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Summer 2008

Northwest Trees: Identifying and Understanding the Region’s Native Trees

Stephen F. Arno ’65 and Ramona P. Hammerly
The Mountaineers Books, Seattle, 2007

Trees recall memories. Both thicken through the years, become storm-roughened, and may persist despite broken branches. We look at trees the way we look to memories as familiar waymarks in our personal landscapes. The new edition of Stephen Arno (’65 Forestry) and Ramona Hammerly’s Northwest Trees offers to enlarge one’s landscape of trees. The beauty of this book, with its insights and plucky facts, welcomes familiarity with trees. Reading Northwest Trees turns trees into sharper memories.

This new volume—characterized as an “anniversary … » More …

Fall 2008

Louisiana—A Pianist’s Journey

In one of my first musical memories, I am sitting with my grandfather at his player-piano, watching the punched rolls spin as we listen to the popular music of his youth. As a young child, I hadn’t yet developed a curiosity for the vast wealth and breadth of the piano literature. Hearing Louisiana—A Pianist’s Journey has given me a chance to revisit this type of music through a unique collection of works. Kenneth Boulton’s recording and the accompanying booklet effectively encapsulate Louisiana’s rich cultural history and transport the listener to a graceful era in American music.

This innovative two-CD set presents works by both American … » More …

Fall 2003

Irrigated Eden: The Making of an Agricultural Landscape in the America

This gem of a book is actually about the gem state, Idaho—specifically, the Snake River Plain of southern Idaho, where farmers, engineers, lawyers, bankers, and politicians have carved an agricultural landscape out of the parched and dusty sagebrush desert. With deft prose and engaging anecdotes, author Mark Fiege (’85 M.A. Hist.), a professor of history at Colorado State University, systematically traces the 100-year history of the creation and maintenance of the irrigation infrastructure that made farming possible in the Snake River plain. Praising it as “an ingenious, intricate, technological system,” Fiege nevertheless offers sober assessments of the economic inefficiencies, ecological losses, engineering foibles, and political … » More …

Summer 2005

Home Stand: Growing Up in Sports

Poetry in motion he wasn’t. At least not on the basketball court, even though 6’ 9” Jim McKean, his fadeaway jump shot, and his rebounding (he still holds the single-game Far West Classic rebounding record of 27, set against Princeton in 1967) were anchors of the rebirth of Washington State University men’s hoops in the mid-’60s.

“He didn’t have real good feet and was not a great athlete,” Marv Harshman, WSU’s head coach at the time, said a couple of weeks before the start of this year’s NCAA tournament. But that wasn’t the whole story.

“He had great hands, and he played with his head,” … » More …

Summer 2004

Hike Lewis and Clark's Idaho

Anyone interested in exploring firsthand the mountains and forests Lewis and Clark traversed in 1805-06 in western Montana and the Idaho panhandle will find this guidebook indispensable. Hike Lewis and Clark’s Idaho is a collaboration between writer Mary Aegerter, a frequent contributor to Washington State Magazine, and Steve Russell, a native of the region who has researched its historic trails.

The heart of the book is a set of detailed reviews of 44 trails between Lolo Ranger Station in Montana and Weippe, Idaho, accessible from either U.S. Highway 12, the Lolo Motorway—a primitive road that parallels the highway—or the Selway River. Aegerter rounds out the … » More …

Winter 2003

Hiding from Salesmen

“Talk happiness,” wrote the prolific poet Ella Wheeler Wilcox about 125 years ago. “The world is sad enough / Without your woe.” The former U.S. poet laureate Billy Collins has largely gone in that direction, and so has Scott Poole (’92 B.S. Psych.; ’95 B.A. English), who lives in Spokane and reads his poems Monday mornings on public radio station KPBX (91.1 FM).

In short, if one has a sense of humor—preferably of the absurd as well—it’s hard not to like most of the 43 poems that comprise Poole’s second book. “I’m sleeping on the coffee table tonight. / I think someone stole my bed.” … » More …

Fall 2008

Where the Fins Meet the Frets

If life imitates art, then for Ray Troll, so does music. More specifically, his music imitates his art. The debut CD from Ray Troll and the Ratfish Wranglers titled Where The Fins Meet The Frets contains 16 original songs that one could say leap directly from Ray’s artwork, which is playful, humorous, and dripping with double entendre.

Ray Troll and his Ratfish Wranglers hail from Ketchikan, Alaska, a population of roughly 14,000 hard-working folks, mostly in the fishing industry. To say that Ray’s songs are influenced by this town and its people would be an understatement. Almost every track is fully drenched with Alaska wilderness … » More …

Spring 2008

FensePost (fensepost.com)

When we were growing up, my best friend, Byron, and I would regularly head down to our local record store and browse through the new releases. Typically I’d pick out the ones that had the most interesting covers, and then read about the band. Byron would invariably find his band du jour, and explain why they were so great. Most of the time he was right (although his love of the band Flipper still confuses me). At some point we’d get to discussing what bands we liked and didn’t, and, eventually, why they were inferior to Judas Priest in some way. Point being, music for … » More …

Winter 2007

Famous

When it comes to fame and poetry, the locus classicus surely must be this passage from Milton’s “Lycidas”: “Fame is the spur that the clear spirit doth raise / (That last infirmity of noble mind) / To scorn delights, and live laborious days.” We of the 21st century have not so far shown ourselves much disposed to scorn any delights at all, most likely because we are not inclined to accept Phoebus Apollo’s sermon to the effect that “Fame is no plant that grows on mortal soil.”

But the fame we encounter in the 51 generally short poems of Famous, by Kathleen Flenniken ’83, is … » More …

Spring 2006

Eat more garlic

If there’s just one thing you plant in your garden, make it garlic.

For one thing, it’s extraordinarily easy to grow. Plant it around Columbus Day. Cover it with mulch. Or don’t. Water it now and then when it starts growing again in the spring. And that’s about it.

You can start eating it at any stage, though obviously you don’t want to eat it all up before it develops heads. Thus, you need to plant a lot. You can chop the young shoots and add to a stir-fry. Pull the developing young heads and slice, using it for a mild flavoring. In early summer, … » More …