Thanks, Tips

When I’m feeling patronized, which happens a fair amount in a few subject areas, I sit in silence. It’s clear the down-talker is not looking for my contribution on the subject, and if I did pipe up with my perspective, some part of me would know I was trying to impress. My pride can’t take […]

Telegrams to my publisher

There is a much-fêted relationship between a writer and his editor. Less often is it mentioned that a writer often keeps up a second backchannel with folks from the business side of a publication, dealing with invoices and working out logistics. With smaller pubs you may actually be talking to the publisher, as is the […]

Mounting evidence to the contrary

If you asked me in the abstract, and I wasn’t thinking about it too hard, I might tell you that most people are a bit stupid. A bit provincial, a bit ignorant, a bit wrapped up in consumer culture. I might think, if not say, that your average Joe is a bit of a philistine, […]

Write like you’re in the 1500s

Describe the tongue of the woodpecker Ask Benedetto Portinari how they walk on ice in Flanders Describe the beginning of a human when it is in the womb Ask Maestro Antonio how mortars are positioned on bastions by day or night Which nerve causes the eye to move so that the motion of one eye […]

The Year Time Stood Still

I have somehow become involved in wholesale Personal Protective Equipment (PPE) procurement. That is not my job, and I know nothing about it, but the old rules no longer apply in this sudden new world. All it takes now, apparently, is to know some people with particular connections in China and all of a sudden […]

New Person of LWON: Jane Hu

Please welcome Jane C. Hu, a talented journalist whose voicy, insightful writing you may already know from her work in Slate’s Future Tense. Or maybe you have taken her science writing class at the University of Washington. If not, I dare you to read her cover story in the February issue of High Country News […]

Flipping the Script

“Freak.” “Monster.” “Gorilla.” During this year’s Super Bowl Sunday, Shakira and J-Lo were not the only hyperboles on show. Both the official sports commentary and its online counterparts were littered with back-handed terms of admiration tinged with disgust. Why is it, I wondered, that these off-putting words are preferred over unambiguous compliments like ‘exceptional athlete’ […]