Steveawiggins

LATEST ARTICLES ( 4563 )

• Woman in the Wilderness

  

  The “Burnt Over District” is religious historian shorthand for upstate New York.  That particular region, during the “Second Great Awakening,” spawned so many... Read more

  Posted on 31 July 2022 POLITICS, RELIGION, SOCIETY

• Yep, Nope

  

  I can honestly say that I’ve never seen a movie that starts with a quote from Nahum.  I also honestly admit that Nope left me scratching my head, but very glad... Read more

  Posted on 30 July 2022 POLITICS, RELIGION, SOCIETY

• Beyond Natural

  

  I’ve read quite a few books about the supernatural. Often these books, which are mostly written by scientists, tend to show the problems with supernatural... Read more

  Posted on 29 July 2022 POLITICS, RELIGION, SOCIETY

• Twisted in Knots

  

  Our staycation at the Red Caboose in Ronks brought to mind the Weird Al Yankovic parody of “Amish Paradise.”  Bored-looking tourists in Lancaster County can’t... Read more

  Posted on 28 July 2022 POLITICS, RELIGION, SOCIETY

• The Magic of Cairns

  

  They’re one of those things, my daughter explained, that people do that make them so likable.  She was talking about building cairns. Read more

  Posted on 27 July 2022 POLITICS, RELIGION, SOCIETY

• Say It in Poetry

  

  I was listening to some Nick Cave the other day, and, as usual, I was quite taken by his lyrics.  I dusted off my poetry notebook and began to try to forge word... Read more

  Posted on 26 July 2022 POLITICS, RELIGION, SOCIETY

• Jekyll and Jekyll

  

  W. E. D. (“Marilyn”) Ross was a journeyman writer. Prolific, he produced more than 300 pot-boilers, and he only started writing at mid-life, which kind of... Read more

  Posted on 25 July 2022 POLITICS, RELIGION, SOCIETY

• Nope, Not Yet

  

  It’s perhaps this summer’s most hotly anticipated movie, but I’m not sure when I’ll get to see it. Jordan Peele’s Nope opened in theaters this weekend but I’ve... Read more

  Posted on 24 July 2022 POLITICS, RELIGION, SOCIETY

• Ancient West Asia

  

  You know what they say about old habits.  While various people are protesting things like critical race theory, there are still some scholarly holdouts for... Read more

  Posted on 23 July 2022 POLITICS, RELIGION, SOCIETY

• Ephrata Cloister

  

  Conrad Beissel isn’t exactly a household name.  I never heard of him until a visit to Ephrata Cloister during a Lancaster staycation. Read more

  Posted on 22 July 2022 POLITICS, RELIGION, SOCIETY

• Not Just Horsemen

  

  With the way they’ve been in the news, UFOs have started to arouse some curiosity. Since I’ve been reading about the culture of the Hudson, Linda Zimmermann’s... Read more

  Posted on 21 July 2022 POLITICS, RELIGION, SOCIETY

• Odd Getaway

  

  It’s small.  Almost cramped, you might say.  But then again, a Pennsylvania Railroad caboose wasn’t really designed to be a two-bedroom apartment with en suite... Read more

  Posted on 20 July 2022 POLITICS, RELIGION, SOCIETY

• Blog Writing

  

  From time to time someone will ask me about my personal writing process.  Those who know that I write at all, primarily, I suspect, think I do mostly blog posts. Read more

  Posted on 19 July 2022 POLITICS, RELIGION, SOCIETY

• Stay Safe

  

  I’m not an impulse buyer. Having grown up poor, I tend to walk into stores with a list firmly in hand and I don’t deviate from it. Advertising has virtually no... Read more

  Posted on 18 July 2022 POLITICS, RELIGION, SOCIETY

• Time Well Spent

  

  If you want a bookstore mostly to yourself, go on a fine, sunny summer weekend.  There will always be those with reading on their minds, of course, but since... Read more

  Posted on 17 July 2022 POLITICS, RELIGION, SOCIETY

• Tone Deafness

  

  isn’t just for music any more.  Perhaps because of the incessant torrent of the internet, we might think we understand something better than we do. Read more

  Posted on 16 July 2022 POLITICS, RELIGION, SOCIETY

• Bushkill

  

  Waterfalls are fairly plentiful in this part of the country.  Although they’re not the Rockies, the Appalachians are mountains, and mountains lead to waterfalls. Read more

  Posted on 15 July 2022 POLITICS, RELIGION, SOCIETY

• Sacred Hudson

  

  As scientific as we may wish to be, there’s no denying that there is a sense of place. We know that some animals, at least, also feel it. Read more

  Posted on 14 July 2022 POLITICS, RELIGION, SOCIETY

• First Images

  

  I awoke to an image from the James Webb Space Telescope.  Looking at the universe at it was 4.6 billion years ago is a humble and terrifying experience.  Our... Read more

  Posted on 13 July 2022 POLITICS, RELIGION, SOCIETY

• Celebrating Folk

  

  The whole ox on a spit was kind of disturbing, but there’s nothing artificial about folk tradition.  We’d come to take in a bit of the Kutztown Folk Festival. Read more

  Posted on 12 July 2022 POLITICS, RELIGION, SOCIETY