For #Varticles, this is my essay #RetreatingIntoTheCorn, which is an effort to write something about the novel Shoeless Joe, the history of baseball, and my father, who has dementia. andrewvarnon.substack.com/p/retreating...
Retreating into the Corn
Reading W.P. Kinsella’s novel Shoeless Joe while my father’s memories fade
andrewvarnon.substack.com
September 24, 2026 at 12:50 PM
For #Varticles, this is my essay #RetreatingIntoTheCorn, which is an effort to write something about the novel Shoeless Joe, the history of baseball, and my father, who has dementia. andrewvarnon.substack.com/p/retreating...
I used to live (briefly) with a guy who called them #Varticles. So I’m going to post some links to my writing using that hashtag.
I wrote this and recorded it about 18 months ago. I no longer work at Greenfield Middle School— not by my choice— and I miss the walking there. I still think it looks like a castle. www.nepm.org/commentary/2...
Tilting at windmills, this Greenfield middle school teacher happily relates to Don Quixote
Most days, commentator and 5th grade English teacher Andrew Varnon walks to work. He approaches Greenfield Middle School from the back, where he thinks it looks more like a medieval castle than a scho...
www.nepm.org
December 1, 2024 at 11:11 PM
I used to live (briefly) with a guy who called them #Varticles. So I’m going to post some links to my writing using that hashtag.
#Varticles I told this story about 5 years ago, in late May or early June. It was a messy story, and maybe I didn’t have a chance, but I hear now the quavering vulnerability in my voice and I still think I was saying something real. youtu.be/WXvrcSfYWhw?...
Andrew Varnon - Walking Away
YouTube video by New England Public Radio
youtu.be
May 6, 2025 at 10:39 AM
#Varticles I told this story about 5 years ago, in late May or early June. It was a messy story, and maybe I didn’t have a chance, but I hear now the quavering vulnerability in my voice and I still think I was saying something real. youtu.be/WXvrcSfYWhw?...
Some of my #Varticles — although not many — are videos, like this story I told for the Valley Voices story slam: “Poetry Calling.” youtu.be/xxYb31z_MA8?...
Andrew Varnon — Newsroom Poetry Calling
YouTube video by New England Public Media
youtu.be
December 1, 2024 at 11:16 PM
Some of my #Varticles — although not many — are videos, like this story I told for the Valley Voices story slam: “Poetry Calling.” youtu.be/xxYb31z_MA8?...
Hey, @strongtowns.org and @joinordiefilm.bsky.social: One of the things #GreenfieldMA has going for it is its 9 natural red clay tennis courts. Why? Because amateurs pitched in and saved something good about the place where they lived. #varticles andrewvarnon.blogspot.com/2016/05/clay...
Clay Court Connoisseur
(Originally published in The Recorder on , May 23, 2014 ) It’s spring. The tulips are in bloom, asparagus is back at the farmers’ ...
andrewvarnon.blogspot.com
March 26, 2025 at 1:21 PM
Hey, @strongtowns.org and @joinordiefilm.bsky.social: One of the things #GreenfieldMA has going for it is its 9 natural red clay tennis courts. Why? Because amateurs pitched in and saved something good about the place where they lived. #varticles andrewvarnon.blogspot.com/2016/05/clay...
"It's called the sgian dhub. That's the knife you stick in your sock." From my 2008 article about getting married in a kilt for "I Do" the wedding supplement of the Valley Advocate. #WesternMA #kilts #Varticles valleyadvocate.com/2008/07/22/t...
The Kilted Groom
It’s called the sgian dhub. That’s the knife you stick in your sock. Of the wedding photos, that’s the one that makes young boys, otherwise bored with the whole ordeal, stop and stare. Yeah, yeah, yea...
valleyadvocate.com
March 22, 2025 at 1:14 PM
"It's called the sgian dhub. That's the knife you stick in your sock." From my 2008 article about getting married in a kilt for "I Do" the wedding supplement of the Valley Advocate. #WesternMA #kilts #Varticles valleyadvocate.com/2008/07/22/t...
#Varticles: “So the photo shows a father, having taken his family on a 2.4 mi. walk following the path of an intellectual poet … crouching and sharing with his daughter a little pink symbol of spring, the crabapple blossom.”🌸 andrewvarnon.blogspot.com/2015/04/the-...
The Blossom in my Hand
That's me, crouching by a stone on a grassy lawn, with my daughter Aisla leaning against my chest. It is a photograph taken this spring, and...
andrewvarnon.blogspot.com
January 1, 2025 at 2:18 PM
#Varticles: “So the photo shows a father, having taken his family on a 2.4 mi. walk following the path of an intellectual poet … crouching and sharing with his daughter a little pink symbol of spring, the crabapple blossom.”🌸 andrewvarnon.blogspot.com/2015/04/the-...
