It’s that season. Not erratic spring, but the reliable roll-out of journalism awards, aka a free education in the best of this work and how it’s done. You can roll your eyes at the glut of awards given in … Read more
One of my engineer brothers often pesters me about the thicket that is the English language. Silent or paired letters that defy logic: psychic, knave, climb. Words that have letters that seem, upon consideration, extraneous: sock, aardvark. Letter combinations … Read more
More decades ago than I care to count, I was assigned to read “The Canterbury Tales” for a high school English class. That was before email and texting reduced the English language to rubble, and yet I still found … Read more
On most mornings the little brown dog could be found at the foot of the bed, often on his back with his hind legs spread and his front paws bent at the joint. That’s rest. Good rest. And better … Read more
A few days ago, I caught a Lyft to Sea-Tac Airport from my home in Seattle. The driver was originally from Eritrea, as are many of the taxi and share drivers I meet here. He told me he emigrated … Read more
Ah, those pesky numbers. Not, we journalists are often told, our strong suit. Or to cite the old and very lame joke: “Jourmalists don’t do math.” And yet we must, especially in an era in which numbers often drive … Read more
How’s this for a story? At the start of a bloody war that shocked the world, a ship braved Antarctic ice and sailors risked their lives, returning with a tale for the ages. That’s the story of Ernest Shackleton … Read more
No surprise that the infamous slap during the March 27 Oscars was the talk of the press the next day, and the day after, and so many of the days that followed. No real surprise that someone in he … Read more
Veteran U.S. newspaper journalist Brian Bonner has given the last 14 years of his career to Ukraine. As the longtime editor of the Kyiv Post, an English-language newspaper in the country’s capital, he directed a staff of reporters who … Read more
My neighbors across the street always have a banner flying from their porch. Sometimes they are holiday related, but mostly the colors of various sports teams. Many are international, thanks to their son’s passion for soccer. A few days … Read more
