Stephanie Leary

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Travels through Normangee

January 19, 2003 Stephanie Leary

No matter where Lisa and Nick move, it seems, I have to drive through Normangee to get there. Normangee is a little shithole of a town in the middle of a lot of beautiful farmland. The pine trees along the highway are thick and gorgeous, the cows look fat and happy, and there are some lovely ranch houses set back from the road – and they all have the good sense to be situated well away from Normangee. The town itself consists of some run-down trailer homes, some crappy apartments, one nasty gas station, and a very scary highway intersection. It seems to suck the life out of everything nearby.

The intersection there is scary because everyone is trying to get out of town as fast as possible. I came at it from a different direction this time, on the highway that doesn’t have a stop sign there. The speed limit, I discovered, is 40. I don’t think I’ve ever seen anyone take it at less than 60. It’s the kind of intersection that makes your life flash before your eyes. I imagine tumbleweeds blow through it when the cars have gone.

Life

Fascism Watch

The Fascism Watch is a daily(ish) news roundup. View all the previous Fascism Watch posts »

Latest WordPress Book

Content Strategy for WordPress

A short book for content strategists and managers on implementing a complete content strategy in WordPress: evaluation, analysis, content modeling, editing and workflows, and long-term planning and maintenance.

Read the sample chapter

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WordPress for Web Developers

WordPress for Web Developers (9781430258667)

This is a book for professional web designers and developers who already know HTML and CSS, and want to learn to build sites with WordPress. The book begins with a detailed tour of the administration screens and settings, then digs into server-side topics like performance and security. The second half of the book is devoted to development: learning to build WordPress themes and plugins.

This is the second, much-revised and updated edition of Beginning WordPress 3, with a more accurate title. Everything’s been updated for WordPress 3.6.

WordPress for Web Developers is out now. See what's inside...

The best WordPress features you’ve never noticed

  • WordPress Hidden Gems: Screen Options
  • WordPress Hidden Gems: Bulk Edit
  • WordPress Hidden Gems: Private Status
  • WordPress Hidden Gems: Dashboard Feed Readers
  • WordPress Hidden Gems: Options.php

Content Modeling for WordPress series

  • Content modeling for WordPress, part 1: analyze content
  • Content modeling for WordPress, part 2: functional and organizational requirements
  • Content modeling for WordPress, part 3: a sample content model

This is an excerpt from Content Strategy for WordPress.My latest books are Content Strategy for WordPress (2015) and WordPress for Web Developers (2013). Sign up to be notified when I have a new book for you.

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