Nature's first green is gold,
Her hardest hue to hold.
Her early leaf's a flower;
But only so an hour.
Then leaf subsides to leaf.
So Eden sank to grief,
So dawn goes down to day.
Nothing gold can stay.

-Robert Frost

Yay for Employment!

Our news of the week is that Jessica has just been offered at adjunct teaching spot (2 classes) for next fall--YAY!

That's really all I had to say. Enjoy your weekends, everyone!

Can you walk "ten miles at a stretch"? Weakling!

The below predictions appeared in the December 1900 issue of Ladies Home Journal. Made by "the most learned and conservative minds in America," according to the article's author, they were to describe what life would be like in the year 2000.

The best part is that they weren't entirely wrong--in fact quite prescient in some cases, but that they are just wrong enough to make them hilarious.





Prediction #1: There will probably be from 350,000,000 to 500,000,000 people in America and its possessions by the lapse of another century. Nicaragua will ask for admission to our Union after the completion of the great canal. Mexico will be next. Europe, seeking more territory to the south of us, will cause many of the South and Central American republics to be voted into the Union by their own people.”


Prediction #3: Gymnastics will begin in the nursery, where toys and games will be designed to strengthen the muscles. Exercise will be compulsory in the schools. Every school, college and community will have a complete gymnasium. All cities will have public gymnasiums. A man or woman unable to walk ten miles at a stretch will be regarded as a weakling.

Prediction #6: Automobiles will be cheaper than horses are today. Farmers will own automobile hay-wagons, automobile truck-wagons, plows, harrows and hay-rakes. A one-pound motor in one of these vehicles will do the work of a pair of horses or more. Children will ride in automobile sleighs in winter. Automobiles will have been substituted for every horse vehicle now known. There will be, as already exist today, automobile hearses, automobile police patrols, automobile ambulances, automobile street sweepers. The horse in harness will be as scarce, if, indeed, not even scarcer, then as the yoked ox is today.

Prediction #28: There will be no wild animals except in menageries. Rats and mice will have been exterminated. The horse will have become practically extinct. A few of high breed will be kept by the rich for racing, hunting and exercise. The automobile will have driven out the horse. Cattle and sheep will have no horns. They will be unable to run faster than the fattened hog of today. A century ago the wild hog could outrun a horse. Food animals will be bred to expend practically all of their life energy in producing meat, milk, wool and other by-products. Horns, bones, muscles and lungs will have been neglected.

The full list is here. Please identify what you feel is the most PRESCIENT prediction and the most RIDICULOUS.

My current vote for prescient goes to the final two lines of #28 above.

My current vote for ridiculous is a tie between #16 and #17: " There will be No C, X or Q in our every-day alphabet" and "A university education will be free to every man and woman."

Hello from the Land of Busy

It has been so long since we posted...and so much has happened (hmmm--might there be a connection?). We went to Boston for a long weekend so Jess could attend a conference, where we got to catch up with old friends and explore a new city. Easter weekend we spent with Jess's family, and this past weekend Andy sang in a friend's wedding.

And now here we are.

We have been meaning to post photos, but things are a little crazy right now so we just haven't had time to download them from our camera. But, we did want to let everyone know (who hasn't seen us in person recently to find out) that we learned where we will be spending next year--in Northfield, MN! Andy has been assigned to complete his internship with the student congregation at St. Olaf College. So we are excited about that, though we are very sad to be leaving the proximity of friends here in the Cities (but we'll only be an hour away!).

So, that's the news for now. We'll find out more details about when exactly we're moving, where exactly we'll be living, what exactly Jess will be doing for the year, etc. in the coming weeks and will keep you updated.