Ink Tea Stone Leaf

A place to get the words out

  • A fly in the ointment

    I was having a lovely time at the Portland Opera last weekend. The show was Verdi’s Fallstaff, a widely-acknowledged comedic classic adapted from Shakespeare’s The Merry Wives of Windsor. The leading man wonderfully embodied the rakish cavalier; the supporting cast sang beautifully and acted hilariously, and the orchestra was finely conducted from beginning to end. Continue reading

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  • Stopgap

    There won’t be a significant post this weekend, except for this one. There are a couple of reasons for this, and I’ll start with the one that would seem to be the most important: my computer is in the shop! Recently I purchased a new computer to replace the one I’ve had since 2011 or Continue reading

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  • Thoughts of a Tutor on Structure

    It should not be surprising to say that most high school students are not excellent writers. Most of them won’t have opportunities to get very much better at it when they aren’t students anymore, either. Many people tasked with writing anything of length seem to struggle with the organization of ideas into a logical progression. Continue reading

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  • The Squares of Squares

    Counting by the squares of squares,an escalation:One idea, the exception;Sixteen strokes of a pento sign essential orders for security;Eighty one minutes of sleepdivided by exhausted nightmares;Two hundred and fifty six accounts takenof extenuating circumstances;Six hundred and twenty five descriptions pulledfrom all existing manuscripts in storage;A thousand hopes extinguished,two hundred and ninety six deferrals;Two thousand, four Continue reading

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  • Why I went to the trouble

    Having just finished the second of two lengthy posts about the Beatles, I think a moment of self-reflection is in order. From a certain point of view, those posts were less about my longstanding obsession with history’s greatest band and more about the fact that two weeks ago, I was feeling really bad: bad enough Continue reading

  • How to Listen to the Beatles: Part 2 of 2

    Welcome back, readers from last week (and welcome anew, readers starting here). In my previous post about listening to the Beatles with intention, I wrote about the necessary context for understanding the band’s music. I discussed the way the Beatles functioned as a musical unit, the way their best-known compilation albums present their material and Continue reading

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  • How to Listen to The Beatles: Part 1 of 2

    You may be thinking just now, “I know how to listen to the Beatles, David: you type ‘the beatles’ into the search bar of the appropriate app and click on the nicest looking playlist that comes up.” Sure, wise guy. Go ahead and do that. You will almost certainly have a very nice time. But Continue reading

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  • Regarding the news in 2025

    I would once, just once, like to sample the news on a day when the prevailing tenor of the day’s events is not that “the world is growing more hostile to freedom, and that makes a lot of people feel better about themselves.” I could try to wax poetic about it, but that would be Continue reading

  • This bird has it too good

    Consider the bird. His name is Yoshi, and he is a green-cheeked parakeet, AKA green-cheeked conure. He gets the treatment depicted in this photo nearly every day of his life. Virtually whenever he wants, he can sit in my hand—not in the way that birds typically “sit” (which is really just standing), but rather as Continue reading

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  • The National Parks Conservation Association

    I began supporting this organization in 2017, when I perceived an increasing danger to the safety and integrity of America’s public lands and natural environment. It’s 2025, and as you may have observed in some of my writings, I am still perceiving mightily. The policies of the present administration create too many threats to our Continue reading

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