I was a student in the University of Iowa Writer's Workshop when Andrew Vachss's first novel FLOOD came out. I bought my copy at Prairie Lights Bookstore in downtown Iowa City. I was blown away by his writing and his unrelenting examination of the Dark Side and the...
[I originally wrote this in response to the Boston Marathon bombing. In light of recent chatter and the anniversary of 9/11, I thought I'd post it again. May you find it useful.] Whenever there's a major terrorist event, a number of mainstream television and radio...
A human being should be able to change a diaper, plan an invasion, butcher a hog, conn a ship, design a building, write a sonnet, balance accounts, build a wall, set a bone, comfort the dying, take orders, give orders, cooperate, act alone, solve equations, analyze a...
This is from a continuing series of dispatches on community resilience in my persona as the Resilient Nomad; some of these may appear in different format over on John Robb's blog www.resilientcommunities.com. "They kicked in his door, and put him and his whole family...
Three of my favorite topics in one sentence! I'm working on several things simultaneously, as I often do, and a question came up from some friends about how to integrate all their learning to solve certain problems in their lives. One of the basic principles of...
I spent a significant portion of the last four months looking at resilient communities all over the country for John Robb's site www.resilientcommunities.com. I have a post there today, about how to jump start a barter economy. We're seeing the exact thing happening...
This is part of a continuing series on various disaster and emergency preparedness issues offered as a way to promote local community resilience. I also contribute these articles often on John Robb's site www.ResilientCommunities.com. During the First Gulf War (Desert...
I'm at a point in a book project where I have this old gray beard, who's done a few things in his time, passing a few tips along from a lifetime of dealing with various problems...a few of the things on this list are things I've heard, a few are my thoughts, some of...
In preparation for the serious weather settling in on us, here’s some useful information from my files. The first is a yes/no survey to assess your general level of preparedness; the second assesses your ability to handle a minimal power outage/winter storm...