I came into the world just as neighborhood amusement parks were closing for the season, and closing for good. In various towns and cities lied cemeteries for twisted steel, dilapidated roller coasters, weather-torn wood planks, and old bumper cars driven into the weeds. Before the mid sixties, Ohio alone had about 50 now defunct amusement […]
Closed for the Season Read More »
“The late humorist James Thurber wrote a fable set in a medieval court, and he has the Royal Astronomer report that all the stars are going out! It turns out that he is simply going blind. I am probably making the same mistake.” — Dan Wakefield, ed., Kurt Vonnegut Letters, Delacorte, 2012 I needed to
Mozart’s Kept Canaries: Music and Technology Read More »
As a result of years of devastating wildfires, the native sequoia trees in Sequoia National Park face the threat of extinction. These ancient, resilient trees have survived thousands of years of damage, but an unprecedented increase in wildfires has led to their dwindling population. The wildfires have destroyed a significant portion of Sequoia National Park,
Saving Sequoia National Park Read More »
To a great extent, the construction of Bishop Castle has been fueled by creator Jim Bishop’s inveterate hatred of authority and his contempt for anyone willing to submit to that authority. He has spent years battling zoning, health, noise, and sales tax regulations in his ongoing quest to single-handedly expand and modify “the largest one-man construction project in the
Bishop Castle: A One-Man Construction Project Read More »
It would be remiss of me not to include animals in the Pioneer Profiles series, since they were, at times, just as pioneering as humans were. A perfect example of such animals are Thunder and Buttons, two elk that lived a crazier life as a trained team than they ever would have if left in
Pioneer Profiles: Thunder and Buttons Read More »
When I was a kid, my father gave me the “don’t judge a man until you’ve walked a mile in his shoes” speech. I imagined donning different-sized shoes of myriad colors, tripping over my feet, and struggling to walk an entire mile in shoes either too big or too small for me. Just as we
Humanity’s Gom Jabbar Read More »