News from the Front Porch Republic
Greetings from the Porch,
We took a brief trip to Chicago this week while our house was being shown to prospective buyers. While there, I learned that the city's name comes from an Algonquin word meaning wild onion or garlic. It was a swampy area where such plants thrived. The ecological history of the city is quite fascinating; for instance, the Chicago River used to flow lazily into Lake Michigan, but in 1900 engineers reversed its flow, so it now drains through the Mississippi River.
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Doug Sikkema has some excellent recommendations in this week's Water Dipper, including an interview with Robert Macfarlane, what's lost when we cannot name our great-grandparents, and virtue signaling.
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Milton Friesen reviews My Vertical Neighbourhood, Linda’s McGibbon’s account of her experience as a newcomer to a high-rise condo in Toronto. She actively explores what it means to be a neighbour in the third dimension and challenges us to acknowledge that mutuality matters.
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In the new episode of the Cultural Debris podcast, Alan Cornett interviewed me about my new book, Wendell Berry, and the state of higher education.
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Elizabeth Stice reviews Sebastian Junger's new book, Freedom. The new book is a product of a roughly 400-mile hike Junger took with other men processing their war experiences. Junger's approach to freedom is based in reality and, as a result, speaks to real life.
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Daniel Ritchie explores how the #MeToo movement affects our reading of Alexander Pope's The Rape of the Lock. In turn, this comedy with a sad ending offers us a sense of balance for today's sexual politics.
What's on the docket for next week? A review of a French book about Silicon Valley food, a consideration of the cultural and theological meaning of food, and a report from Montana, where Californian exiles are flocking into the area.