Sam Wang, a pollster affiliated and professor at Princeton, who has a painful-but-no-doubt-true essay on why in these politically polarized times Donald Trump’s support does not flag no matter how outrageous his conduct in today’s Times also sent out an almost hilarious tweet today on a related subject: I heard that one of the emailsContinue reading “How do we break the silence on climate?”
Category Archives: activism
Tennessee Williams and the “basket of deplorables”
Hillary Clinton stepped in it over the weekend by throwing “about half” of Donald Trump’s supporters in a “basket of deplorables.” She said (to repeat her phrasing, a lumpy blend of awkward and wonky): To just be grossly generalistic, you could put half of Trump’s supporters into what I call the basket of deplorables. Right? TheContinue reading “Tennessee Williams and the “basket of deplorables””
PCT section L: Paradise Lake to Sierra City
Think this might be the shortest and possibly the easiest section on the entire 2663-mile PCT. That’s based on a personal knowledge of two-thirds of the trail in California. That’s all I know, admittedly, with some reading and searching, for instance such as Jeffrey Schaffer’s venerable and helpful set of guides on Wilderness Press. Still. Turns out the sectionContinue reading “PCT section L: Paradise Lake to Sierra City”
People of the PCT: Birdman
Met Birdman a day or maybe two south of Sierra City, in Section L, north of Donner Pass. He’s a true thruhiker: “flip-flopped” the AT last year (meaning he went up and back down). “And I’ll tell you, it’s a lot more dramatic finishing up at Mt. Katahdin than it is in Springer, Georgia!” heContinue reading “People of the PCT: Birdman”
Forget Me Not PCT (from section M)
Back to the PCT, after seven months absence. These from section L, still very much in the Sierras, north of Donner Pass. Area is lower and less spectacular than Yosemite or the Minarets or comparable high mountain ranges, around 8,000 feet, but still has the beauty particular to these mountains, of granite, clear water, pines and snowContinue reading “Forget Me Not PCT (from section M)”
Stay on Trail: Jordan Fisher Smith on our Nat’l Parks Bday
Jordan Fisher Smith, who has an excellent new book out called Engineering Eden, (on the challenge of managing wild bears in places like Yellowstone and Yosemite), brings his experience as a naturalist, a ranger, and a writer to bear on the meaning of our parks in an essay in the author’s on-line magazine Signature Reads.Continue reading “Stay on Trail: Jordan Fisher Smith on our Nat’l Parks Bday”
The Hazardous Truth wins 2nd Best Investigative Reporting in CA for 2015
Yours truly is not going to win a state-wide award, or second place, too often, so please let me say that the Ventura County Reporter and I won a Best Investigative Reporting in California, 2nd Prize, for 2015. The California Newspaper Publishers Association only gives out two such awards in each category (in our case,Continue reading “The Hazardous Truth wins 2nd Best Investigative Reporting in CA for 2015”
A Matter of Dignity: Bill of Rights for Farmworkers
Really like the cover that the Ventura County Reporter found for my story on farmwork in Ventura County: That in one image and a handful of words expresses the plight of tens of thousands of hard-working people in the thisContinue reading “A Matter of Dignity: Bill of Rights for Farmworkers”
What I Wanted (was winter)
That’s my interpretation of the basic meaning in a poem from Tracy Herd via Poetry Daily: What I Wanted was such a plump, bountiful landscape of snow, more than I’d ever dared wish for. That was back when we had proper winters, long ago, when lawns and driveways vanished: there were no boundaries. Fences, walls,Continue reading “What I Wanted (was winter)”
Americans too smart to fall for Trump (right?)
From the great Self-Styled Siren, who I have not yet had the wisdom to quote previously in this blog’s twelve or so years, meaning that I have been greatly remiss. If you like movies, you should read the somewhat mysterious but all-knowing Siren, and maybe learn something, especially about thirties movies. Anyhow! Here’s a postContinue reading “Americans too smart to fall for Trump (right?)”
Kit Stolz 