Showing Archived Posts

Here Yesterday, Gone Today

Posted May 27th, 2010 at 3:47 pm (UTC-4)
5 comments

If you’re one of those people who must have the latest news, the hottest song, the newest techno-toy, catch me next time. This posting, I’m going to take my sweet time waxing nostalgic. Let’s start up the street, at Bielski’s or Mankowitz’s or Schoeningruber’s store. For a century and more, corner stores were an essential […]

Tags: Posted in Uncategorized

Who am I?

Posted May 20th, 2010 at 4:11 pm (UTC-4)
4 comments

As your mother might have told you when she nagged you to scrub your face and comb your hair, how we look and what we wear say a lot about us. We make assumptions about people based solely upon their appearance. Disheveled young man: rock-band drummer? Neatly attired older woman: librarian, or maybe a banker? […]

Tags: Posted in Uncategorized

Heartbreak Parish

Posted May 12th, 2010 at 4:54 pm (UTC-4)
3 comments

It’s no longer news that on April 20th, the catastrophic explosion of an offshore rig sent an undersea gusher of oil boiling to the surface of the Gulf of Mexico off Louisiana. Or that winds, tides and time have overwhelmed efforts to contain a slick the size of Cyprus, spreading globs of emulsified goo to the […]

Tags: Posted in Uncategorized

Heartbreak Parish

Posted May 12th, 2010 at 4:51 pm (UTC-4)
4 comments

It’s no longer news that on April 20th, the catastrophic explosion of an offshore rig sent an undersea gusher  oil boiling to the surface of the Gulf of Mexico off Louisiana. Or that winds, tides and time have overwhelmed efforts to contain a slick the size of Cyprus, spreading globs of emulsified goo to the […]

Tags: Posted in Uncategorized

Surprise City

Posted May 5th, 2010 at 4:20 pm (UTC-4)
3 comments

Here’s a classic non sequitur: Watercress and rockets. Let me put it in the form of a question: How did Huntsville, Alabama, once a dozy little southern town whose notable claim to fame was its reputation as “The Watercress Capital of the World” morph into a globally renowned “Rocket City” almost overnight? And how did […]

Tags: Posted in Uncategorized

Who’s Counting?

Posted April 27th, 2010 at 3:47 pm (UTC-4)
1 comment

I received, completed, and returned my 2010 Census form the other day. This was Carol’s and my part of the decennial, or every-10-year, count of adults and children — citizens and non-citizens — living legally or illegally in the United States. “Count” is the operative word, for the Census is not all that it used […]

Tags: Posted in Uncategorized

More Meanderings

Posted April 20th, 2010 at 12:24 pm (UTC-4)
2 comments

I have discovered the latest medical fib, on the order of “this won’t hurt a bit” and “the doctor will be with you shortly.”  I recently went under the 21st Century equivalent of “the knife,” involving assorted probes and scopes and zapper devices rather than scalpels.  But the prep hasn’t changed: Strip buck naked and […]

Tags: Posted in Uncategorized

This ‘n’ That

Posted April 9th, 2010 at 12:02 pm (UTC-4)
1 comment

Over the weeks that you and I have been figuratively tramping around the American West together, I’ve been stuffing clippings and notes in my pocket.  At the risk of revealing how diffuse and cluttered my mind has become, here are four of the items that caught my eye. No Sweat With the nation still scuffling […]

Tags: Posted in Uncategorized

Arid Arizona

Posted April 2nd, 2010 at 2:56 pm (UTC-4)
6 comments

Let’s conclude our odyssey through the West with a look at dry yet surprisingly green Arizona. Green, thanks to irrigation and irrigation alone. Without it, the bulk of Arizona would still be brown and barren. There’d be no Phoenix-to-Tucson mega-city, no spring “Cactus League” Major League baseball games, no farming to speak of. The West […]

Tags: Posted in Uncategorized

Hugging the Left Coast

Posted March 30th, 2010 at 2:38 pm (UTC-4)
1 comment

Let’s get back to our California expedition, starting at the beach. A quick factoid: 54 percent of the people in the United States live within 80 kilometers (50 miles) of our shorelines. That makes historical sense, since settlement naturally began on the east, west, and Gulf coasts and moved inland. So you’d think that packing […]

Tags: Posted in Uncategorized

Ted Landphair

About

This is a far-ranging exploration of American life by a veteran Voice of America “Americana” reporter and essayist.

Ted writes about the thousands of places he has visited and written about as a broadcaster and book author. Ted Landphair’s America often showcases the work of his wife and traveling companion, renowned American photographer Carol M. Highsmith.

Ted welcomes feedback, questions, and ideas. View Ted’s profile. Watch a video about Ted and Carol by VOA’s Nico Colombant.

Photos by Carol M. Highsmith

Calendar

March 2024
M T W T F S S
« Nov    
 123
45678910
11121314151617
18192021222324
25262728293031