Life in Kana-text (er… CONtext)
I had a pleasant email this morning from a fellow blogger, JJ Pickletoes, and one of his questions deserved some thought. And as I thought, I remembered a principle I followed as a teacher: if one person asked the question, other people probably had that same question too. In a classroom, I'd address it openly … Continue reading Advice for Mr. Pickletoes
In the Philippines, the streets are crowded with--- Well, I could just make that a full stop. The streets are CROWDED. But among the things that crowd them are specimens of a form of public transportation known as the "Jeepney"---a sort of mashup between jeep and school bus, often open-sided and always painted with incredible … Continue reading Here a Duck, There a Duck
Baby green sea turtles hatch on the beaches of Baja California on the Sea of Cortez, hump their way toward the water, and vanish in the surf. They vanish for five years, before they return to those beaches to lay their own eggs. In his achingly lyrical Telling Our Way to the Sea, Aaron Hirsch … Continue reading The Turtle-Shell Autobiography
In the course of writing my whale-sized whaling novel, I've accumulated a long shelf's worth of books on whaling, and whales, and wooden sailing ships, and navigation---because for a nerd-brain like mine, at least half the fun is in the research and the details. the whaling "research library" For a nerd-brain like mine, having gone … Continue reading When the Journey IS the Journey
One of my favorite coffee mugs was a gift from my sister, covered all over with "famous first lines" of novels. I have a degree in English literature, and I still had to look a few of them up---I guess they can't all be "Call me Ishmael." But I do think there's one first line … Continue reading On Hobbits & Hobbit-Holes
The summer I was 17, my uncle took my younger sister and me for a live-aboard week sailing around Lake Michigan. It was the beginning of my love-affair. I was already on a course toward Marine Biology studies, didn't yet have "my" lighthouse tattooed on my arm, but was on that course too, captivated by … Continue reading What Dreams are Shaped Like
It's a word of my own coinage, particular to post-childbirth and post-menopausal experiences---a mashup of "chortle" and "tinkle." A mashup word for the mashup experience. A chinkle is a laugh that makes you wee a little. At the risk of venturing into TMI territory: in earlier stages of my life, damp panties were indicative of … Continue reading Stop, Don’t Make Me Chinkle!
Kana's Chronicles 