Bill Burton wanted a windmill in his backyard. Not as decoration, and certainly not to chase away birds, for Bill was their dedicated friend. No, he wanted windmills because he believed our future depends on them as one no-longer optional choice we must make to save our planet. “Should we persist in ignoring global warming, there’s more than a good chance that future generations won’t be able to make up for time lost.” Burton wrote those words in his Earth Day...

  It was a very bright idea indeed that struck Annapolitan Joel Machak and then partner Jim Ferguson a quarter of a century ago. Struck is a key word here. For in that moment of brilliance, the two ad men created the Crash Test Dummies Vince & Larry. For the next 14 years, from 1985 to 1998, Vince & Larry struck and were struck by all sorts of dismembering objects in a variety of collisions so inventive it seemed to be drawn from Looney Tunes. All to keep you safer while driving....

  The Sailing Emporium, Rock Hall, Maryland—Don’t you love how things fly into you out of the blue? Only the good things, of course. Last week’s letter, Who Says You’re Reading Less?, tickled the memory of an old university friend, who in turn set me remembering another life. “Loved your essay on books and reading choices,” wrote John Knoll. “Walter Ong is smiling.” This week’s letter should keep Father Ong smiling down from the heaven...

  Do you love a river? We’ve all got good reason to. Rivers wrote the American story. This land was penetrated, mapped and settled on the backs of rivers. You crossed an ocean so full of peril that the old maps told no lies in populating the big waters with sea monsters. You bumped ashore on some care-worn ship and began scratching out a living in the hard dirt. When you were ready to pick up and move farther inland, seeking something better, you rode a river. The ride wasn’t...