Homegoing

I watched the first evening of the Democratic National Convention last night. PBS was the only station to provide me with wall-to-wall coverage from the first moment of the proceedings, which means that that I watched it from Nancy Pelosi’s opening remarks [that ol' lady speaker so-and-so! Great pantsuit] to Barack’s Kansas City video appearance [...]

Air and Water

The weather finally turned this weekend; turned back into the brick-baking hot I want and need. Two weeks in the seventies–sixties overnight–was putting dark, sorrowful circles under my eyes. I’m not truly happy, in the summer, unless I’m looking at even odds on self-combustion; unless I’m experiencing heat-related heart palpitations sixty seconds after exiting a [...]

The China.

This week’s blog–like it, love it, leave it or not–is going to be about China/the Olympics/China/the Olympics. My friends know that I am nervous about this blog, but I need to write it.
China’s human rights situation–and my inside-hurt regarding China’s human rights situation, and how it makes me want to punch through drywall–has simmered away in my mind, [...]

Heart-stoppers

Yesterday morning was one news-heart-stopper after t’other, wasn’t it? Scarcely had I allowed my eyes to trail over the headlines when I saw that:
11 Climbers Had Died on K2
Alexander Solzhenitsyn Had Died
K2:

Alexander Solzhenitsyn:

It is much, much more difficult to ascend K2 than it is to ascend Mt. Everest. One route up K2 is called “The Magic Line” [eee!]; [...]