Back a couple of years ago I recorded and posted here podcasts of A Christmas Carol and in the process I surprised myself. This phenomenon–which I have yet to name, feel free to take a stab in the comments–often happens to teachers. You know you like something, you decide to teach it, you suddenly start to discover WHY you liked it and how much more there is to it than you ever noticed before. That’s happened to me with every...

You can thank the New York Times for this. They published this—and it’s still out there—in 1996 (oh my, I’m oooold). It is their  PLAIN AND SIMPLE recipe;This Is Chili: Beans, Corn, Tomatoes and Beer – New York Times. It doesn’t get more simple than that. Good food. Good for you. Easily adaptable, but I’d recommend making it “the right way” first, then feel free to play around. The interplay of spices...

If you’ve had to stop eating gluten, the first thing you noticed was how much more expensive grocery shopping is. While it may bring a little relief on your taxes (http://www.irs.gov/publications/p502/ar02.html#en_US_publink100014757  and  http://www.celiaccentral.org/  and  http://www.celiac.org/  and  http://www.celiac.com/articles  but you might also want to check if it’s  worth the hassle in your tax bracket)  Better Batter...

Surgery update here. Thank you all, so much, for all of your help.

I have a long and proud track record of failure at the various knitting O[ymp1c5 and this year may be no different. I’m made a remarkable amount of progress (for me) while being at the beach and other places that aren’t particularly conducive to knitterly pursuits. At the same time, I know others who have taken on less insane tasks than I and are already winnahs, but gosh darn it, I really wanted to make this shrug. And the shawl....

I’ve had a bit of a scare. A big bit of a scare. You may have heard of our little kerfuffle out here in Northern Virginia (or actually, the entire Eastern Seaboard). We had a wee bit of a storm, it only lasted maybe forty minutes. However, the initial hit was like unto a large Mac truck cruising through our complex. It is a testimony to something or someone or Providence or [insert preferred source for thanks here] that we didn’t...