I’m often amazed by the buzzwords and phrases the PR people create. They lend heavy connotation to words that lacked weight before. As a writer, I have to respect their cunning use of language. But “media elite” has always baffled me, so the recent bashing of the media elite sent me to my friend Merriam-Webster [...]
Filed under: Media, Such as it is on September 8th, 2008 | No Comments »
When we arrived in Chamonix in June, I peered up from under my umbrella in search of the mountains. I knew they were there. I sought out breaks in the clouds up the valley, or a window up above, where the Aiguilles (needles) should have been poking at blue sky. But there were only clouds [...]
Filed under: Climbing, Such as it is on September 3rd, 2008 | No Comments »
Employees at Lush, a handmade and natural cosmetics store, worked in their usual black aprons yesterday, but nothing else. The stunt was intended to call attention to the massive amounts of waste produced by packaging for consumer goods. In this case, the packaging was clothes, the metaphor goes. The first time I went in Lush, [...]
Filed under: Such as it is on August 28th, 2008 | No Comments »
Journalists need thick skin. Even if your journalistic goal is to write about eye shadow for Glamour, you’ll still be labeled as a member of that enigmatic, anger-inducing “media.” That means you’ll be subject to an occasional old-fashioned media bashing by complete strangers, and even your friends and family. I was chatting up a brand-new [...]
Filed under: Such as it is on August 26th, 2008 | No Comments »
A story appeared on the front page of my paper today that I have to share. A woman was riding her bike back from the post office with her baby in a carrier on her back when a man rode up next to her and grabbed her breast. Completely shocked, she wanted to kick him, [...]
Filed under: Such as it is on July 30th, 2008 | 1 Comment »
The rock was rotten. Each time I grasped a hold, I wondered if it would pull away when I cranked on it. Ben, Jeremy and I were clustered around the bottom of an exit chute near the top of our snow climb up Skywalker Couloir on Sunday. The chute, a snow-collecting break in the band [...]
Filed under: Climbing, Such as it is on July 9th, 2008 | 3 Comments »
I spent the better part of this weekend with women who are tougher than me. Today, I went on my club (Title 9) ride with my friend Kim. I’ve been riding for a while, but Kim is a new cyclist. We both joined the club this spring, and when we went to the sign-up, Kim [...]
Filed under: Such as it is on April 6th, 2008 | No Comments »
I was hooking my way up a picked-out and crowded frozen waterfall at Wild Basin on Sunday when the climber next to me yelled: “Ice ice ice ICE!” You yell “ice!” a lot when you’re ice climbing. It’s usually a fairly casual warning for the folks around you: I am swinging an ice axe into [...]
Filed under: Such as it is on February 12th, 2008 | 2 Comments »
One of the reasons I haven’t written much here this winter is that I’ve taken up two new winter sports. I’m from Missouri, a land that sees more ice and freezing rain than snow. We stay inside in the winter. The only sliding around on the white stuff we do is on a saucer sled [...]
Filed under: Such as it is on February 7th, 2008 | No Comments »
While having dinner with a typically outdoorsy Colorado friend the other night, she mentioned that her co-workers don’t climb or ski or cycle on weekends. They bake, she said. And watch the occasional game on TV. And bake. “You know,” she said. “They’re soft girls.” I did know. I used to be a prolific judge [...]
Filed under: Such as it is on November 1st, 2007 | 2 Comments »