Archives

Archive for August, 2007

Lone tree

by Pandora Brewer

( Geography and Life and Nature )

Our guide was pointing out the prehistoric waterline of Bonneville Lake when I noticed it: a single tree of surprisingly deep green on a hillside covered in dry, endless grass. It was like a storybook illustration or a prop in a diorama, a tree almost too perfect—gnarled and asymmetrical in just the right places—as if [...]

Ten ironies and truisms of the ER

by Annie Walker

( Work )

1. Really sick people usually don’t have many complaints. They are too sick to. Whether because of illness or trauma, people with life-and-death kinds of problems usually don’t complain much. They are either unconscious or all their energy is focused on staying alive.
2. The converse is also true: people who [...]

Who got served? Four soldiers’ stories

by Literacy H. Dogfight

( Conflict and Death and Family and Philosophy and Politics and War )

1. My dear friend’s brother is 43; he’s in a happily rewarding second marriage and his kids are 5, 3, and newborn. Despite this brand-new sprouting family, though, he strongly feels his primary duty is to serve in the war, so he’s decided to enlist. His particular assignment, which is slated to last [...]

Reminder

by Dave Barber

Just another cheerful reminder about the kind of country we’re living in:
Over the weekend, Congress passed an amendment to FISA (the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act), the law that the administration apparently violated with one or more secret programs that wiretapped communications involving U.S. persons without a warrant. This secret program was the occasion of Fredo [...]

Summer Sunday at the confluence of the Wenatchee and Columbia Rivers

by Bryan Waterman

Photo credit: Gary Lee Smith
And a hat tip to Slalom.