December 4, 2009
Nippy out this morning. Went for a brisk walk with Peaches. Ran into Joe Yager. He's coming over in the morning to work on the John Deere (can't get the fuel glass to drain). Nice to have tractor savvy neighbors (hint: it helps if they're from Kansas).

Last night Abby and I posted the Ten Years: 100 covers feature. If you followed it here on the blog you may still want to track through it and see the wild mood swings we have made on our march to the present.

Powerful Words To Live (and Publish) By
I read with interest a travel piece in last Sunday's New York Times about hiking into the Grand Canyon. Several phrases caught my eye: "The modern world falls away," and "embracing the silence and the stillness." The author, Henry Shukman, who lives in Santa Fe, also had this evocative thought: "That's why it feels like a pilgrimage to come here. It's good to reflect that if America has a heart this just might be it."

These powerful words and phrases are at the heart of what we're trying to do with the magazine, and with this site. When we read the magazine and we gather here we want the modern world to fall away.

"There's a fine line between genius and insanity. I have erased this line."
—Oscar Levant