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Diamonds and crayons are forever (practically)

Posted by Staff on September 27, 2022 - 6:16am

A crayon recycling collection box can be found in the children's area of the Bluffton Public Library.

By Liz Gordon-Hancock

Don’t throw your unwanted crayons away! According to Crayola’s website, Crayola crayons are made of paraffin wax, which is refined from petroleum. That means crayons take years to biodegrade if thrown away and taken to landfill. 

According to the National Crayon Recycle Program, 12 million crayons are produced each day. That makes a potential 12 million crayons going into landfill tomorrow. 

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Memories of the first day of school and favorite teachers

Posted by Staff on August 29, 2022 - 7:32am

The following reflections on being a student and a teacher come from columnist Bill Herr who taught high school for 32 years. He taught math at Bluffton High School from 1975-1995.

By Bill Herr

Yahoo! School is starting.

When I taught high school I really enjoyed the first day back. The students were excited to see their friends and they often wore new clothes. The teachers were excited. I always asked the students to write what they did that summer. And I asked them to write the names of their siblings in case I had them in school before. They needed to know that I cared about them beyond the classroom. 

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Book Review: Horse

Posted by Staff on August 22, 2022 - 7:45am

Review by Robert McCool

Horse, A Novel (ISBN; 978-03999-56296-9) by Australian author Geraldine Brooks tells a tale of one of the greatest racehorses ever, focused through the dark camera obscura of slavery, when people could be owned like horses. This book is about that ownership.

The book tells the true history of a horse and its young Black groom named Jarret in 1850, before the Civil War. Jarret is there when the foal Darley is born. Darley's name soon becomes Lexington, and Jarret loves and stays with the horse through the animal's whole life.

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Book Review: Navajo mythology comes alive after the climate apocalypse

Posted by Staff on August 8, 2022 - 9:01am

Review by Robert McCool

If you have read Tony Hillerman you know the legends and folktales about immortal beings living in the Sacred Mountains that surround the Dine'tah (the Navajo reservation). Those same mountains protected the parched desert that is now the Dine'tah when the apocalypse drowned most of the world with the “Big Water.” And, after the Energy Wars there wasn't enough fuel to maintain the lifestyle we enjoy now. The world lay fallow and empty without an apology from anyone. These are dystopian tales.

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Book Review: Navajo mythology comes alive after the climate apocalypse

Posted by Staff on August 1, 2022 - 7:18am

By Robert McCool

If you have read Tony Hillerman you know the legends and folktales about immortal beings living in the Sacred Mountains that surround the Dine'tah (Navajo reservation). Those same mountains protected the parched desert that is now the Dine'tah when the apocalypse drowned most of the world with the “Big Water.” And, after the Energy Wars there wasn't enough fuel to maintain the lifestyle we enjoy now. The world lay fallow and empty without an apology from anyone. These are dystopian tales.

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Book Review: Chasing History

Posted by Staff on July 25, 2022 - 5:41am

By Robert McCool
Icon Columnist

“A kid in the newsroom” is the subtitle of Carl Bernstein's new book, a memoir of his start in journalism. Chasing History (Thorndike Press, ISBN- 13: 978-4328-9865-6) is Bernstein's account of his own history during a most interesting time in our country's historically turbulent 1950s and early ‘60s.

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