Category: Commentary and Reflections
SCIFing Along
Once again, it appears our country will never escape from the black hole that is Donald Trump. After months of speculation as to whether he will return as a presidential candidate in 2024, which is bad enough to have to…
Headwaters by Dylan Tomine
Does a lifetime of being obsessed with steelhead fishing make you a better person? If you’re Dylan Tomine, the answer is yes. In his new book Headwaters, Tomine has a collection of both published and unpublished essays that proves that…
A Whisper of Autumn
It’s August and it’s hot across most of the country. We’ve had a few weeks of 90 F temperatures here in Puget Sound – with another heat-up coming next week. But this past week there was that touch of autumn…
Orvis To Cover Travel Costs for Employees
Orvis has joined a number of other companies who have said they will cover travel costs for women needing to go out of state for abortion-related medical treatment. See their letter below. The post on their Facebook page has generated…
Catch and Release – Not Enough
Protecting recreational fisheries is not a new concept. Lee Wulff, one of the legends of fly fishing (author, filmmaker, conservationist, and outfitter) wrote about catch and release (versus keeping and killing fish) in 1938. It took many years for catch…
George Carlin on Abortion
Now with this week’s Supreme Court decision on abortion, the rights of many young women to medical privacy have been left to the states; unsurprisingly, the Supreme Court ruled the day before that a state (New York) could not decide…
A Reminder From the Smolts
There are a number of principles for fly fishing on Puget Sound for searun cutthroat trout. Two of the more basic principles are: fish only when there is moving water (meaning a good tidal exchange, i.e., “height”); and learn the…
Memorial Day: The Failed State At Home
I have been reluctant to write anything about the racist slaughter in Buffalo New York, where ten people, most of them black Americans, were murdered by a young white racist; or last week’s massacre of 19 children and two teachers…
What’s Happened to SNL?
Saturday Night Live (SNL) has been a staple of late-night television comedy since 1975. Structured around an ensemble cast, and featuring weekly hosts and musical guests, it has become a presence in most of our lives for decades. That ensemble…
A Great New Star Trek Series?
With all that is threatening us, whether war; climate change; the economy; or the next round of Roe v. Wade, one needs a reminder that the future of humanity is not all hopeless – even if the road ahead is…