Fall 2006
On Skyline Drive
Photographs of McCroskey State Park by George Bedirian
WSM Fall 2006
Fall 2006
Dances with cranes
Photographs of Nebraska’s sandhill cranes by Paul Johnsgard ’55
Fall 2006
Essay: Cattle and Women
A cultural link between women and cattle seems unlikely in this age of turbo-powered technology. Yet, cows are all around us as decorative symbols, from the large fiberglass art-cow statues that decorated the streets of Chicago and New York recently, to their widespread presence in gift shops and department stores. Their whimsical countenances appear on a myriad of kitchen towels, coffee mugs, and cookie jars. This surge of interest in all things bovine by giftware manufacturers, who market a plethora of calendars, aprons, refrigerator magnets, and so on, all depicting clever or cute cows, is directed at women.
At first encounter, we may think the … » More …
Fall 2006
Video: V. Lane Rawlins to retire
President V. Lane Rawlins has announced his intention to retire from Washington State University. WSU’s ninth president says he will serve through the next academic year. He plans to spend his remaining time as president focusing on legislative issues, continuing to improve the quality of education at WSU, and moving forward on the WSU Foundation’s fundraising efforts.
Video produced by Hannelore Sudermann for Washington State Magazine
Fall 2006
Dragon Slayers of Medieval Times
Excerpted, by permission, from Dragons and Unicorns: A Natural History, by Paul ’55 and Karin Johnsgard.
One of the earliest known dragon slayers was the warrior Siegfried (in the Teutonic version), or Sigurd (Scandinavian version), who lived so long ago that the facts of his dragon-battle are greatly muddled. Some people believe that he slew the dragon Fafnir to rescue a captive maiden; in other accounts he was simply looking for treasure. Some centuries earlier, in England, Beowulf took on a similar dragon but was fatally wounded in the resulting battle. Clearly, the weapons and methods used by these early warriors were not … » More …
Fall 2006
Laurie Carlson: Doing the things she likes
On the 90-minute commute from Cheney to Pullman to attend graduate school, Laurie Carlson’s eyes often strayed from the road to the cows grazing the rolling hills of the Palouse.
Carlson, who was completing her Ph.D. in history at Washington State University, found herself wondering what the animals were eating, how they were fed, and what their days were like.
To answer her questions, she decided to raise them.
Her interest in the animals also inspired her to write Cattle: An Informal Social History, looking at the symbiotic roles of cattle and humans.
It’s often like that. She recently published a children’s book about … » More …
Fall 2006
A great sail: Scott Carson '72
The meeting happened a few weeks after Scott Carson had accepted his new job.
In December 2004, Carson (’72 Bus. Admin.) was put in charge of the Boeing Co.’s Commercial Airplanes Group sales team and mandated to recapture the lead in the worldwide airliner market, which had been seized by European rival Airbus. It was a tall task—Airbus had out-sold Boeing in three of the previous four years.
To complicate the problem, says Carson, he had to deal with some lamebrain sales procedures installed by a previous chief financial officer. Carson was reviewing the procedures with his top sales executives. He couldn’t believe some of … » More …
Fall 2006
Art and Enterprise: Jordan Swain '00
So I’m riding around Bellevue with this very high-energy 27-year-old painter, and I’m starting to think, “Well, maybe I should take up painting.” That’s how infectious my companion is. She makes it sound like so much fun.
Jordan Swain ’00 offers me a warm diet soda from her emergency stash of supplies she keeps in the back of her car because she often doesn’t have time to stop and eat. We pull into Children’s Village, a safe haven in Renton for women and children who have been homeless, refugees, or victims of domestic violence. Swain and other artists donated their time and talent to brighten … » More …
Fall 2006
What I've Learned Since College: An interview with R. Dale Storr
On February 2, 1991, during the first Iraq war, Capt. R. Dale Storr (’83 Mech. Engr.) was captured by Iraqi soldiers after his A-10 Thunderbolt was shot down near Kuwait. The 29-year-old Air Force pilot from Spokane was a prisoner of war for 33 days, spending a portion of that time in Baghdad’s Abu Ghraib prison, while his friends and family believed he had died in the plane crash. He was regularly beaten and interrogated by the secret police, but used techniques taught to him at the survival school at Fairchild Air Force Base to get through it.
Now a lieutenant colonel in the Washington … » More …
Fall 2006
Two female athletes, two public falls
In the first three months of 2006, two images of female athletes and their subsequent media interpretations played on television and front pages across the country. The first one showed Lindsey Jacobellis during the 2006 Winter Olympic Snowboard Cross competition falling after a jump near the end of her run. Headlines such as “Showboating Costs Snowboarder Gold” suggested that she tried for a “hotdog” finish which led to her subsequent second place. Apparently, with no one close behind her lead, Lindsey grabbed her snowboard in a showy move and lost control. In interviews, Lindsey claimed “I was having fun. Snowboarding is fun. I was ahead. … » More …