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Rolling Stones of Broken Beliefs
( Originally posted to my “From Here to Discernity” blog at SantaFe.com, November 21, 2011) I live within walking distance of DeVargas Center on the north side of town. Two or three times a week I’ll walk by the mall, or to the mall, depending on my needs or curiosities….
Learning is for Noobs
(Originally posted to my “From Here to Discernity” blog at SantaFe.com, September 12, 2011) I first heard the term “Internet” at a Halloween party in 1993. An attractive friend of a co-worker, cutely disguised as the Cat in the Hat, mentioned that she was writing her Masters thesis in Computer…
Adherence to Appearance
(Originally posted to my “From Here to Discernity” blog at SantaFe.com, September 12, 2011) Two decades ago, I took a “self-improvement” seminar in Dallas. The seminar leader, an out-of-towner, commented in the beginning that, “I’ve heard Dallas is all about looking good.” I recalled that observation last week while I…
Indian Market: Why this and not that?
Originally posted at my “From Here to Discernity” blog at SantaFe.com (8.22.11) Yesterday I sauntered down to town to stroll through my third Indian Market. I’m a looker, not a buyer or collector, so my eye is less critical and less easily captured. If pressed to honesty, I’d have to…
The Local Community Hospital Game
This laments the loss of Santa Fe’s only hospital, St. Vincent Hospital, to the CHRISTUS chain of corporate hospitals. (2:32)
The Cross that Came Before
This was originally posted on my “From Here to Discernity” blog at SantaFe.com (submitted July 23, 2011). I’m not proud to admit that I live on the computer. Every day, I create, modify, copy, move, and otherwise manipulate dozens, if not hundreds, of many different types of computer files. It’s a…
The Only Game in Town
This video illustrates how CHRISTUS St. Vincent has become “the only game in town” when it comes to health care in Santa Fe. (4:04)
Visualizing America’s Manifest Destiny
The following video was created in response to issues raised in my research prospectus, Muraling Myths: Concerning the Kenneth Adams Murals in Zimmerman Library, University of New Mexico. (4:04)
The Hard Rain Project
I stumbled upon this traveling display in Santa Fe in May 2010. Powerful images to the lyrics of Bob Dylan. (7:14) See the Hard Rain Project for more.
A Nonconforming Easter Homily
U2, Martin Luther King, and “Be not conformed to this world, but be ye transformed by the renewal of your mind.” (5:59)
How Many Ancestors?
Have you ever stopped to think about how many individuals it took to create you? (2:50)
The American Way
About once every other generation or so, we seem to need a good record burning. Unfortunately. (7:05)
(Supremely) Bad Words
Special to the Star-Telegram Every three decades or so, there’s a federal case over broadcasting bad language. The most recent was on Election Day before the Supreme Court. Note: in the original print edition (image below), the headline was “Actually, the Constitution is pretty clear on things.” I objected to…
Semantic pollution fouling the airwaves
Special to the Star-Telegram Chesapeake Energy’s impressive and expensive PR campaign has folks asking questions. Lots of questions. One of the overlooked and under-reported aspects related to drilling in the Barnett Shale is the negative impact to our local linguistic environment. We’re not talking particulate matter here. This is the…
But what if …
Special to the Star-Telegram The local community had an opportunity to go beyond talking about race. Instead, we passed to avoid the front page, content to be merely a footnote. Today is graduation day at Texas Christian University. I teach a class in general semantics there, and seven of my…
The Texas Spring Palace and the Fall of a Brave Man
Special to the Star-Telegram An obscure monument south of downtown Fort Worth recalls a progenitor of the Stock Show and the tragedy that occurred there. The 2008 Fort Worth Stock Show and Rodeo concludes tomorrow. Since its inception in 1896, the show has grown to world-class proportions, attracting almost a…
India: A Report
Read an English translation of an original Gujurati language news article. Read an account of one presentation here in the 20 November edition of the daily newspaper DNA (Daily News & Analysis). Thanks to underwriting from Mr. Balvant K. Parekh, Chairman of Pidilite Industries Ltd, IGS Board President Andrea…
A Fence Sieve Language
(Published in the July 2007 edition of ETC: A Review of General Semantics, Volume 64 No. 3) A culture cannot be discriminatingly accepted, much less be modified, except by persons who have seen through it—by persons who have cut holes in the confining stockade of verbalized symbols and so are…
Friendship: Football, band, church and a major talk
Special to the Star-Telegram Jim was my best friend in high school. He and I did everything that best friends do: We hung out, talked, double-dated and “made the drag” around town. We played together on the football field, in the band hall and at church. During my sophomore year,…
A long, winding stream
Special to the Star-Telegram Don’t like feeling like a fish flopping on an August sidewalk? Don’t give up hope. Next week, I begin a new job. I’ve been invited by the Department of Communication Studies at Texas Christian University to teach a course in general semantics. There’s a bit of…