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Spring 2024

Hannelore Sudermann

Spring 2014

A dose of reason

Pediatric specialists advocate for vaccines

AS THE CHIEF OF PEDIATRIC INFECTIOUS DISEASES at the University of Chicago’s Comer Children’s Hospital, Ken Alexander ’82 is no stranger to the measles, pertussis, or chicken pox.

He also works with children with HIV-related illness, pneumonia, and respiratory infections. He and his colleagues identify and treat infections caused by the typical viruses and bacteria as well as the little-known parasites and even fungi.

But when we sit down to visit near his offices on the north end of UC’s campus, Alexander wants to talk about something that isn’t a children’s disease at all.

He leans a little forward, … » More …

Cowperson with horse
Spring 2015

A re-dress of the West

Joe Monahan, from all appearances a typical American frontiersman, arrived in Idaho Territory in the late 1860s. He was lured by the promise of fortune in the hillsides and settled in Owyhee County, which The New York Times had described as “a vast treasury” with “the richest and most valuable silver mines yet known to the world.”

Monahan built a cabin and mined a claim. He also worked as a cowboy with an outfit in Oregon.

When he returned to Idaho, he settled into a dugout near the frontier town of Rockville. An 1898 directory lists him as “Joseph Monahan, cattleman.” And his neighbors described … » More …

Winter greens
Spring 2015

Winter Greens—Beyond the kale

Kale’s culinary star has certainly enjoyed a recent rise. For a long time this basic brassica was a humble, overcooked, nutrient-rich winter green. But now it has become a salad, a crispy chip, and even a baby green.

It features on the plates of vaunted establishments like Seattle’s iconic Canlis where it serves as a support to the grilled swordfish, but it is equally at home at Tom Douglas’s pizza joint Serious Pie—where it is delivered fresh with parmesan, chilies, and pine nuts in a tangy, spicy vinaigrette.

Now it’s time to look beyond the kale to a whole world of winter greens. WSU researchers … » More …

Author Tracy Cutchlow ’97 and her daughter.
Spring 2015

Bringing up babies

If only babies came with instruction manuals.

A simple set of operating guidelines might help new parents navigate the necessity of naps, manage mealtimes, and teach a toddler to share.

While there are thousands of books and guides and websites, the situation is far from simple. Well-meaning childhood experts, doctors, and parents have blanketed early childhood with good, bad, and often conflicting advice. “The problem is, no one has time to read all that’s out there,” says Tracy Cutchlow ’97, a journalist, book editor, and (fairly) new mother.

Raising a baby can be confusing, confounding, and complicated, Cutchlow admits one afternoon over coffee in Seattle. … » More …

First Words
Spring 2015

First Words

Last summer on a visit to the Hudson River Valley, I took a morning to explore Washington Irving’s home. Wandering through the property in the sticky humidity so particular to the East Coast I peered into Irving’s vine-covered house, Sunnyside, and pictured the author at his desk honing his iconic New England stories like the “The Legend of Sleepy Hollow” and “Rip Van Winkle.” Never did I imagine the prolific writer also sat there crafting one of the first descriptions of the West Coast for a nation of readers.

Astoria, published in 1836, traces the efforts of John Jacob Astor, the nation’s first multi-millionaire, to … » More …

Slow Regard cover
Spring 2015

The Slow Regard of Silent Things

Slow Regard

 

Patrick Rothfuss ’02 MA

DAW Books, 2014

 

A darling of the sci-fi/fantasy set, Pat Rothfuss has diverted from the long-awaited third part of his bestselling Kingkiller trilogy and, instead, taken the time to explore the story of lovely, lonely Auri, one of the secondary Kingkiller characters.

Warning his readers that this book may not be for them, not even for the most serious fans of his first two meaty novels The Name of the Wind and Wise Man’s Fear, Rothfuss nonetheless draws them in to this bittersweet tale of the fair-haired mysterious woman who … » More …

Spokane fountain
Winter 2014

Art in public places

In the late sixties, Harold Balazs ’51 helped build a public arts tradition in our region. Along with several members of the Washington Arts Commission, including artist Jacob Lawrence, he created Washington’s Art in Public Places program. Starting in 1974, the program began directing one-half of one percent of all state building budgets toward purchasing contemporary art. The pieces would be owned by the state but could reside at the site of the project.

Having traveled in Spain and Italy, Balazs had realized that the United States could easily support more arts and culture. “Countries in Europe do so much more than one percent,” he … » More …