|
 Word
Worth Volume II, 2002, Issues are available by clicking on the name of
the month below.
Adobe Reader is needed to access them. A free copy is available
here: |
|
Editorials |
Arts |
Columns |
| Choosing
a College
by Marien Helz |
January |
Winter
Landscape by
Susan Johnson |
| It’s
well known that a college education is one of the biggest investments that
we make. High school counselors have gotten better and better at helping
parents and students make the right college decisions, and colleges are
getting better at attracting the students who are a good fit with their
institution. Still, too little attention is paid to the fact that if a
student and a college are not a good fit, ... they usually lose...
time... and...money.... |
Photography by
Tiffany M. Stuck |
While
for some people it may be enough to know that our cold temperatures
ultimately give way to spring flowers, others insist on enhancing their
winter landscape. Choosing plant material with desirable characteristics,
lighting plants and statuary, and constructing living space under glass to
make it a permanent part of the garden (regardless of the weather) can
answer our needs for nature on even the shortest days following the
solstice. |
| ...
Frederick Douglass
by Marien Helz |
February |
Xeriscaping
by Wayne Johnson |
|
The
objective ... is for there to be History, as correct and even as
possible. But as the parent is constantly saying to the young child on a
long car trip, "No, we’re not there yet." We, therefore, are
paying tribute in February, Black History Month, to Frederick Douglass, a
remarkable human being by any standard. |
Photography by
Armin W. Helz |
...Soon
the newcomer learns that green in the desert is not only politically
incorrect, it’s ecologically unwise....
As a result of eco-writers like Abbey, and the pervasive
effects of the droughts, conservation and the sensible use of available
water resources, including xeriscaping, has become a pertinent topic. |
|
Timeless Poetry
by M H Perry |
March |
Lotusland
by Susan Johnson |
|
It
is the artist’s task... to make it new. The poet must say what has been
said thousands of times but say it differently, say it so that the harp
string in the core of a person is struck and vibrates with recognition, so
that they think and feel as they did when they first saw something, as
discovery first wafted over them. |
Poetry Selections
of
Alastair Reid |
Lotusland’s current collection leaves
little to be desired. In fact, what the garden does leave you with is a
strong desire to see it again—to see once more the living characterization
of a surreal dream world brought to life by a woman who was faithful only to
her love of the extraordinary.
|
| Innocence
by Insanity
by Marien Helz |
April |
A
Right to Silence?
by Susan Johnson |
Andrea Yates’ crimes were actions so aberrant that by their very nature,
they indicate insanity.
Yet for both Smith and Yates, the insanity defense was
unsuccessful. In essence, the juries’ decisions were a statement that
there are some crimes for which one cannot be insane enough to be innocent
by reason of insanity. |
Photography by
Tiffany M Stuck |
It took decades before smokers were finally ousted from offices and
restaurants. Lessons learned from smoke pollution ought to be helpful in
the law-making process of prohibiting sound pollution so that years from
now we won’t have the same sort of lawsuits against noise-making
machinery makers that we now have against the tobacco conglomerates. |
| Tabooing
the Language
by Marien Helz |
May |
The
Ethics of Silence
by Susan Johnson |
|
A number of years ago, Bill Watterson attacked sloppy language usage by
having his Calvin character say that he was going to do some "verbing
the language." Verbing the language is the annoying habit that some
people have of turning any word into a verb. "Verbing the
Language" is a clever example of the point Watterson was
making. A far more annoying habit is tabooing the language. |
Painting by
Pei-Hua Chiang
 |
Part
II "Sonar violates every environmental
law there is," says Dr. Green, "...And it's just as harmful to
humans. A Navy diver who was in the water near one of the areas being
tested suffered severe seizures and was hospitalized. A water guide who is
still recovering from severe endocrinological problems was in the water
during another test and suffered symptoms that were described ... as the
result of ‘acute trauma’." |
| Losing
Ally McBeal
Marien Helz |
June |
Chef
PORTALE
Susan Johnson |
Ally McBeal is dead and we
deeply lament being unable to lament its demise. It began as a show
which was hilariously shocking . It degraded to being weird. It further
degraded to being ludicrous.
