Kepler’s Mother: A Scary Story for Halloween

The seventeenth century was a period of scientific revolution. Astronomers, like Galileo, worked out the motions of the planets and stars in the sky, and overturned the concept that the earth stood at the center of the cosmos.* Galileo, Newton and others created a new science of mechanics that applied the laws of mathematics to…

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Road Trip Through History: Arbor Day Farm

My Own True Love and I spent last weekend at Arbor Day Farm in Nebraska City. It was a reunion with cousins from several branches and generations of his family. There was lots of laughing, talking, card-playing, and trash-talking. We walked Tree Adventure–a wonderful facility designed to combine education and amusement for kids. We tasted…

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Driving Through Iowa

The state of Iowa offers the road-tripper princely rest stops, complete with grand historical markers. For instance, the rest stop near Iowa City–home to the University of Iowa , the Iowa Writer’s Workshop, and the legendary Prairies Lights bookstore–is dedicated to the history of education in Iowa. I was delighted with the bookish decorations, which…

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