go Big T! SO, I AM A VEGETABLE GARDENER? It comes as a surprise to me the …
Neighborhood Secession
“…Any portion of such people that can may revolutionize and make their own so much of the territory as they inhabit.” -Abraham Lincoln A recent 2Blowhards post wondering whether secession will become one of this year’s political themes got me thinking: How hard could it be? As usual, the comments on that post were many, …
Old Fashioned Good Time
A packed house for the HopKins Black Box Theater is about 70 people in folding chairs, the first row seated two feet from the stage and inescapably part of the show. I took a seat in the back, center isle, elevated by a plywood riser above a stagehand running sound from a school desk. The …