Mazama

There are some material possessions that are past useful life for you, but emotional detachment is necessary before being able to let go. My first custom-made road bike was like that. When I decided to become a serious road cyclist, I took to heart the advice of a wise boss I once had: “You have […]

Since “soup” doesn’t begin with “A” and “nuts” doesn’t begin with “Z,” one might wonder what the derivation of the phrase “from soup to nuts” actually is. (Well, at least this “one” wondered.) The U.S. colloquialism is generally defined as meaning “from beginning to end” — everything from A to Z. Come to find out, the idiom […]

Former Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld’s “unknown unknowns” response to a question posed to him at a news briefing on Feb. 12, 2002, led to some ridicule and fodder for late-night talk shows. It did sound funny at the time: “some things we don’t know we don’t know.” What kind of sense did that make? […]

When I was 10 years old, my mom took us three kids on a train from Montana to Florida to visit her parents. Everything I saw out the windows on that long train ride across country was wondrous and fantastical to me: the endless cornfields of Nebraska, the expanse of the big cities like Minneapolis […]

At the same time Mount St. Helens was beginning rumblings to blow her top off, I was having pangs of my own with a baby working his way into the world. Thus, my son and Mount St. Helens have been inextricably connected since May 1980. Every anniversary of the eruption of the volcano is met […]

In the doom and gloom of a global pandemic where a heartless novel virus has taken the lives of at least 350,000 people, it’s hard to imagine any silver linings. However, lately I’ve been hearing the expression more than a few times. So, this column is the playbook for coronavirus silver linings. The most likely […]

Kumm Road up Mazama way is a neighborhood like many others in the Methow Valley — a place where everyone knows your name. In life BC (before coronavirus), neighbors got together to visit about the day, the family, the next event, or just to chill in good company. Then came Stay Home. Mic drop. That’s all, folks! […]

This is fish tale No. 2 His railroad cronies called him Catfish. His best fishing buddies were nicknamed Minnow and Rainbow. My dad was the quintessential Montana fisherman. He knew rivers, lakes, and streams in every part of the state. Our dinner table most frequently included some kind of fish: rainbow trout, brown trout, cutthroat […]

Currently, there are 120,000 young Coho salmon swimming in two ponds near the confluence of Early Winters Creek and the Methow River. They are acclimating to the chemical signatures and cues from the stream water for a very specific reason: Next fall they will return to this spot to spawn – only after they swim […]

Bergamo, located in one of the richest and most productive regions of Italy, is home to inhabitants who are known for their fierce sense of belonging to their Lombardy region and family. They take pride in their pragmatic approach to life and their robust work ethic. Sadly, Bergamo now holds a record that no town […]