Enter Aaron Westbrook’s lab at Antioch College, and the first thing you’ll see is a table full of arms and hands.

Years ago I had a friend, culturally but not religiously Jewish, who devised a third greeting: “Happy Hanukwanzamas!” I was there the day he worked it out on a piece of paper, fitting the three words together.

Camel crickets in the tub. Robinsong and its absence. A koi pond in winter. Hepatica, violet cress, bloodroot, Virginia bluebells. The “iconography” of light on a wall. Memories of adolescent devotion in a Catholic seminary. All of these subjects illuminate local almanac writer Bill Felker’s new book.

In memory, snow fell all winter those first two years. Our backyard became a closet stuffed with bridal gowns, frothy white forms smothering every bush and tree. I loved the stacked inches atop the clean curves of honeysuckle, and the transformed hemlock, a dark Pegasus spreading white wings.

Local almanac writer Bill Felker recently published a new book, “Home in the Prime Meridian,” collecting 40 lyric essays from his newspaper and radio pieces.

Yellow Springs schools fall far short of facilities standards set by the state.
A state assessment conducted last spring by consultants to the Ohio Facilities Construction Commission, or OFCC, found that nearly all major components and systems of local schools failed to meet state standards.

Raven didn’t speak much about being sick. Instead, she brought my husband, a new friend, into her home studio. Brought out her pulps, her deckles, her tubs of finished papers — some textured, some translucent, some delicately veined like the inside of a wrist.

When Hurricane Irma narrowly missed Puerto Rico in early September, Yellow Springs resident Sommer McGuire breathed a sigh of relief, then started worrying about relatives in Florida.

While Yellow Springs received mixed grades on the 2016–2017 Ohio school report card, district leaders remain skeptical that the report card system delivers meaningful data about local schools.

Small Business Saturday is happening in downtown Yellow Springs Nov. 25. Shop small, local and festive in the village.