Steveawiggins

LATEST ARTICLES ( 4674 )

• 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

• The Horseman

  

  Washington Irving’s tale, “The Legend of Sleepy Hollow,” perhaps due to its being the earliest literaryAmerican ghost story, has been retold time and again. Read more

  Posted on 11 July 2022 POLITICS, RELIGION, SOCIETY

• The Birds and the Bees

  

  Our house came with a wood-plank fence surrounding the yard.  This is a dog neighborhood and just about everyone has a fenced in yard to keep their dogs in... Read more

  Posted on 10 July 2022 POLITICS, RELIGION, SOCIETY

• Having X

  

  The final girl is such a classic horror trope that even horror novels can be titled after it. You know the drill—teens hanging out, doing things that teens do,... Read more

  Posted on 09 July 2022 POLITICS, RELIGION, SOCIETY

• Tree Owners

  

  I hated to do it.  I always feel guilty afterwards.  I’d never have made it as a lumberjack.  We had a problematic green ash tree that someone might’ve planted... Read more

  Posted on 08 July 2022 POLITICS, RELIGION, SOCIETY

• Dangerous Fiction

  

  At the suggestion of a friend, I recently watched the documentary Daphne du Maurier in Rebecca’s Footsteps. I confess I haven’t read much of du Maurier’s work,... Read more

  Posted on 07 July 2022 POLITICS, RELIGION, SOCIETY

• Carter’s Creations

  

  Angela Carter was a novelist whose best known work is her short story collection, The Bloody Chamber. Often acclaimed as both gothic and feminist, these... Read more

  Posted on 06 July 2022 POLITICS, RELIGION, SOCIETY

• Places We’re From

  

  The places we’re from aren’t always where we’re born.  The funny thing about reaching “middle age” is the amount of reassessment that goes on.  Where we’re... Read more

  Posted on 05 July 2022 POLITICS, RELIGION, SOCIETY

• July Forth

  

  Independence Day.  What does it mean in a nation on the verge of a fascist takeover?  Supreme Court justices, themselves appointed by crooked but technically... Read more

  Posted on 04 July 2022 POLITICS, RELIGION, SOCIETY

• Virtual Unreality

  

  You walk into a bookstore and browse.  Maybe you’re looking for a specific topic, or something to fit your mood, but you don’t know exactly what.  Then a title... Read more

  Posted on 03 July 2022 POLITICS, RELIGION, SOCIETY