If you’ve only recently discovered NonDoc, we’re thrilled to welcome you as a new reader, but we also want to show off some of the work our contributors have been doing during the past eight months.
While we cover timely news topics, we also strive to provide a responsible public forum for commentary from a variety of voices. Many times, that commentary is “evergreen,” meaning it doesn’t have to be read on a certain day for it to be relevant to the public.
Pieces on math, on history, on legal matters and even life abroad as a woman offer insightful information that seeks to encourage conversations about these and related ideas.
So, here are five pieces since our Sept. 1, 2015, launch that are just as relevant today as they were when we published them.
Enjoy.
FROM: March 7, 2016
Master gardener: Quit wasting money in your garden by Fred Schneider
“Oklahoma must be full of rich gardeners who have excess money to burn and unlimited energy to expend in their gardens. Many seem to have little concern for water conservation, care little about habitat loss for our state’s birds, butterflies and insects, and only wish to have gardens like their neighbors.”
FROM: Dec. 19, 2015
SHORT STORY: It’s not the city. It’s you. by James Nghiem
“I was hosting an open mic at The Hollywood Hotel when I met the kid from Tennessee. He didn’t tell his parents where he was headed, packed up his car and drove to California with a few months’ worth of comedy experience and the expectation of making it or going home fast. He fumbled through his pockets for some quarters so that he could buy a drink to perform; a rule at this particular mic. I bought him a water to appease the bartender, then said he should probably find a job and a place to stay that wasn’t his car. Sleeping out of your car can go bad, I’d learned.”
FROM: Oct. 14, 2015
Former TFA corps member: ‘I thought I would teach forever’ by Meredith Simons
“If I’m being honest, my decision to leave education had something to do with the pay. It had something to do with the hours. It had a lot to do with the combination of the pay and the hours. I could handle making less than $40,000 a year, and I could handle working 70-hour weeks, but it didn’t make a lot of sense to do both at the same time.”
FROM: Sept. 2, 2015
If Trump wins, conventional wisdom loses, again by John Rowley
“Trapped in a conventional-wisdom echo chamber, these commentators have had a hard time distinguishing their personal beliefs from the feelings of Republican primary voters, because the Tea Party is not well represented on the talking-head circuit. After clearing my head of the conventional wisdom and assessing Trump’s strengths, weaknesses and audience, my prediction is that Trump will win the Republican primary. Here’s why.”
FROM: March 7, 2016
The whole world is watching Donald Trump by Rosemary Meacham-Zittel
“The most important element here is credibility. If Trump gets elected, the rest of the world will be laughing at Americans, moving us from the superpower of the world to the laughingstock of the world, eroding all the gains we’ve made while President Obama has been in office, especially in foreign relations. It would be like South Korea electing a President Psy. (You know, of Gangnam Style fame.)”
