The printer
Once upon a time a publisher—let’s call him Charlie—and an editor—let’s call him Wally—put out a weekly newspaper. For those of you unfamiliar with the…
mountain musing
The Writing Group
“I’m new to this writing group, so please forgive me if I don’t do things correctly.” “Have you participated in other writing groups?” “No, this…
Using sex (or its absence) to end a war
Last year, singer Janelle Monáe told the magazine Marie Claire, “Until every man is fighting for our rights, we should consider stopping having sex.” The…
Africa journey 4: Ethiopia—a country of stones
Ethiopia is a country of stones, ancient and modern. The Bale Mountains in the south and the Semien Mountains in the north are 15,000-foot-high cliffs…
Africa journey 5: Ethiopia, like no other place on Earth
Though now a democratic republic, Ethiopia still has some of the earmarks of its centuries as an empire. With more than 100 million people and…
Africa journey 3: Madagascar—an island under threat
It’s easy to feel that a journey on the island of Madagascar is a kind of time travel, in which you can see what life…
Africa journey II: Madagascar—It’s a mad place
When Madagascar Airline first started up, it called itself Air Mad—until it got sick of all the jokes about how the name accurately reflected its…
African Journey 1: The Africa Bug
While taking off from Chicago’s O’Hare Airport on Ethiopia Airlines, I noticed a lot of water running across the wings. A bit alarmed, I asked…
Indian summer in New Mexico
Anglos have long been in the habit of appropriating—or misappropriating—American Indian references for anything from professional sports to cowboy movies to politics to fake history…
Where the present is the past
When the older residents of the Hispanic land-grant village of Torreón, in the eastern foothills of the Manzano Mountains, grew up in the 1940s, the…