Like a yoke of oxen, brain hemispheres are hitched side-by-side, meeting the world head-on. If we think logically, and analytically, the left hemisphere is the dominant, nigh ox.

A demonstration by the farmer Tim Huppe of how to yoke a pair of oxen for work in the field, from the 2003 how-to DVD "Training Oxen," a cult classic in the draft-power community.

Like a yoke of oxen, our bilateral brain hemispheres are hitched side-by-side, meeting the world head-on. But also like the bovine, they don't always pull together.

This month's term, "yoke," hearkens back to the crosspiece used to link working oxen, or the wooden beam worn over the shoulders by laborers.

A Berkshire topic that continues to fascinate me is Henry Knox's winter cannon train from Fort Ticonderoga through Egremont-Great Barrington-Tyringham-Sandisfield-Otis to Dorchester Heights to menace ...

Mosher has been making oxen yokes for most of his adult life, often crafting 30 a year. Advertisement “My father and I learned together, and we learned from Mason Norton,” Mosher said.

The idea of the yoke is to enable a worker to carry heavy objects suspended from the rounded ends. His arms are left free of any burden and can balance and steady the load. The word “yoke,” as in neck ...