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Duel in the Desert
I am a huge Washington Husky fan. That’s not a surprise to anyone. I can thank my dear dad for that. It’s in my DNA. My earliest childhood memories of Saturday afternoons in the fall were listening to Husky football on the radio with my dad, watching the rare televised game together (on black-and-white TV), and of course the once-every-year-or-so trip to Husky Stadium to see our beloved Huskies in person. The underpinnings for my passion for the purple and gold, however, run much deeper: I love college sports, football and basketball in particular. Vicki knows it. Our daughters know…
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The tale of Two Queens
We mourn the loss of Queen Elizabeth. Her magnificent 70-year reign is over. Just two days after her passing, we celebrate “Queen Victoria,” who turns 66 today. I only mention the two in the same paragraph because they’re connected … at the neck. When Vicki turned 60, I planned a birthday party fit for a queen. I photoshoped her head on Queen Elizabeth’s body (see above). The photo I used was the same photo that ran on the front page of Friday’s Seattle Times (seen here below). The black and white photo of Queen Elizabeth was taken in 1969. She…
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Eyes in the sky
Doing a story on a fire lookout watchman has long been on my bucket list. I can now check that box. I have to say, though, this was not an easy story to do. First of all, only about a third of the state’s remaining 93 fire lookouts are staffed. I talked to several rangers with the U.S. Forest Service. No dice. Finally, one ranger suggested I contact North Cascades National Park. A spokesperson with the park directed me to the guy who mans the famous Desolation Peak fire lookout, which also happens to be the only one in the…
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Visiting the mecca of auto racing
To paraphrase the most interesting man in the Dos Equis beer commercial, “I don’t visit race tracks very often. But when I do, I kiss the bricks at the finish line of the Indy 500.” Full disclosure here. I’m not into motorsports. The last time I stepped near a racing oval was Skagit Speedway, in like 1962. I have watched only small portions of auto races on TV in my lifetime. I am, however, familiar, with the drivers who made names for themselves in a city they call “The Racing Capital of the World:” A.J. Foyt. Mario Andretti. Al Unser.…
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Remembering you dad – on this day, and every day
As a college student in 1975 I once mailed a birthday card to my dad that he was to open on March 29, his birthday. There was just one problem. His birthday was a month later, on April 29. Years later, we joked about that. Better early than late, right dad? On this 29th day of April, 2022, my dad would have been 90. And rather than being early to the party – as I was 47 years ago – I feel like I was a little late. I always envisioned I would spend more time with my dad after…
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A trip to ‘the end of the world’
Until yesterday (March 9, 2022), I had never been to Pullman, Washington. I’m almost embarrassed to admit that. I’m 67 years old. I’m a native Washingtonian. My brother went to Washington State University, for crying out loud. My beloved Husky football team plays there every two years. It’s just that, for me, it was never on the way to anywhere. When we went to Montana, or points beyond, we always drove through Spokane. What’s Pullman on the way to? Moscow or Lewiston, Idaho? Heck, even George Raveling, the Cougars’ great basketball coach who worked the sidelines there from 1972-1983, once…
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Remembering a life well-lived
Early Bethany Covenanter Alice Van Liew Anderson had a story to tell – of God’s faithfulness and goodness, through the joys and tragedies of her long and full life Sometimes you meet people that just stand out. Alice Van Liew Anderson, to me, was one of those persons. Just a year before she died – during the depths of the pandemic – she wrote her life story in a book titled “Looking West: Remembering a Life Well-Lived.” Raised by Swedish immigrant parents, on a stump farm at Baker Heights just east of Mount Vernon, she tells her story. I was…
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Here today, gone to Maui
Vicki and I recently returned from a trip to Maui. We figured it was our sixth trip to the Hawaiian island. We took note of the new, much-improved rental car center upon our arrival at the airport in Kahului that wasn’t there when we last visited in 2019. That prompted me to exclaim: “I guess we haven’t been here in three years.” Pandemic travel restrictions aside, it struck me how odd that statement was. Some members of our family have never been to Hawaii. I had equated a visit to Hawaii as if it were as commonplace as a trip…
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The story behind ‘the backstory’: Remembering David Virta
The Seattle Times’ Pacific NW magazine in October published my story on a collection of fall hikes. It was a nice, 12-page spread designed by the magazine’s art director, David Miller and edited by Bill Reader, the mag’s editor. “D-Mill” and I worked together at The Times for more than 30 years, Bill and I for about 20 years. In assigning this story, Bill also asked me to write a “backstory,” a short page 2 piece that usually accompanies the front-page story. It’s supposed to offer some insight about the author and the “story behind the story.” Well, here’s a…
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Sign of the times: The 24-7 world of college football recruiting
The first of two national signing days for high-school football players has come and gone, and once again we’re reminded of the importance of college football recruiting. Each year, it seems, college football coaches are under ever more scrutiny for their ability to recruit – or not. Jimmy Lake’s lackluster 2021 and 2022 recruiting classes – especially his failure to keep high-profile, in-state recruits home – is one of the reasons he was fired as coach at Washington. Contrast that to the highly-ranked classes maniacal recruiter Mario Cristibal put together at Oregon, and you know why the University of Miami…
