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First day freak out

The poor kid asked me outside the classroom shortly before class started. He shifted on his feet and plunged his hands into his pockets and back out. He himmed and hawed, cough nervously and called me “sir.” “I’m going to drop the class after we get done today,” he said.…

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American weird

The trek from Rawlins, Wyoming, to Lander took through an eerie, rolling landscape of sand hills and sagebrush. Coming down into Lander and Popo Agie River Valley, the scene turned green with irrigated hay and alfalfa fields and cottonwoods and willow on the snaking river bank. Somewhere in Lander we…

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The magical Don Brown

Over the last 25 years, Laramie has grown around its edges. Where before, it was a three-mile drive down Grand Avenue off of I-80 before you ran into anything—a bar, restaurant, the university. About the furthest thing from town was a Walmart that I never used, though, Lord knows, I…

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Roads to Yellowstone

I am just back from Yellowstone with the kids. Even as I look back on what we did, the things we saw, all I can think of now is the drive and what it means to me. A discussion of the family dynamic during the vacation will have to wait.…

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History? What is it good for?

The summer semester draws to a close and thank god for that. It’s been a long and grueling semester for my students. Since we have half the time to cover a 16-week’s semester’s worth of material, I ask a lot of them. I don’t dumb down or dilute the intellectual…

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