There was a time when I would fly quite regularly. Since I don’t have wings I’d use an airplane. I understand the concept of lift, but it still baffles me that a hunk of metal weighing tons will fly. Simply amazing, really. And I can understand how putting the tray in the locked position for […]
Unmoored Souls: A Review of Moorings by Nancy Slavin
The epic travels of birds on their annual migrations once prompted a group of ornithologists to observe what happened as migration season approached, not to birds in the wild, but to captives. While their free brothers and sisters flew off to their winter homes, the caged birds became agitated, even when kept in a climate-controlled […]
Heck: Beyond the Lines
It’s ridiculous, I know, to suggest the squiggly lines of a comic can make you cry. Or that a story about a man and his mummy investigating a basement gateway to Hell can make you question your identity. [Read More]
A Review of “I’m Samson,” Said Sydney by Gregory Zschomler, illustrated by April Bullard
My two-year-old daughter, Luthien, and I enjoyed sharing the adventures of Sydney, a little boy with a big imagination. With his admiring father as his audience, he transforms his six-year-old self into Samson, the biblical strongman, and his toys become the fierce beasts and armies Samson defeats. All the while beaming approval of Sydney’s exploits, […]
Psyche combs the clearcut for lost souls
After the cutters were finished, 50 acres of forested watershed near our home was pretty much gone. Familiar habitat was replaced by strips of trees surrounded by stumps, slash, and orderly heaps of logs — cash crop to grease the skids of our consumption. Read More
Some kind of crazy heroism
Logging and commercial fishing are neck and neck in a race for most dangerous occupation in America. During some years, as many as 118 loggers die on the job, a death rate nearly 30 times that of a typical workplace, with most of them killed by falling trees. Read More
Women of the Wakonda Auga
The women are the river, the meandering, silent river, the quiet riffles near the bank, where a severed arm raises a finger to the sky. The men are everything else – protagonists, loggers, action, jobs, bluster, egos, wind, and rain slanting down from low, gray skies. Read More
I am a Logger’s Daughter
I come from people that were unwilling to give up or give in to the confines of a place or an era or a lot in life. I come from people that were willing to take on the challenge to fight for a way of life, to persevere, to stick together, to be brave. Read More
Kesey’s Coastal Trip: A Field Guide to the Addled Earth
Ken Kesey, the man himself, loomed large during my Eugene years – an elder prankster, still generating a buzz and mild mischief around almost every worthwhile corner. To me, he seemed nearly as venerable, nearly as emblematic of the town’s gestalt and vibe, as the very university buildings that he ambled past – a man just as steeped in his place as the place was steeped in him. Read More
A Tasty Find: A Review of Pacific Northwest Forgaging by Douglas Deur
Normally I am one of those readers who skips the preface and introduction, wanting to get right to the heart of the matter. For some reason, I didn’t follow my normal pattern with the book, “Pacific Northwest Foraging” by Douglas Deur. And am I glad! The preface and introduction to this book deftly paint a […]