Blog: Not My First Rodeo

Before we begin, we must first understand what is concrete . . . . Timothy P. Dolen, “Historical Development of Durable Concrete for the Bureau of Reclamation” Paul Simon’s “ Like a Bridge over Troubled Water ” is my leading candidate for designation as the best known and most influential...

A Texan Article of Faith And push will always come to shove you On that midnight rodeo. Lyle Lovett, “Farther Down the Line” Note from Coloradan Limerick to Texan Lovett : The word “always” may be important for the song’s rhythm. But it doesn’t fit with this particular midnight rodeo...

Millions of people across the country and the world unite with the residents of Boulder in dismay over the sudden ending of ten lives, and in sympathy for the bereavement felt by family members, friends, and co-workers of the people who were killed. That is really all there is to...

“The lady doth protest too much, methinks.” William Shakespeare, Hamlet When I started college at the University of California at Santa Cruz in the late 1960s, I took to protesting like a duck to water. When I started hosting controversial speakers at the University of Colorado in the early 2000s,...

I do not propose to write an ode to dejection . . . Henry David Thoreau, Walden This Saturday, March 13, will be the one-year anniversary of the lockdown of the University of Colorado campus, when the offices of the Center of the American West closed down, and I began...

In the late 1930s and the early 1940s, a number of people who would play significant roles in shaping popular assumptions about the American West all worked at Republic Films: the actors John Wayne, Roy Rogers, and Gene Autry; the director John Ford; and the screenwriter Grant H. Nelson. In...

I am an impure thinker. I am hurt, swayed, shaken, elated, disillusioned, shocked, comforted, and I have to transmit my mental experiences lest I die. And although I may die. To write a book is not a luxury; it is a means of survival. Eugen Rosenstock-Huessy, I Am an Impure...

If we are very fortunate in our search, we can benefit from the articulate reflections of our ancient forebears . . . . [With their help, we can] look at ourselves with better and clearer vision. This, after all, is one of the best reasons for studying antiquity. Michael B...

A Horoscope in Perfect Harmony with My Task List Focus on creativity, be inventive, and keep moving until you finish what you started. February 3, 2021 (Writing Day for this Post) Creativity and its Squishers The banner image above represents a person whose mind is exploding with creativity . If...

Written words would make a bigger difference in the world if people actually read them. A frail attempt, by the author of “Not my First Rodeo,” to create a clever saying that people would want to quote— if they were to read it. Both sides had some right and some...