Where Rubber Meets the Road

One of my boys never left our driveway without leaving rubber on Birchwood Loop. Our closest neighbor loved it (not). On our two acres of land, cannibalized 4x4s pleaded with me to put them out of their misery at the salvage yard. I couldn’t walk a straight line 20 feet without tripping over an engine,…

Where’s the Lede?

I worked at the Anchorage Times for about three years. Alaska statehood pioneer Bob Atwood published the newspaper, and his staff kicked out three-to-five editions a day. At the Times, a newspaper headline summarized the content of a story as succinctly as possible. A copy editor would proof a reporter’s story and often write and…

Swarming Warnings

Two young women felt something like insects swarming in their clothing as they hiked Rainbow Mountain near Anchorage. At Rainbow Mountain’s crest, Yvonne brushed away cobwebs from her face. She stopped by a boulder that was shaped like a giant thumb—and it seemed to be humming like a hive. Yvonne’s hiking partner, Ruth, swatted at…

Arctic Mystery

  An Inupiat Eskimo grocery list certainly differs from most people’s. Residents of Kivalina, Alaska, eat bowhead whale, caribou, walrus, bearded seal, and a variety of fish. The village of Kivalina is built upon a barrier reef island, 625 miles northwest of Anchorage, 120 miles above the Arctic Circle. Their drinking water is pumped one…