The attention that the show received early on... due to the
clever use of technical devices and the creation of interesting
characters .... John Cage maneuvering in the court room or verbally
wrestling with Richard Fish. |
Poetry & Photography
by Ilina Sen
Of Calcutta, India |
"You’re
either a genius or you’ve worked harder than anyone else," said
Chef Alfred Portale of New York City’s Gotham Bar and Grill,
describing his philosophy of how a restaurant beats the odds to become a
brilliant success. "It also doesn’t hurt if your goal is to be
number one."...It’s clear ... that he considers himself in the
hard-working category but ... there’s no doubt that art and genius
play an important part as well. |
| All
Things Being Equal
Marien Helz |
July |
Victorian
Gardens Susan
Johnson |
Columnist John Rosemond wrote that after his column citing studies which
proved that children were better off with a stay at home mom, he
received an extraordinary amount of hate mail from women. We are sorry
that he received hate mail since hatred never enhances discourse, never
advances dialogue.
It should be
obvious that all things being equal, children are better off... |
Photography by
Armin W. Helz |
An eighteen year old fatherless girl walked down the aisle of
Westminster Abbey in 1837 and was crowned Queen of England. She reigned
for sixty-three years, the longest of any British monarch, and in doing
so, Victoria gave her name to an era of evolution.
At the same time, a number of
horticulturists and botanists were recording their knowledge... |
| David
and Diana
Marien Helz |
August |
Extreme
Gardener
Susan Johnson |
|
Trying to ignore the millions of photographs of Diana was impossible,
but I had never made the connection between the timeless work of art and
England’s late princess until I saw that large picture of the statue
of David and thought, "There’s Diana!" I realized that
Michelangelo’s work had the same magnetic draw that compelled us to
look at Diana’s picture whenever it appeared. |
|
A former media consultant who worked hard and retired at forty,
Romanczyk has spent the intervening nine years pursuing rare and unusual
seeds and plants. Obsessed with orchids as a child, he was importing
them by the time he was a teenager, receiving shipments from Southeast
Asia.
... postmarks from all over the world arrive at his Wyoming County
home. |
| Pacifism
Marien Helz |
September
|
The
Real Martyrs Susan
Johnson |
|
I have been a pacifist all my life both by nature and by conviction. I
have trouble, however, carrying this to its ultimate extreme. How many
of us can really believe that World War II was unnecessary regardless of
how much we deplore war? When a renegade government takes over a country
and not only murders millions of its own people but is determined to
take by force other countries... |
...After Ruth
Hitchings
"...women were serving mugs of tea to a few
fire fighters, wet, dirty and dispirited, so tired that they could
hardly stand, the lines in their faces emphasized by ash."
This was written not about NYC Sept 11 '01, but of Exeter, England, May
4, 1942 |
*
...by the dawn's early
light...
|
| If
You Can Read...
Marien Helz |
October |
The
Name of the Rose
Susan Johnson |
| There
are many teachers I could thank—Mrs. Snyder, the unsmiling English
teacher who took twelfth graders year after year and turned them into
college ready students who understood drama and knew how to write; Mrs.
Hargett, the tough and mean third grade teacher who put eighteen
language and grammar questions on the board every morning.... |
Darin Boville
|
|
| More
Lessons to Learn
Marien Helz |
November |
The
Play's the Thing
Susan Johnson |
|
It’s once again time to learn some lessons, and we need to be sure
that we learn the right ones. The D.C. area sniper case terrorized
millions of people, damaged the area’s economy, left ten people dead,
and three seriously wounded. They had taken delight in being hard to
catch and took that as a sign of their superiority. Cockroaches,
however, are hard to catch. |
Ron Colgrove
|
The richness of Buffalo’s theater community today is the return on an
investment made seventy-five years ago by Jane Keeler and Lars Potter
who, in 1927, founded the Studio Theatre School.
Today, Studio Arena Theatre School is the oldest continually
operating school associated with a resident theater in the United
States... |
| Baseball
Marien Helz |
December
|
Behind
the Lines
Susan Johnson |
|
Another World Series is over, and baseball is replaced with football on
the television sets throughout American homes. Those two sports bring
memories to every one of us, and baseball perhaps most of all brings
back feelings that we associate with our country and our culture. It’s
attached to thoughts of summer and apple pie and grandparents’
homes....We owe it... |
|
In his poem titled "Numbers," Carl Dennis writes about Li Po, a
poet long-dead, who, nonetheless, still stands "inches behind his
words". Of course, he means this figuratively, that what lives on is
Li Po’s character, not his physique. After all, a poet’s exterior life
has nothing to do with its interior, their faults or attributes cannot be
gleaned through observing their face or figure. |
