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When a student says that an author "rambles on and on", I have to channel my inner-yoga guru to calm down before proceeding calmly on with the lesson or activity.

Why such professorial ire? Because when a student says that an author "rambles on", this is what he or she means: because I'm used to being fed Twitter-sized bites of literacy pertaining to sex, violence, and gossip, anything that offers explanation, justification, evidence, and logic, I will label as ...

YouTube Education

YouTube education
In looping, 5-minute
Flashes and rotation:
Tell me that you "Like" it.

Post your thoughts and wisdom:
"Boring or awesum,
Or that Obama sux"
Legare globus lux


Expiration
A loose-limbed star,
A limp, little rawr:
Apathetic
As a wood tick --
In this meeting
I suck the dead
Expiration
In the gloaming ...

I spent the 4th of July on the shore of the great Gitche Gumee with family, friends, fireworks, a cold north wind, cheap American beer, new kayaks, a pan of room-temperature lasagne, plenty of bug spray, and a copy of Leaves of Grass.

We lit fireworks from the beach, drank too much, and talked loud. Got me feelin' the love for Americ-y. So I thought about the best patriotic songs of all time and I came up with a "best-of" list of 'em.

NOTE: This list is definitive ...

Summer's here and with it come summer projects and, any chance I can, time on the water. This summer I bought a new kayak and I've been foolish about it ever since, taking it out three days this week alone.

Recently, I've enjoyed paddling the backwaters of an area reservoir; it's filled with wild life and most motorized boats don't go near it because, unless you are expert at finding the deep river channel, the area is far too shallow and unpredictable to navigate safely. But kayaks ...

I can trace most of my joys, pensive moments, and profound decisions to a body of water: I asked my wife to marry me as we sat beside a lake in a state park. I spent hours skippin' stones along the length of the "crick" back home. I know the local waterways as I know the road to work.

Here are some fragments water and me: beers with my brother and a mess of rainbows on a stringer beside us; walking on the frozen reservoir and the terrifying thrill of hearing the ice crack ...