Ways of Seeing: English offers constant challenge

Why is it that you can say “a big old white house,” but “an old white big house” is clearly wrong?

In terms of making laws and rules for an entire country, who should decide what is bad?

This past month (April) was Ramadan this year, and on May 2 Eid al-FItr was celebrated to end the month of fasting.

People are talking about the crisis in Ukraine in drastically different terms than they would if it was taking place in a poor black country.

After a year’s hiatus due to COVID, our family resumed our annual family trip this past January.

My father recalled a day during elementary school when all the kids from the school were taken down to the Town Hall, and everyone was given a polio vaccine.

When my daughter started at Bristol Elementary I realized things have changed a lot since I went to school there. 

I sometimes have a lot of time to think while I’m at work. When you spend seven or eight hours scraping paint, your mind is free to wander, and lately my mind has journeyed from the lead in the paint I was scraping to other inventions that, like lead in p … (read more)

This past year I got a croquet set for Christmas. I know, I know, croquet? The name conjures up images of British aristocrats playing on manicured lawns and upper class gentry at exclusive garden parties. While I am neither of these things, I was excited … (read more)

“Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press; or the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the Government for a redr … (read more)

I spent the month of January travelling with my family in Asia. We visited Hong Kong, Macau, Vietnam, and Cambodia. Just before our return we heard about a new virus in China. Coronavirus was just shutting down the city of Wuhan as we flew back from Cambo … (read more)

I like to be informed about what is happening, both locally and around the world, but I’ve been finding it harder and harder to watch the news over the last few years — perhaps even decades. I feel the news has strayed from its original intent, which was … (read more)