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Summer 2024

Tim Steury

Fall 2005

Noam Chomsky

The surprising thing about Noam Chomsky in person was what he was not. Even though I was not intimately familiar with either his linguistics or his political writing, I had imagined him as stern and austere, too absorbed in thought to bother with either social grace or chitchat.

Rather, he’s like your favorite uncle-albeit the one who has perfect recall and is amazingly smart and has the ability to explain big ideas in everyday language. No jargon. No evasiveness.

A professor in the Department of Linguistics and Philosophy at Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Chomsky is the most influential and best-known American linguist. Even more familiar … » More …

Fall 2005

An International Romance

Maxime Guinel wanted to do something different. So he left his home in Brittany, went to college in Manchester, England, then came to Washington State University in 2002 to pursue his doctorate. A week after he arrived in Pullman, he met Sophia Sushailo from Ivano-Frankivsk, in western Ukraine. They fell in love.

Maxime is a doctoral candidate in materials science and is a member of Grant Norton’s materials science research group. Sophia has just finished her bachelor’s degree in biotechnology. She plans to work for a year while Maxime finishes his degree. She has already been accepted into two graduate programs in pharmacology.

Sophia first … » More …

Summer 2005

Gig Harbor: Laureen Lund markets the town she loves

Laureen Lund (’82 Comm.) recently celebrated her fifth anniversary as the person who sells Gig Harbor to the world. She seems to do her job well. At least, that’s why I’m sitting in her office in Gig Harbor’s city building in mid-August.

“The best use of our dollars is public relations,” she tells me, without a trace of irony or triumph. “If I can get somebody to do an article, it costs me nothing.”

I let that sink in for a minute. So-do I feel exploited?

Nah, not a bit. I’m having a fine time.

As for Lund, she just seems very pleased that she’s … » More …

Summer 2005

A Building Full of Answers

Maybe it’s their nondescript building, one of a row of identical structures just off of Plum Street on the way into Olympia. Or maybe it’s their curious history, once a government entity, then oddly tossed to the budget dogs by an otherwise environmentalist governor. Maybe it’s the fact that it’s with Washington State University Extension, but doesn’t really cost us anything. Or maybe it’s all those 800 numbers connecting it to the outside world. And then again, maybe it was just me.

I’ve got to admit, I just didn’t understand the WSU Energy Program until I stopped in for a visit late last summer. Not … » More …

Spring 2005

A Nuclear Icon

If you’ve ever driven State Road 24 from Othello to Yakima, you may have glanced across the Columbia as you neared the Vernita Bridge and noticed the B Reactor. There it sits across the river, stark, intriguing, and mysterious against the shrub-steppe Hanford Reservation. But that’s probably as close as you’re going to get. Public access is limited, possible only through special arrangement with the Department of Energy.

Tim Cowan (’00 Architecture) wants to change that.

Cowan adopted the B Reactor as his architectural thesis project and has never let go of his idea. Now an architect with the Portland firm Yost Grube Hall, Cowan … » More …

Fall 2009

Washington potatoes

Judging by his occasional ribald references to the potato, Shakespeare considered the exotic tuber primarily as an aphrodisiac. Although the time of the potato’s introduction to Europe from the New World is not clear, recent scholarship has determined that the potato was grown in Spain as early as 1570. But the potato is an odd vegetable. Potatoes of that era were not uniformly oblong and smooth, but came in many colors and shapes, with odd protuberances that reminded some of, well, body parts. Although Indians had eaten them for thousands of years, Europeans were mystified, if not titillated.

But they got more adventurous. And the … » More …

Fall 2009

Interesting times, Part II

Having not been spared from Washington State University’s recent budget woes, we can think of no other way to absorb our share of the cuts than to drop one issue of the printed Washington State Magazine.

Now, before I go on, let me make a few quick points: 1) Don’t worry, I’m not asking for money; 2) I don’t see us dropping another issue anytime soon; and 3) Even though the budget cuts are permanent, we hope to restore that fourth print issue somehow.

There being no point in whining about the matter, we’re determined to approach that reduction as an opportunity. We will, in … » More …