These days, my time’s about as short as guys complaining about dating apps. As you age, scarcity and trade-offs compound like interest. Choices have to be made. Reading, researching, writing, scrolling, scanning. My list grows, shelves fill, files multiply. It’s a good time to pause and share the fruits of a few choices.
Reading
Spring has arrived in Dixie Alley. The old patterns follow. Hot-blooded Southern air meets dry cool Yankee air. Cavaliers and Roundheads in the wind. They do not make peace. They remember. As the air quarreled, I researched the subject and found this playlist; “Every Tornado Video on YouTube, 1933-1999,” a handful of books, and I listened to the audiobook Storm Kings: The Untold History of America's First Tornado Chasers by Lee Sandlin, my review:
Searching for colonial accounts of tornadoes, I came across Storm Kings. The audiobook’s worth a listen, though the title led me to expect something else. It's about how Americans came to study tornadoes, from John Winthrop to Increase Mather to Ben Franklin’s experiments to Signal Corps to War Department to Fujita. Some “experts”, naturally, refused to believe tornadoes rotated. And of course there's gatekeeping, petty squabbles, bureaucratic turf wars, data autists, and some men who thought, I'm going to spend my entire life learning everything one can about “a violently rotating column of air that extends from a thunderstorm to the ground.”
I recently finished Crabgrass Frontier: The Suburbanization of the United States by Kenneth T. Jackson. It’s a foundational text, and I’m still digesting it. Though the book focuses mainly on the Northeast, I may follow some of the Southern threads for future research.
This project wouldn’t exist without Jordan Poss. I’d spent years reading, collecting, and researching, but never felt compelled to write—until one day I did. I came across Professor Poss’s blog while following a trail I couldn’t retrace now. His writing inspired me to reach out, and his thoughtful advice helped lead to this Substack. Thank you, Sir. You can read his work and find his books at Jordan M. Poss dot com. He also writes the Quid Substack.
Also, if you are ever in Middle Tennessee, visit Landmark Booksellers and Elder’s Bookstore.
Scanning
On the “scanning” front, here are a two expensive rare out-of-print books you might appreciate:
The Southern Essays of Richard M. Weaver (and reviews)
So Good A Cause: A Decade of the Southern Partisan
These books are portals, each with a few of my favorite essays inside.
Also, I’m the first to digitize a copy of The World & I.
Scrolling
On occasion, I go to abebooks, type in a keyword, and sort by highest price. You never know what’ll turn up. Like this collection I found last night.
Writing
A selection from the Folkchain.
Harvest of Oddities:
Southern Issues:
From the Archives:
From the Shelves:
South Bound:
My Favorites:
That Crabrass book was a great, and in some ways a hard read, in a good way.