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PlanetNancy • Ideas in Orbit

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The View From Planet Nancy

Short Essays.  The kinds of things you think about when you look at the sky and your mind wanders.

What Practice Makes

Topics: Health, Practice

If you do a daily mind-clearing activity, you have a practice. A yoga practice. A singing practice, a dance practice, a walking, drawing, meditation or jump-rope practice.

Radiant Light

Topics: Catholicism, Patriarchy, Women

The post-World War II family in which I grew up marked the months and minutes of the years with the rituals and disciplines of patriarchal Irish Catholic fundamentalism.

Bark At Nonsense

Topics: Critical Thinking

The antidote to feeling powerless is, of course, action–but what kind of action? There is one thing you can always do.

Mankind Syndrome

Topics: Mankind Syndome, Worldview

Mankind. That’s everybody, right? All of humanity. Sure, there’s the controversial “man” in there, but it’s the kind of man that stands in for “people.”

Rum Spirits

Topics: Alcohol, Haiti

Since most people won’t squander their limited financial resources on alcohol, I’ve ended up knowing a lot of Haitians who are happy to take a drink now and again, but hardly ever do.


Uncle Bernie

Topics: Family

When my grandmother’s parents died, she inherited the Victorian house and the bachelor uncles, the youngest of whom, Uncle Bernie, still lived there when I was a child.

Three Things

Topics: Haiti, Teaching

I was teaching math. There were 40 students. Each day we did a different hands-on activity in groups, using available materials, like pebbles, folded paper, or a string compass.

Remember the Darts?

Topics: Family, Truth

There’s a favorite story in my family that’s only  three words long.  Remember the darts?

Reasons for Haiti

Topics: Haiti, Travel

I washed a lot of laundry by hand, pressed blue gingham dresses with a charcoal iron, made peanut butter, went to the market, walked hills and trails to visit people and had bewildering conversations. 

All You Gotta Do

Topics: Hippies, Palouse

Quite a few years ago, in the summer of 1984, I was living the hard core back-to-the-land Idaho panhandle hippie dream.  Chopping wood and carrying water was the least of it.

Imagine the Imagination

Topics: Creativity, Imagination

Are all invisible things imaginary?  Emotions, electromagnetism, and the whole underground part of the tree….

Tacit Galaxy

Topics: Assumptions, Science

Twice in two days I’ve heard comparisons that link the number of neural connections in the brain to the number of stars in a galaxy.

Teaching Spanish in Haiti

Topics: Haiti, Teaching

One of the more absurd things I’ve done in Haiti is teach Spanish.  Not that it’s absurd for Haitians to learn Spanish. 

The Best Granola

Topics: Food

I make The Best Granola in the World. I will tell you how, and then you can make The Best Granola in the World, too.

Our Dad

Topics: Family, POW, World War II

Our dad had glasses and blue eyes, smoked Taryton cigarettes, and wrote with his left hand. Like everyone’s dad, he fought in The War.

Bananagrams Around the World

Topics: Africa, Bananagrams, Travel

Bananagram letters clicked into place by candlelight next to tall bottles of Brakina beer, under palms on a beach over whose south-facing ocean the sun neither rises nor sets.  


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News and Events

Nancy blogs weekly for the Latah Recovery Community Center, sharing writing ideas that support self-awareness and self-esteem.


Looking for an art project that is secretly full of math? Or a math project that results in interesting art? Equilateral Triangle is an Inquiry Pack full of project ideas that will keep you thinking for a long time.


Writing classes and workshops

In-person Write-For-You workshops at the Latah Recovery Center have been suspended for a bit, but you can still do the writing prompts on your own. For more information, about the Write for You program, or if you are in recovery and interested in writing coaching, contact Nancy.


 

Let’s Talk About It

This is a program that supports reading and discussion in libraries throughout the state of Idaho.

Working with the Program Committee, I updated the theme The Humanity of Science and Technology.


 

2021-22 Let’s Talk About It Discussions

November 10 – Tuesdays with Morrie – Clearwater Memorial Library – Orofino

 

November 18 – A Home Below Hells Canyon – Boise Basin District Library – Idaho City

 

February 8 – The Girl Who Fell From the Sky – Grangeville Centennial Library – Grangeville

 

February 15 – Sweet Promised Land – Garden Valley District Library – Garden Valley

 

March 23 – Less – Coeur d’Alene Public Library – Coeur d’Alene


Nancy Casey's Books

All the Way to Second Street

All the Way to Second Street front cover
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COPYRIGHT 2016 ALL RIGHTS RESERVED. NANCY CASEY | MOSCOW, ID.