Thinking about going to Chicago in a couple of weeks. Thinking about the Black Sox. #Varticles #BeerBaseballAndTheBible www.nepm.org/commentaries...
What Baseball's Black Sox Scandal Has To Teach Us 100 Years Later
This fall marks the 100th anniversary of the infamous Black Sox scandal, where eight players from the Chicago White Sox conspired with gamblers to…
www.nepm.org
February 9, 2025 at 5:39 PM
Thinking about going to Chicago in a couple of weeks. Thinking about the Black Sox. #Varticles #BeerBaseballAndTheBible www.nepm.org/commentaries...
#Varticles This is my poem, "Be My Sherpa," as read by a Fillipino woman who identifies herself as "the Kook." It is quite flattering (and weird) that my poem has found its way around the Internet, to bounce back at me from strange angles. #Poetry soundcloud.com/soul-kebab/b...
Be My Sherpa by Andrew Varnon (As Read by the Kook)
Listen to Be My Sherpa by Andrew Varnon (As Read by the Kook) by Soul Kebab #np on #SoundCloud
soundcloud.com
May 1, 2025 at 2:42 PM
#Varticles This is my poem, "Be My Sherpa," as read by a Fillipino woman who identifies herself as "the Kook." It is quite flattering (and weird) that my poem has found its way around the Internet, to bounce back at me from strange angles. #Poetry soundcloud.com/soul-kebab/b...
My poem, "Green River Love Song," in Plum, the literary magazine at Greenfield Community College. #Varticles www.gcc.mass.edu/plum/green-r...
Green River Love Song – Plum
www.gcc.mass.edu
May 14, 2025 at 12:29 PM
My poem, "Green River Love Song," in Plum, the literary magazine at Greenfield Community College. #Varticles www.gcc.mass.edu/plum/green-r...
“Six Miles of Mayhem on the Millers River”: my story about paddling the River Rat. #Varticles sportswritingwneu.wordpress.com/2012/04/12/t...
The River Rat: Six Miles of Mayhem on the Millers River
Take around 300 canoes. Line them up in front of a bridge on a river in a run-down factory town in a forgotten corner of Massachusetts. Do it in April, when the river is cold and fast. Plunk into t…
sportswritingwneu.wordpress.com
April 14, 2025 at 10:02 AM
“Six Miles of Mayhem on the Millers River”: my story about paddling the River Rat. #Varticles sportswritingwneu.wordpress.com/2012/04/12/t...
Muck Rack has a small collection of my #Varticles. muckrack.com/andrew-varno...
Muck Rack | For journalists and public relations
Articles by Andrew Varnon on Muck Rack. Find Andrew Varnon's email address, contact information, LinkedIn, Twitter, other social media and more.
muckrack.com
March 17, 2025 at 9:29 PM
Muck Rack has a small collection of my #Varticles. muckrack.com/andrew-varno...
#Varticles: My poem “Be My Sherpa” originally appeared in the American Poetry Review in 2002. It has had a weird extended internet life, in part due to Rob Brezsny’s “Free Will Astronomy” column. So it continues to pop up from time to time. massculturalcouncil.org/media/04_POE...
massculturalcouncil.org
December 3, 2024 at 8:35 PM
#Varticles: My poem “Be My Sherpa” originally appeared in the American Poetry Review in 2002. It has had a weird extended internet life, in part due to Rob Brezsny’s “Free Will Astronomy” column. So it continues to pop up from time to time. massculturalcouncil.org/media/04_POE...
#Varticles “Take the Low Road” (sermon) given at Trinity UMC in Springfield MA on 3/23/2019. andrewvarnon.blogspot.com/2019/03/take...
Take the Low Road
(Sermon delivered at Trinity Church UMC, Springfield MA, on 3/22 in Grace Chapel as part of the Lenten Luncheon series.) I’ve always thou...
andrewvarnon.blogspot.com
December 12, 2024 at 10:21 AM
#Varticles “Take the Low Road” (sermon) given at Trinity UMC in Springfield MA on 3/23/2019. andrewvarnon.blogspot.com/2019/03/take...
#Varticles: This one’s about #tennis and #DavidFosterWallace: “The Other Side of the Net” www.thesmartset.com/the-other-si...
The Other Side of the Net
“Hey,” I say, and pause for a moment, slinging my tennis bag over my shoulder and closing the car door. I start down the grassy slope toward the tennis cour
www.thesmartset.com
December 2, 2024 at 9:59 PM
#Varticles: This one’s about #tennis and #DavidFosterWallace: “The Other Side of the Net” www.thesmartset.com/the-other-si...
#Varticles: “Six miles of mayhem on the Millers River,” a first person report on paddling the River Rat canoe race from Athol to Orange, written while I was teaching a sportswriting class at WNEU. sportswritingwneu.wordpress.com/2012/04/12/t...
