August Wilson: Playwright and Cultural Hero

When I was in college at University of Oregon, I not only did research for my classes and research for my job as a staff searcher, but also for fun. Rather than walk home to my apartment after school and then walk back to work, I would just stare at the book stacks. One day, I saw a collection of plays by someone named “August Wilson.” I like to know about people with month names, so I took one of his books off the shelf. …

(This is a true story that happened between June 15 and the end of July, 2019. It happened on the East side of the Oregon Coast range.)

Poor Old Boy bulldozed his way out of the rock-pile. That is where he took his long winter nap. He had been there for four winter naps, ever since his Mommy left him. Poor Old Boy sniffed the air. It was sweet spring. He was getting too big for his cramped quarters in the rock pile on top of Bald Peak. He looked down the mountain and could make out a big water puddle. …

“There are three rules: (1) no bright light, (2) don’t get him wet, and (3) never feed him after midnight, no matter how much he begs. Bright light hurts him, and sunlight can kill him.”( https://www.mentalfloss.com › article › 21-things-you-might-not-know-ab… Sept. 11. 2017)

A Gremlin is a mythological creature which is similar to a fairy or goblin. The creature originates from the fairy fields and woods of England. They are mischievous creatures that can be destructive and love to make things malfunction or place things in disarray. Wise dowagers would catch and keep them as pets to do their evil bidding. Folklore expert and linguist John W. Hazen points out that the word Gremlin comes from Old English and the word gremian which means “to vex” Even Grimm’s Fairy Tales has a story titled “Fremlin Beer.” …

June Reynolds is currently writing outside of Tucson, Arizona, about 60 miles as the crow flies from the border. Although she is not an expert in immigration or international politics, this is her general personal take over time, on what is going on in the borderlands.

Immigrant Seas, Immigrant Sands

Whether a watery grave, or desert mountain island,

They cross the “vastland” as an obstacle to a new life.

Willing to drown of too much or not enough.

Their dream is to be free of war and strife.

Whether immigrant sands or watery grave,

They cross the death fields with nothing to save. …

The wide-open blue sky of Eastern Oregon thrills me. If I can get high enough like on a second or third floor of a building or up the side of a hill, I feel like I can see so much better.

The other morning, I was looking out my hotel window to see four sunrise pink contrails slashing across a light blue morning sky. “Contrails” is short for condensation trail. They are line-shaped clouds produced by airplane and jet engine exhaust. In certain conditions, the exhaust and changes in air pressure produce these clouds. They are produced when aircraft is several miles above the earth at a cruise level. Chemically, these clouds are made up of water in the form of ice crystals. …

Strong Words from a Red Bird

Zitkala Sa: A Cultural Heroine

Zitkala-sa was born Feb. 22, 1876 at the Yankton Sioux Agency in South Dakota. Her birth name was Gertrude Simmons and she was the daughter of a Yankton Sioux mother and a Euro-American immigrant. When she was eight, she was sent to a Quaker missionary school in Wabash, Indiana called White’s Manual Labor School. In her early teens, she adopted the name Zitkala-sa and decided to go to college, against her family’s wishes. She entered Earlham College, another Quaker school in Richmond, Indiana at the age of 19. …

J. Harlen Bretz: Cultural Hero

(Bretz Geology: A story told in fiction and nonfiction)

I really do not ‘get’ my older sister at all. She acts a little silly at times — almost crazy — and yet she is the smartest person I know. Mention any subject — any subject at all, and she can talk on and on for at least a half an hour. What is wrong with her? Well, here is just an example of a typical morning going down to the bus stop before school.

We were almost down to the Y at the county road where all the kids gathered to catch the bus. The rain storm had subsided to a drizzly mist. My sister moved on looking at the road cut that the county workers dug this summer to widen the road. …

(In honor of July being Mystery Month.)

This is the case of the moaning stairs and the C-scale-cricket song, (if stepped on right): Squeaky Wooden Floors. Squeaky floors are predictable in their signature sound and are found in both hard and soft woods.

The 1892 the old Doug-fir wood in the Morback House in Sherwood. Oregon, first landing, second stair, moans a wheezing sigh. One foot on the floor and other on the stair creates a bellows moaning sound. Wooooe…huh…

You would think a ghost was walking right behind you. They are short stairs. …