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Meeting Barry Wellman

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

By |2023-05-22T11:36:51-04:00May 19th, 2023|Berkshire Blog|0 Comments

More Lessons from World War II

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

By |2023-03-18T10:49:34-04:00March 18th, 2023|Berkshire Blog|Comments Off on More Lessons from World War II

Amazon No Smiles

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

By |2022-10-25T06:43:31-04:00October 24th, 2022|Berkshire Blog|0 Comments

How to run a neighborhood email group

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

Home Ecology Tips in English and Chinese

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

How to Help a Tree in Distress

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

By |2022-01-21T11:49:51-05:00January 21st, 2022|Berkshire Blog, Karen's Letter|0 Comments

Cooking Our Way Into The Future

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

By |2023-05-19T13:16:19-04:00May 31st, 2020|Berkshire Blog, Uncategorized|0 Comments

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