Ryan Dennis

I don’t have the type of memory that allows me to keep track of all the books I’ve read and what happens in them, but I do recall one of the first stories to leave an impact on me.

Editor’s note: The following is the opinion of the author and not to be construed as that of the magazine. To read a contrasting opinion, see Just dropping by... Election 2020: Donald Trump.

Despite being from a small Catholic country, the sheep of Ireland have garnered an international reputation for being particularly lustful.

I was in elementary school when I first heard reports about this new technology called the internet. Having grown up with it as it evolved, it was up to me to tell my grandmother that Nigerian princes weren’t going to send her money or let my father know that no one from Scotland was going to put a down payment for the truck he was selling on Craigslist in upstate New York.

While fictional novels about farming have increasingly become scarce over the last century, nonfiction about agriculture remains in steady supply.

“It’s all the rage,” my father said. “Everyone is doing it.”

I was a bit skeptical. The last time my father told me about the latest rage that everyone was doing, he was referring to “finger trolling,” where you apparently tie nylon line to your finger and try to fish off a dock.