An Irish Storyteller
In the town of Ballybay, in the County of Monaghan, four roads converge beside Lough Mór. The Dromore River meanders south of this Irish town. Tommy Makem, The Godfather of Irish Music, sang about a young lass in Ballybay who had a wooden leg to which she tied a string and played it like a fiddle. Along Clones Road sat an old nursing home where another storyteller was born in 1951. A nun wrapped the infant, Mick Bolger, in a blanket...
Cowboy rhymes with thyme
Cowboys driving cattle after the Civil War cooked on hot, smoky coals and recited homemade poetry. They flavored their beans with molasses and stories. The chuckwagon was the kitchen cabinet. Poems were the entertainment. Mix in some rain and dust, add a heavy dose of lonesome, and a pinch of Irish storytelling, Scottish seafaring, Mexican horsemanship and African improvisation and you have the original recipe. John...
A Mount Evans fixture
Karl Snyder has been driving from Boulder, Colorado (5,430 ft above sea level) to the top of Mount Evans (14,264 feet ASL) to shoot photographs ever since he got his first driver’s license way back when. The Forest Service rangers know him. The staff at the Echo Lake Lodge know him. And anyone who has searched the Internet for information on the trip up the highest paved road in North America knows his website. Coming out of the...
Pursuing marriage
Lisa Anderson asks her young adult listeners why they aren’t pursuing marriage, questioning their dating styles, their cohabitation and their infatuation with their careers, trying to give them a vision for marriage and help them understand that it is critical to their future. Anderson sees her role as encouraging her 39,000 listeners to move beyond “adultescence”, an ambiguous developmental stage between adolescence and adulthood....
America’s carousel conservator
From 1885 to 1928, an estimated 4,000 wooden carousels operated in the United States; less than 300 of those exist today, about 150 of which are operational. They were carved and painted by European immigrant craftsmen who were proud to be in America. Patriotic images such as eagles, flags and banners were used extensively. Will Morton has spent half his life using his form of exploratory craftsmanship to reveal the character and...