Archive for October, 2009
Halloween’s Haunting History
Saturday, October 31st, 2009Zombies and goblins and witches – oh my! Although the end of October always signifies the beloved arrival of trick-or-treaters, costumed ghouls, and any number of classic (and not so-) horror films playing on television, our celebration of Halloween has a history that predates its current incarnation – by nearly 2,000 years. And while much [...]
Riding the Buses
Thursday, October 29th, 2009It was another rainy day in Washington as I drove the 60 miles from Olympia to Seattle to interview for the post of executive director of Seattle Metro. In all honesty, the bleak weather fit my mood. My head was throbbing, and I felt uneasy, nervous, lacking in confidence-partly because I would be interviewing with [...]
Stem Cells – New Hope in Harnessing Nature’s Potent Toolkit
Wednesday, October 28th, 2009Technology is advancing fast. But for people around the world facing the daily challenges of living with a disease, the future just isn’t coming quickly enough. This personal struggle – and increasingly, the untold financial cost of hospitalization and ongoing treatment at a time when the American health care industry is already under scrutiny – [...]
How the World Would Live Without Us
Tuesday, October 27th, 2009How permanent are we? This is a question that has intrigued some of the greatest creative minds of our civilization. In our modern lives, we are surrounded by the seemingly eternal (steel, concrete, plastics, a global human population of billions) to such a degree that it can be difficult to envisage a world in which [...]
Evensong at Salisbury Cathedral
Saturday, October 24th, 2009Spiking the sky some 60 miles southwest of London is Britain’s tallest spire. It belongs to Salisbury Cathedral, a magnificent Anglican cathedral built between 1220 and 1258. Several years ago I had the honor of attending an evensong, or evening worship service, there. It was a very powerful experience, one that I can describe only [...]
Fighting on Two Fronts – Mariette Hartley’s Struggle with ADHD and Bipolar Disorder
Thursday, October 22nd, 2009From the outside in, Emmy award-winning actress Mariette Hartley appeared to have it all. A successful career acting on stage, film, and television, co-authoring a best-selling memoir, Breaking the Silence, and performing an acclaimed one-woman show. But is the life behind the scenes that is raising public awareness of an entirely different sort of existence [...]
Virgin Atlantic – Flying High with Biofuels
Tuesday, October 20th, 2009Richard Branson wants to change the way you travel. As Chairman of Virgin Group Ltd. (which counts several travel companies – among them the Virgin Atlantic, Virgin America, and Virgin Blue subsidiaries – under its banner) Branson’s aim is not wholly surprising. But the intrigue stems not from the what, but the how. As public [...]
My First Martini
Saturday, October 17th, 2009While vacationing on Chappaquiddick with my parents one summer during high school, I got a call from Stuart Higley, one of my dad’s friends, asking if I wanted to walk up the beach and join him for lunch. Chappaquiddick Island I had always enjoyed Mr. Higley. He was a bit different from some of my [...]
Deconstructing the Much Maligned Captain Bligh
Thursday, October 15th, 2009It has been said that history is written by the victors. But in the case of Captain William Bligh, and his unsuccessful command of the HMS Bounty, history has been re-written over the ensuing centuries by writers and filmmakers to tell an entirely different sort of story. The majority of these fictionalized works regarding the [...]
Remembering Ted Kennedy
Tuesday, October 13th, 2009The court of American opinion was not kind to Ted Kennedy. We expect our heroes to be without fault, perfect and polished at every turn. He was not that, and we would not let him forget it. Even in death, the multitude of obituaries were certain to include reference to his numerous personal struggles and [...]