In the Ziegfeld Collection of International Children's Art, there is a set of pastels entitled Marine Animals, a diptych created around 1955 by an unknown artist  under the direction of Teacher Elias Nielsen at the Emdr...

We were sitting around the dinner table, telling stories as we do, when my six year old daughter began (verbatim), The Annoying Radio Once there was a radio. A very annoying radio. He lived in a store, and the store was owned by a man. The man sometimes heard the radio.  Once he turned on the annoying radio. And you know what the radio sang? "Hello, how are you doing, howdy! Want to hear a song?" "Okay," said the man. The radio sang, "A,B, C, D, E, F, G..." "Stop, stop, stop!" yelled the man. "Why are you singing that song?" "Because I like it," replied the ...

[caption id="attachment_181" align="alignleft" width="228"] Abe Lincoln[/caption] When I was eight, my father treated  us to a very special  field trip -- a visit to Macon County, Illinois, where my three brothers and I stood on hallowed ground: the spot where Abraham Lincoln lived as a young man. I remember the sweltering hot summer's day, having journeyed hundr...

With footsteps in the sand before the tide, it's hard to tell the coming from the going, the beginning from the end. They form a path, often obscure, to some point of return, or no return. It's a curiosity to stand in another set of prints and imagine the person to whom they belong, comparing their size and sha...

Schools are winding down, as those dog days of summer approach. Teachers grade final exams, prepare summer reading assignments, ponder the year past,  mail the report card, relish the staff lunch, take down the classroom calendar.