It's more than 15 years since I wrote the posts below, retrieved today because Barry Wellman isn't well. I had a conversation with his beloved wife Bev, who is at his side, and found myself wondering just when it was that we first met. To my astonishment I see that I recorded it - in a
World War II has been on my mind this year, so when I noticed a small red paperback on a bookshelf and realized it was a bit of propaganda written by Daphne du Maurier, the hugely popular novelist, I started reading it.The book was published when groups on both sides of the Atlantic were trying to
This is going to be a chronological report of Amazon's latest, and so far most incompetent, assault on small publishers and self-published authors: Friday Saturday Sunday Hello from Amazon Selling Partner Support, I realize the importance this has for you and your business. I know this has an impact on your business, and I will
I've been running a listserv called TheHillGB for some years now, and just received this question from a member: "I am considering creating a listserv for work-related purposes. As moderator of this list, do you have any good resources for the whats and hows of developing and maintaining a strong, functional listerv?" (The word listserv was original
Our friend and colleague Catherine ZHOU kindly translated some introductory sections from Karen Christensen's in-progress book Home Ecology. Versions of these tips were included in some of her previous books, and she is busy compiling and writing a new guide that will focus on preparing for climate change, but also deal with other issues close to
Karin Vaneker, a writer and activist in the Netherlands, has been helping me by tackling subjects that haven’t yet attracted much scholarly research for the second edition of the Encyclopedia of Sustainability. She’s written, for example, on including composting and community gardens - important, relevant, and yet somehow a little too close to home for
I’ve felt low this week and I’m not sure why. Of course I know why. The world’s in a mess, and my own country is amongst the worst of it. But I’m not sure why it struck me so hard this week. The feelings come in waves: I feel tense, angry, overwhelmed. I just want to
W E B Du Bois, a great US intellectual & civil rights activist, grew up right here in Great Barrington, Massachusetts. I can think of no more appropriate way to affirm that Black Lives Matter than to quote some passages by Du Bois today. I’ve been browsing his writings, and am astonished at their range.
I started the Encyclopedia of Chinese Cuisines both as an excuse to eat and as what I thought would be a pleasant escape from the political drama of publishing about China. That led to our publishing books like The Way of Eating and Asian Cuisines, and to my work on gastrodiplomacy. Now, during the COVID-19 crisis, we’re planning a major project on
“Both hands!” cried John, the laird of the castle. I had missed again, and as I whirled on I breathlessly sympathized with him. How hard could it be, he must wonder, to get that second hand in place? I tried again, hooking arms with the next man, spinning, spinning again, and - damn - my second
