This morning, I didn’t fully wake up. I was having wonderful conservative dreams where privatization ruled and the God given commandment of unfettered capitalism reigned. I turned on the lights and thanked the Almighty for my private utility company, although since it is a monopoly, the rates seem a little high and I wondered how the CEO could afford that villa in Spain. Oh well, I’m sure he’s looking out for me—I’m a customer!
Hunting in Cannon Beach’s Forest Reserve?
By July, the Ecola Creek Forest Reserve will have a management plan, determining its future. Questions to be answers include: Will hunters dot the landscape? Will there be mountain bikers zipping through? Will some of the trees be thinned in order to re-create an old growth forest structure? Should dogs be leashed?
A wee conversation with Terry Brooks
“Having visited the Fairy Glen in Betws-y-Coed, Wales, I can tell you that places which claim fairies and their kin don’t seem out of the question. Certain places have that magical feel, as if they transcend what we know of life and reach beyond it into other realms. As for fantasy reaching nonfiction best-seller lists, I always tell attendees at conventions and festivals that I write nonfiction about elves.”
Every bit (and byte) counts
My own habits have shifted over the years to less and less instead of more and more contraptions accompanying me on an outdoors “adventure.” I put that in quotes because part of the adventure for me is living with quiet, and living with the dark.
Surfing Pop Culture: Searching For Rainbows
The first time I heard the opening banjo notes of The Rainbow Connection coming from a frog on a stump in the swamp, I was ten years old and sitting transfixed in the old Admiral Theater in Bremerton, Washington, watching The Muppet Movie. That was a palace with its marquee rimmed by lightning-trapped bulbs, a real ticket booth, a slanted hall with cavernous ceilings, balcony, and cushioned seats. [Read More]
Energy Independence? Give Me A Break
Corporations and politicians say a lot of stupid things. Sometimes people can swallow them, but often they’re so unabashedly fictitious it takes only the slightest of research to disprove them. Some of the more notable claims have been made recently in reference to the disputed Keystone XL pipeline project, but the one that really stands out is “energy independence.”
Women, the Election of 2012, and Republican Troglodytes
One of the things that most puzzles me about the “pro-life” crowd is that these are the same people who choose to ignore the obvious daily evidence of global warming, the extinction of 200 species a day, the turning of our oceans into carbonic acid to the detriment of all sea life. Just what kind of world do the “pro-lifers” expect to be bringing all these babies with rights from the moment of conception into?
Good bye Britannica…It’s been great
On Tuesday, Encyclopedia Britannica announced that it would no longer be printing its encyclopedias, but will only be offering its thousands of articles through computer or iPad app. While I have nothing against the electronic versions, they can never replace the feel of the actual books as I grasp them carefully by the spine to take them off the shelf and open their covers to find the universe contained within.
Upstream with a Clatsop canoe
“It was shocking, surreal, and disturbing to me personally to see a member of my family, Chief Coboway, being referred to as a member of another tribe with no mention of the Clatsop tribe he belonged to,” writes Stowe. “The entire tribe is very unhappy with this effort to erase our tribal heritage, and is determined to put an end to this misinformation and get the true story published.”
Where we start writing
When you stand next to the sea, you don’t feel big. You don’t feel important, or worthwhile, or even human. You feel like a small speck on a scale so large your presence isn’t even registered. At first this was a comfort. To feel like nothing, like your mistakes and your life are just soaring under the radar, unessential. But today it felt infuriating. Like the voice so caught in my throat, or the words along with that voice.