We watched the Guardian documentary Gun Nation in Civics class yesterday. Well done. Profound. Check it out.

I was hoping my students would notice the calm and respectful tone. People with strongly held beliefs, based on valid experience, shared without name calling, yelling, interrupting, or insulting others. It was an emotional issue, but people […]

A lot of the the things I write happen because of found poetry. If I hear something said in class, or church, or on the street, or on the radio, or wherever else that resonates, I write it down. Sometimes I wrap a poem around it, or turn it into an essay or a story, or […]

I like ass. The word.

It’s like you’re going to ask something, but stop short.

It’s like you’re going to make a comparison, but then change the sound after the first letter.

And the things in front of ass are so interesting and varied.

And I love that the first sentence here seems risque because […]

This post is a continuation of #83.

“There is no book so bad… that it does not have something good in it.” – Miguel de Cervantes Saavedra, Don Quixote. This quote is used to open the introduction. I agree. Wayne moved to L.A. for ambitious, artistic reasons. I’ve done this. Wayne lived in L.A. […]

One English Classy skill is to make connections with a text. Sometimes it is framed this way: TEXT TO SELF, TEXT to TEXT, and TEXT TO WORLD. The more you read, and notice, and experience, the easier this gets.

I just read the first 8 pages of George Watsky’s How To Ruin Everything. I […]

I love things named Douglas. Maybe I don’t love all things named Douglas, but certainly these: the fir, the squirrel, the Scottish naturalist, the lounge and restaurant and music venue in Portland that is aptly described as Paul Bunyan meets The Jetsons, and my nephew.

And not in that order. Douglas, welcome. We’re glad you’re […]

I love passionate writing about subjects I may or may not know anything about. It’s almost better if I don’t think I like the topic. It’s the passion that I love. I want to hear about it, and know why others like it. Sometimes I’m converted, and sometimes I’m confused. I want to understand. I […]

I get embarrassed about what I don’t know. And I think I should know everything. Talk about a recipe for failure. I shouldn’t think like this. I’m getting over it. Me be fallible. I just wrote about collective nouns (Appreciation #78). I started to call them proper nouns, and then plural nouns, and then compound […]