For me, the rifle is sacred. Some of you will readily accept that statement; maybe it’s sacred for you, too. Some may think that “sacred” is pushing things too far. Some of you will recoil (sorry) in disgust. We all have our sacred objects, whether we pin that loaded term on them or not. Really, they are […]
The Immediacy Of History
I’ve spent most all my days trying to touch the past. It’s a compulsion, a hunger for a connection. I have been accused by some folk who lack understanding of “living in the past,” but that misses the mark by a country mile. It’s never been about that at all — it’s always about making the past present. When that connection is […]
Long Black Train — Sex, Death & Revolution
What can be scarier and stronger than the feeling of impending death? — Larisa Reisner, Trotsky (2017) * I hung around St. Petersburg When I saw it was time for a change Killed the Tsar and his ministers Anastasia screamed in vain… Pleased to meet you Hope you guess my name But what’s puzzling you Is the nature of my game — “Sympathy For The […]
‘If I Don’t Stop, Who’s Going To?’
This week, I had the pleasure of writing a story about a good deed. The construction manager of a major project here in Sisters, Oregon, rescued a family that had run off the road in the Cascades and ended up in their wrecked truck, upside down in the North Santiam River. You can read the full story here. The key part […]
Time To Shake These Doomsayer Blues
It’s the same old story Tell me where will it end I got the same old blues, same old blues again — J.J. Cale * I’m gonna lay down these Doomsayer Blues. The fourth National Climate Assessment under the U.S. Global Change Research program was released on the Friday of Thanksgiving weekend — the traditional burial ground for stories that […]
‘You’ve Got To Play On’
Decided to go with something a little lighter and more uplifting than usual for this week’s Running Iron Report column. If you can call broken bones and a torn scrotum “light and uplifting.” Blame Rullman and my brother John. * Last Sunday, Craig and Pete Rathbun and I sat down at the Figure 8 to record a podcast on “Stories The Shaped […]
Badgers And Blood Oranges
They came upon a circle of nomads Camped far from the lights of the town Blue men with scars and malarial eyes And teeth that were pointed… filed down He said: “These are the people I’ve been searching for, This is more than I ever could have hoped!” As they threw him down on a blanket And tied him up with a hand-braided rope They […]
A Proclamation Of Thanksgiving
Thanksgiving has long been an American tradition, famously dating back to the Pilgrim settlers at Plymouth Colony. The observance was celebrated at different times and in different places, and the tradition was strongest in New England. It wasn’t until the Civil War that it was established as a fixed national holiday. In the darkest depths of […]
Guns, Germs & Gravy On Everything
It would be hard to overstate how much I love Thanksgiving. An autumn family feast day with underpinnings of historical remembrance seems purpose-built to trip my trigger — and it always does. It is even more important to me now that it means trekking across the Cascades to retrieve daughter Ceili from university. The drive is […]
November 11, 1918-November 11, 2018
Washington, Monday, Nov. 11, 2:48 A.M.–The armistice between Germany, on the one hand, and the allied Governments and the United States, on the other, has been signed. The State Department announced at 2:45 o’clock this morning that Germany had signed. The department’s announcement simply said: “The armistice has been signed.” The world war will end this morning at […]
An End To War, An End To Peace
Take some time this Sunday, November 11, to reflect upon a moment that occurred exactly 100 years ago. It made the world we live in. In November 1918, at the 11th hour* of the 11th day of the 11th month, an Armistice went into effect between the Allied powers of France, Great Britain and the United States and […]
‘Blueprint For Armageddon’
We are fast approaching the 100th anniversary of the Armistice that ended World War I — known then as The Great War. It was the most cataclysmic conflict in human history up to that time, and it is almost inconceivable that it would be superseded in a mere 30 years by an even more horrific one. Americans are […]
