Author Archives: Uncomely and Broken

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About Uncomely and Broken

I am a classicist in Sewanee, Tennessee.

Protected: The Dance of the Graces

Posted on March 9, 2012 by Uncomely and Broken

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Canis Major

Posted on February 16, 2012 by Uncomely and Broken

It was cold but clear on Sunday night as I took out the trash and, as has become traditional, the dog rushed out with me for one last run around in the woods. She disappears into the dark but can … Continue reading →

Posted in Astronomical, Dogs, Family, Poetry, Sewanee | Leave a comment

Liesegang Bands Not Fossils

Posted on February 14, 2012 by Uncomely and Broken

We were out hiking one day last spring when I decided to rest on a large boulder while the boys played in a nearby stream.  As I got ready to sit down, I noticed some formations in the rock, pictured … Continue reading →

Posted in Sewanee, The South | 1 Comment

Protected: Adventures in Etymology! Cacafuego

Posted on February 13, 2012 by Uncomely and Broken

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Posted in Classics, England, Language & Etymology, Nautical | Enter your password to view comments.

Some Jars in Tennessee

Posted on February 7, 2012 by Uncomely and Broken

In the woods behind my house there is a bunch of junk.  Railroad ties, rusty oil drums, the top of a washing machine with an attached wringer, et cetera, all of it old, haphazardly deposited, and overgrown with moss.  My … Continue reading →

Posted in Poetry, Sewanee, The South | Leave a comment

Testa dell’Efebo

Posted on February 5, 2012 by Uncomely and Broken

Last fall, Humanities magazine published an essay I wrote about the relationship between a poem by Tennessee Williams and a statuette the playwright had once owned, now here in Sewanee.  Both are pasted below. Testa dell’ Efebo Of Flora did … Continue reading →

Posted in Poetry, Sewanee | Tagged | Leave a comment

“Redheads Mean Trouble”

Posted on February 4, 2012 by Uncomely and Broken

Sometime back in the 90’s, my wife found this old notebook that had belonged to my mother as a schoolgirl.  In it are several chapters of a murder-mystery she had written called “Redheads Mean Trouble.” I’m not sure how old … Continue reading →

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Blockheading and Boxing Enough

Posted on January 29, 2012 by Uncomely and Broken

The teaching of Latin a century or two ago was predicated on its very difficulty, the mastering of which offered a “mental discipline” that usually required an accompanying physical component.  Champions of classical education in the eighteenth and nineteenth century … Continue reading →

Posted in Boston, Classics, Education | 1 Comment

Pictures at an Exhibition, or, “The Value-added Potential of Liberal Education”

Posted on January 28, 2012 by Uncomely and Broken

For the Sewanee Faculty Retreat on August 20, 2010, the dean asked me to give a response to a remark in Louis Menand’s The Marketplace of Ideas, our assigned reading, about “the value-added potential of liberal education” (p. 56). I’m … Continue reading →

Posted in Education, Sewanee | 8 Comments

Ann Burns, Confederate Captive

Posted on January 28, 2012 by Uncomely and Broken

My cousin Theresa recently brought an intriguing story to my attention about my ancestor, Ann Burns (later Byron).  I had already known that she was at one time Ralph Walso Emerson’s cook and had been an important member of the … Continue reading →

Posted in Boston, England, Family, Ireland, Nautical, New England, The South | 3 Comments