Dave O’Hara

Oh, that’s nice! I want to read your book!

That sounds like an interesting book!

A stack of various books on topics including environmental issues, sustainability, urban development, and art.

Today’s shelfie. These are books I used in teaching today.

Your challenge is to guess what I teach.

I recently saw a typo, where someone had described me as Director of EnvironMETAL Studies at my uni, and I have to admit it appealed to my inner teenager.

Two stacks of books in philosophy and religion on a desk.

Shelfie.

These are books that I’ve brought to class this week or have pulled off the office shelves for discussions with students. Quite a few others have already been reshelved.

Myths as Containers of Insight: https://davoh.org/2025/10/27/myths-as-containers-of-insight.html

The longer I’ve taught philosophy the more strongly I believe that it is a mistake to teach it outside of historical and cultural context.

Litany of Joys: https://davoh.org/2025/10/24/litany-of-joys.html

One of the highlights of my week: singing a lullaby to my grandson in harmony with my son.

A whimsical sketch of a bird with bold lines and subtle color hints appears on lined paper.

Prairie chicken sketch in my notebook.: https://davoh.org/2025/10/24/prairie-chicken-sketch-in-my.html

There should be a word for "setting an out-of-office auto-reply as I travel to go to a conference even though I'm still going to be checking email constantly while at the conference because of who I am as a person"

I feel like you just described me while I am here at this conference.

Very cool. Obviously I am at the wrong conference!

A sketch on a notepad captures a cafe scene with tables, chairs, and a large I ♥ MPLS sign, closely mirroring the illuminated and decorated environment visible in the background.

Today’s breakfast sketch: Hell’s Kitchen: https://davoh.org/2025/10/24/todays-breakfast-sketch-hells-kitchen.html

I’ve been trying to send notes of gratitude (ideally through old fashioned mail, but really anything counts) to people I haven’t seen for a while but who have helped me along the course of these years.

Maybe someone out there would be glad to get a note from you?

It really took only twenty minutes to build, and it’s surprisingly comfortable.

Hand-drawn sketch of a bench made of pallet wood, with a diagram of a pallet and notes for building the bench

A wooden bench made from pallets is situated in a garden area with plants and a building in the background.

20 Minute Pallet Bench: https://davoh.org/2025/10/23/minute-pallet-bench.html

A sketch of a breakfast bar with a drink menu, coffee cups, and various items, accompanied by handwritten notes.

A beige poster encourages people to write down and share their hopes, dreams, and prayers, including a quote by Desmond Tutu.

Sketch: Hope Breakfast Bar: https://davoh.org/2025/10/23/sketch-hope-breakfast-bar.html

A series of sketches showing different stages of drawing a bison, from geometric shapes to a detailed colored illustration.

My grandson is sleeping so I am trying to figure out how to sketch bison. Hopefully by the time he’s my age we will also have figured out how to let the bison roam their native plains again, too. One step at a time.

One of those was in a friend’s hair on a cold, windy day. I let it crawl onto my finger and then gave it a lift to some nearby sunlit flowers.

Two insects are illustrated with handwritten labels describing each as a parasitoid wasp from Canton, SD, and a tarnished plant bug from Sioux Falls, SD, with the date noted as 20 Oct 2023.

Sketching insects I’ve seen this week.

Did a little salvage carpentry with one of my philosophy students yesterday when we found a perfectly good pallet by the dumpster. Some sawing and some deck screws quickly turned it into seating for one of our outdoor learning spaces.

The Library of the Villa dei Papiri at Herculaneum David Sider The eruption of Mt. Vesuvius that destroyed Pompeii in CE 79 also buried nearby Herculaneum. Over time the location of the small town was forgotten, but shortly after its rediscovery in th...

October 19, 1752: Excavators open the first large cache of carbonized papyri in the Villa of the Papyri at Herculaneum that does not fall apart when held . By the end of this excavation, 1,100 will be unearthed. shop.getty.edu/products/the... Pleiades ID: pleiades.stoa.org/places/44252...

Two insects, a Polka-dot Wasp Moth and a Long-tailed Metalmark, are illustrated with accompanying handwritten notes detailing their species and locations.

Two Central American Butterflies: https://davoh.org/2025/10/18/two-central-american-butterflies.html

A hand is holding a brown leather notebook with the word THINK embossed on the cover.

Pocket notebook: https://davoh.org/2025/10/16/pocket-notebook.html

Asian lady beetles, pirate bugs, and (maybe?) sawflies on a branch of a sunflower. The branch is green and the leaf nearby has spots showing that it’s decaying.

Lots of activity on this one sunflower branch tonight. So many insects, some of which were really too small for my camera to capture.

Oh. This is not going to be easy. Not for me, anyway.

Sketch of a fountain pen

When you enjoy the pen so much you wind up using the pen to sketch the pen.

YouTube video by Minnesota Department of Natural Resources Freshwater Mussel Filtration Timelapse

Freshwater mussels (Unionidae) are important to ensure water quality in rivers! Each mussel can clear up to 2-4 L per hour depending on species! These clearance rates can go up as flow levels increase. Unionids are champions at grabbing particles from moving water! (242) youtu.be/s_CaNfFtHhg?...

Looking for recommendations on where to buy good mussel shirts.

That’s not a typo. #malacology is good ecology.