The River Rat: Six Miles of Mayhem on the Millers River
Take around 300 canoes. Line them up in front of a bridge on a river in a run-down factory town in a forgotten corner of Massachusetts. Do it in April, when the river is cold and fast. Plunk into t…
sportswritingwneu.wordpress.com
December 16, 2024 at 8:55 PM
#Varticles: “Six miles of mayhem on the Millers River,” a first person report on paddling the River Rat canoe race from Athol to Orange, written while I was teaching a sportswriting class at WNEU. sportswritingwneu.wordpress.com/2012/04/12/t...
Twenty-two years ago, my wife and I got married at Trinity UMC in Springfield, Mass. And I wore my great-grandfather’s kilt. #Varticles valleyadvocate.com/2008/07/22/t...
The Kilted Groom
It’s called the sgian dhub. That’s the knife you stick in your sock. Of the wedding photos, that’s the one that makes young boys, otherwise bored with the whole ordeal, stop and stare. Yeah, yeah, yea...
valleyadvocate.com
June 28, 2025 at 1:53 PM
Twenty-two years ago, my wife and I got married at Trinity UMC in Springfield, Mass. And I wore my great-grandfather’s kilt. #Varticles valleyadvocate.com/2008/07/22/t...
Similar in thought: my radio commentary on the word "Rube." #varticles www.nepm.org/commentaries...
Who's Awkward And Unsophisticated Now?
Maybe I’m just a rube.I don’t take issue with The Boston Globe for pointing a finger at the Massachusetts gaming commissioners and telling them where the…
www.nepm.org
April 1, 2025 at 12:21 PM
Similar in thought: my radio commentary on the word "Rube." #varticles www.nepm.org/commentaries...
In my own way, I have been writing about #GreenfieldMA and what I like about this place for a long time. This one is about my late neighbor, who I helped lift up after he fell one day, and what it says about our community. @strongtowns.org #varticles andrewvarnon.blogspot.com/2019/06/ode-...
Ode to Fred Oakes, Poet & Neighbor
( First published in the Greenfield Recorder, June 8, 2019 ) When Fred Oakes moved to Madison Circle in 1963, it was still nine ye...
andrewvarnon.blogspot.com
March 27, 2025 at 3:18 PM
In my own way, I have been writing about #GreenfieldMA and what I like about this place for a long time. This one is about my late neighbor, who I helped lift up after he fell one day, and what it says about our community. @strongtowns.org #varticles andrewvarnon.blogspot.com/2019/06/ode-...
I noticed that the @greenfieldrecorder.bsky.social doesn't have a full archive anymore. I've written a series of My Turn articles for them over the years. Here's another one, about a late neighbor of mine. #Varticles andrewvarnon.blogspot.com/2019/06/ode-...
Ode to Fred Oakes, Poet & Neighbor
( First published in the Greenfield Recorder, June 8, 2019 ) When Fred Oakes moved to Madison Circle in 1963, it was still nine ye...
andrewvarnon.blogspot.com
February 10, 2025 at 12:59 PM
I noticed that the @greenfieldrecorder.bsky.social doesn't have a full archive anymore. I've written a series of My Turn articles for them over the years. Here's another one, about a late neighbor of mine. #Varticles andrewvarnon.blogspot.com/2019/06/ode-...
Resisters, if you want to read about Maddow's earlier days on Air America, here is a well-written account.
I wrote about Rachel Maddow once: www.alternet.org/2005/06/an_a...
February 9, 2025 at 6:33 PM
#Varticles: That time I took the train to NYC to see @maddow.msnbc.com make an episode of her radio show. “An Air American Girl” www.alternet.org/2005/06/an_a...
An Air American Girl
Meet the Air America Radio personality that has Rush Limbaugh asking, 'Has anyone heard of Rachel Maddow?'
www.alternet.org
December 25, 2024 at 9:29 PM
#Varticles: That time I took the train to NYC to see @maddow.msnbc.com make an episode of her radio show. “An Air American Girl” www.alternet.org/2005/06/an_a...
#Varticles on Greenfield becoming a city, no longer a town. www.nepm.org/commentaries...
What's Taken Greenfield, Mass., So Long To Stop Calling Itself A Town?
In official state documents, we used to be referred to as “The City known as the Town of Greenfield.” Kind of embarrassing.The pragmatists on the council…
www.nepm.org
December 25, 2024 at 11:31 AM
#Varticles on Greenfield becoming a city, no longer a town. www.nepm.org/commentaries...
#Varticles: this is an interview with then-poet laureate Ted Kooser that I did in a hotel cafe in Pittsburgh almost 20 years ago. www.guernicamag.com/the_crossing...
The Crossing Over
The U.S. poet laureate on the aesthetic of the simple poem
www.guernicamag.com
December 7, 2024 at 1:27 AM
#Varticles: this is an interview with then-poet laureate Ted Kooser that I did in a hotel cafe in Pittsburgh almost 20 years ago. www.guernicamag.com/the_crossing...