Mrs. Bob Cratchit's Wild Christmas Binge at RHS

From 2015 00 00 Miscellaneous

Mrs. Bob Cratchit's Wild Christmas Binge at RHS: Absurd Christmas Carol with an inept ghost. Don't know what the moral is, but I laughed.

Review: A Thousand Acres

Amazon

From A Thousand Acres, by Jane Smiley

Because the intersection was on this tiny rise, you could see our buildings, a mile distant, at the southern edge of the farm. A mile to the east, you could see three silos that marked the northeastern corner, and if you raked your gaze from the silos to the house and barn, then back again, you would take in the immensity of the piece of land my father owned, six hundred forty acres, a whole section, paid for, no encumbrances, as flat and fertile, black, friable, and exposed as any piece of land on the face of the earth."

Recently I read The Story of Edgar Sawtelle, a retelling of Hamlet set in 20th century rural Wisconsin. Coincidentally I just finished reading A Thousand Acres, a retelling of King Lear set in 20th century rural Iowa.

After the jump, my review.

POTD: Ship Wreck Ranch

From 2015 08 09 TX and OK Panhandles

Today's photo-of-the-day is from southeastern Colorado. The natural beauty of the Great Plains as as impressive in its own way as any other natural wonder in America. This area is also ground zero for the Dust Bowl disaster of the 1930s. Driving north through the Texas and Oklahoma pandhandles into southeastern Colorado, try to imagine the black dusters of those years. As you drive, read "The Worst Hard Time" by Adam Johnson, the story of people like Ike Osteen, who recalls how even "the simplest thing in life -- taking a breath -- was a threat."

Life itself (2014)

IMDB

Life itself (2014): Biography of Roger Ebert. Alcoholic. Movie critic. Husband. Cancer victim. Movie touches on all of these, shallowly. C+

POTD: History is Written by the Victors

From 2015 08 09 TX and OK Panhandles

Today's photo-of-the-day is from Palo Duro Canyon in the Texas panhandle. It's an impressive natural wonder that all Texans should visit, not only for the scenery but for the history. It was here that Comanches finally lost their freedom, when the U.S. Cavalry burned the Comanche encampment of men, women, and children in the canyon and stole 1,400 horses. Facing winter without their stores and horses, the Comanches walked 200 miles back to the Fort Sill Reservation in Oklahoma and surrendered. You can read a great account of the Comanches in S.C. Gwynne's "Empire of the Summer Moon".

RISD 2016 Bond Tour: Three Takeaways

The Richardson school district (RISD) is conducting a "listening tour" to get community feedback on a proposed 2016 bond package. Meetings were held last week at three high schools and a fourth meeting, at Richardson High School, is scheduled for December 8. The Wheel covered the first meeting at Pearce High School in an earlier post. Here are my additional takeaways after the first three meetings.

OTBR: The Little Chapel at Rottman

Latitude: N 48° 14.448
Longitude: E 011° 57.552

A child on a road trip with his family asks, "Where are we?" and the father answers, "Let's check the map. We're off the blue roads [the Interstate Highways marked in blue on the road atlas]. We're off the red roads [the US and state highways]. We're off the black roads [the county highways]. I think we're off the map altogether." It was always my dream to be off the map altogether.

After the jump, a few of the random places (and I mean random literally) that I visited vicariously last month that are "off the blue roads".