It's rare to see a professional cook write an op-ed for a newspaper such as the Los Angeles Times, but Kelly Whitaker makes a plea for a fishery which I second from the bottom of my heart. I have made sand dabs for supper countless times because yes, they're irresistible. Please don't let them go away. Help these fishContinue reading “Save the groundfish: the great Sand Dab supper”
Author Archives: Kit Stolz
A weekend on the PCT with pinyons and snow: 2015
Having just fallen in love, so to speak, with the pinyon pine, I'm distressed to learn that the species may fall prey to "forest mortality" in the Southwest (as discussed a few weeks back here).
What can be done — if anything? Are these forests doomed, or — ?
With my young nephew Eli Huscher went back to the Walker Pass area of the PCT this past week to explore this question. I'm not a scientist and have no answers as of yet, but I think it's an important question.
I'll begin with a picture of the tree that inspired this new-found devotion. (The pinyon's not the most spectacular of trees — but in the harsh desert landscape of the Mojave, it's a hero.)
Okay, the rest of the pics I'll put below the fold — please enjoy!
Reporter: In defense of the gotcha question
Somebody had to defend the much-despised "gotcha" question. Ron Fournier, veteran reporter, digs into the legend and finds all kinds of juicy examples. Writes it up with great depth and precision. For example, where did the phrase "gotcha" come from? Fournier agrees with another reporter, and suggests that Bill Clinton might have introduced it intoContinue reading “Reporter: In defense of the gotcha question”
Megadrought in SW by 2050: news shocks climatologist
Like many other Americans, I have had difficult absorbing the recently published news that megadroughts are scheduled into the future for the Southwest. Just did not want to hear that, read that, learn the details. But because I intend to go back to the Mojave this weekend, after being foiled last weekend, I forced myself to readContinue reading “Megadrought in SW by 2050: news shocks climatologist”
To know yourself you must sometimes be by yourself
Last month Backpacker magazine ran a tough-minded Mark Jenkins essay on journeying alone called Go Solo. At its heart it goes something like this: Ever since Aron Ralston got himself caught between a rock and a hard place in Utah’s Blue John Canyon, hung there for five days, and then amputated his right forearm toContinue reading “To know yourself you must sometimes be by yourself”
The photographer as fearless story teller
The highest compliment paid in the land of journalism, sez me, is to say that such-and-such a writer, Mike Royko in Chicago, say, or Carl Hiaasen in Miami, or Joseph Mitchell in New York, is/was "fearless." Well, in the land of photography, no one in our time has been more fearless than Duane Michaels. (NotContinue reading “The photographer as fearless story teller”
The soar into the stratosphere of the 1%
As one news organization after another has gotten on board the income inequality bandwagon, the graphics have gotten ever telling. Each seems to be competing to best tell the story graphically. The WSJ had an especially good set of interactive graphics on Inequality in America lately. But here's the simplest and perhaps the best toContinue reading “The soar into the stratosphere of the 1%”
Not getting enough sleep? Take a nap, research says
Washington, DC–A short nap can help relieve stress and bolster the immune systems of men who slept only two hours the previous night, according to a new study published in the Endocrine Society’s Journal of Clinical Endocrinology & Metabolism (JCEM).
An inequality graphic that’s not a chart but a cartoon
Take a glance at this depiction of the raging income inequality debate. It's refreshing, because on this subject there have been approximately 573 stories, studies, and graphs, graphs, graphs posted in the past 48 hours or so in the press, and this is about the only one that's been humorous. It's incredible, the volume of this debate, and its implications, inContinue reading “An inequality graphic that’s not a chart but a cartoon”
How the super-rich live: far above the rest of us
By sheer coincidence, this weekend both the L.A. Weekly and the New York Times ran stories on how representatives of the super-rich, are taking over the heights of the city. Call it unaffordable housing — penthouses for the super-rich. Not the 1%, but the .01, the Thousandth Percent. Apartments that cost tens of millions of dollars. It'sContinue reading “How the super-rich live: far above the rest of us”
Kit Stolz 