This post originally appeared May 3, 2018 The Atacama Desert is country that wears quiet like a skin. Stretching through the top 600 miles of Chile, it is so spare of all save earth and rock that it calls to mind bone stripped of flesh by sun, wind, teeth. It is a place that makes […]
Miscellaneous
This essay originally ran November 11, 2015, and is reappearing here as part of Atacama Week. Rain has been falling on the driest non-polar desert in the world, famous for parts of it not seeing a drop of rain for centuries. The Atacama Desert in South America is caught in the rain shadow of the Andes on one […]
It’s Atacama Week at LWON. This post originally appeared March 19, 2018 Most of us probably remember the first word we spoke in our native language. Mine was “Cat,” for I was fascinated by the ornery old Siamese that my parents kept when I was a baby. From there, I’m sure, I learned a child’s […]
In a celebration of a weird place few people go, except, apparently, People of LWON, we bring you Atacama Week. The Atacama Desert is not a popular destination-wedding spot or a favorite girls’ weekend locale. I doubt anyone has thrown a bachelor party in the Atacama–although NOW I’ll bet someone will–and it’s rarely picked for […]
The kids across the street are my special little pals. They climb all over me and believe the lies I tell them. We wrestle, take walks, get ice cream, talk about poop. I really love these two little guys—I’ve known them their whole lives–and I think they love me, too. It would be interesting to […]
By now you’ve probably heard about author Naomi Wolf’s fateful radio interview on the BBC. Perhaps you’ve heard the interview itself, though if not, you might want to skip it—especially if you’re a writer who traffics in facts and has ever had to cite one. It’s gruesome listening. Wolf was publicizing her book about the […]
This post first ran on June 16, 2011. It’s on my mind, because this week I’m at the Aspen Ideas Festival, which is also at the Aspen Institute and is similar in form to the Environment Forum I discuss in the post. *** I’m not a big fan of conferences. I loathe spending vast stretches […]
Earlier this month, a pinpoint landslide let loose onto a highway near where I live in southwest Colorado. No homes were destroyed. No cars were crushed, though three were narrowly missed. One pickup punched into reverse, its body hammered with rocks, occupants safe. What is significant is the tonnage of two boulders that tumbled a […]
