The Problem with “Golden Age” Myths: Time for the Old People to Move Aside
Somehow the narrative of 1950s America, refracted through the prism of westerns, became the norm for “the real America.” As such, it has a hold on us that may be crippling.
A Life in the Air: Flip Wingrove’s Joyful Flight
Flip spent much of his life flying airplanes and helping design and test the Boeing jetliners that changed the world. He loved to fly. And, with his trim Clark Gable moustache and sparkling blue eyes, he certainly looked the part.
Remembering Harriet Bullitt: “I Bought a Radio Station!”
"After some research, I purchased the station, directed a change in format and of course the Limbaugh show was one of the first programs dropped!”
The Long, Remarkable Life of Harriet Bullitt
“She will truly be missed, but her legacy lives on in some of the most beautiful places in Washington state she helped protect and in each one of us she has touched.”
The Elon Musk Puzzle — A Post Alley Round Table
"I feel no ire toward Elon Musk, but I want to be able to stop thinking about him."
What’s Your Risk Budget?
I never thought specifically about having a risk budget until a friend, who is a psychiatrist, used the term to describe the daily decisions we each make about potential exposure to the virus.
Being Rude Can Help Deepen Relationships
"If you’re struggling to build or deepen relationships, it might be because you’re too polite. Relationship building requires risk-taking."
Other Ways to Serve: Remembering Peter Jackson
As ex-Seattle Mayor Charley Royer posted, “I always thought Peter should have run for office. Didn’t need to. He found other ways to serve.”
We Need to Talk About a Crisis for Young American Men
It should be possible to discuss the worrying trends without setting off bad-faith conversation about “what this really means.”
Floyd McKay, the Passing of a Northwest Journalism Legend
When he moved from Oregon to Bellingham, he kept in touch with many journalism colleagues and admirers and students, dispensing wisdom, old-school ethics in journalism, and wise counsel.
Remembering “The Commish”: The Remarkable Deborah Senn
Consumer advocate Ralph Nader once called Senn "the best insurance commissioner in the United States, hands down." She was also the most entertaining.
Why Joe Rogan Matters
Rogan’s formula includes an uncanny ability to listen in a way that gets his guests to venture out of their canned comfort zones.
Off the Grid: How I reconsidered Calendars
What if you didn’t have a calendar to glance at every once in a while? What if it was a list of numbers, 1 to 31 displayed in random clusters?
Archbishop Tutu’s Treasured Seattle Connection
Words of the archbishop, read Sunday night at Epiphany Church, spoke to his country’s struggle and today’s world: “True reconciliation is based on forgiveness, and forgiveness is based on true confession, and confession is based on penitence, on contrition, on sorrow for what you have done."
Remembering Stan Barer, 82, Architect of Trade with China
“He was the one who really enabled the trade and commerce between the U.S. and China, and especially the Pacific Northwest,” ex-U.S. Ambassador to China (and Gov.) Gary Locke said in a UW Law School tribute to Barer. The connection stuck.
Remembering Author Charles Morris, a Master Revisionist
Reviewing a later book, the journalist Michael Kinsley (a Morris-like sensibility), noted Morris's neoconservative aspects "but with generosity and good will." There are always lots of "saints and sinners" in his histories.
The Dark Wit and Complicated Wisdom of Bob Dole
Dole “has richly earned his reputation as a hatchet man,” opponent Walter Mondale retorted. Dole later acknowledged: “I was told to go for the jugular and I did – mine.”
What, Me Happy?
Yuval Levin writes: “A fuller understanding of flourishing would see it as achievable not by a proper sequencing of solitary choices but by a proper layering of embedded commitments to others."
A Tribute to Congresswoman Jolene Unsoeld, Dead at 89, and her ‘Life of Wild...
She would serve six years in Congress. Unsoeld refused to be addressed by her title and insisted on being called Jolene.
How Jerry Grinstein Saved Maggie and Also Rescued Delta Airlines
Grinstein's most important maxim: “Focus on a circumscribed objective that is attainable.” I asked Jerry how we could direct public attention to the problem. “Find a fire-hydrant to piss on,” he said.
Inside the Funeral of Colin Powell
It was a bipartisan affair of a kind one doesn’t see in America much any more, but it was not “political.” The former presidents didn’t speak.
Goodbye to Dick Kelley, 71, Renaissance Man of Local Politics
Last week, Seattle laid to rest a true renaissance man, and one of the best local politicians we managed never to quite elect.
Rules for Leadership: What I Learned Interviewing Colin Powell
I first interviewed him at the Pentagon when he was chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff and our country was engaged in the First Gulf War. For that interview, we sat around a small table, and a chest full of medals gleamed on his uniform.
Post-COVID: Quality of Life and the Great Resignation
Post-pandemic shut-downs, many employers are having a hard time filling positions, even with several increases in pay. “The pandemic,” said one employee, “accelerated or accentuated all the feelings I’d had about work/life balance.”
Why Seattle Declared an Indigenous Peoples’ Day
Our flawed hero Columbus has been heralded over the centuries for a discovery that came at a terrible cost to those he found inhabiting that world.
Masks: Fashion Statement or Reason to Protest?
Never before (not even during the 1919 flu outbreak) has a piece of flimsy fabric taken on such broad, far-reaching significance -- on one hand adopted as a fashion statement and on the other sparking such outrage.
Making Waves: Remembering Kay Bullitt
Characteristically, whether she was Kay Muller or Kay Bullitt, she preferred the “second row.” Certainly she could occupy the spotlight, and effectively, but Kay did not need and did not seek prominence.
Those Spam Scammers Deserve a Special Kind of Hell
to be necessary for getting me “the refund to which I was entitled,” I thought “this is nuts . . . this is a scam . . . goodbye.”
Remembering Northwest Poet/Architect Grant Jones (1938-2021)
Grant Jones and his life’s work were formed by the Pacific Northwest.
When I Swam with Juan Peron at the “Hotel of the Dictators”
We embarked on what we envisioned as a lark; an exotic adventure. It turned out to be far more.
