You can check out any time you like, but you can never leave

Last week I noted the disturbing analogy of 1976-77 for the Colorado River Basin, a year eerily similar in the early months of snowpack development to 2017-18. In addition to the major drops in reservoir levels, 1976-77 produced four of the eight best-selling albums of all time: Meat Loaf: Bat Out of Hell The Eagles: Greatest Hits …

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We will not be having a White Christmas this year in Albuquerque

The notion of a White Christmas is at best an inventive fiction, at worst a lie. Jody Rosen, in the wonderful book White Christmas: The Story of an American Song, put it thus: The longing for Christmas snowfall, now keenly felt everywhere from New Hampshire to New Guinea, seems to have originated with Berlin’s song. …

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#tbt – Dorothea Lange in the dry lands of eastern Oregon

Some day I’m going to find an excuse to write – I mean really write – about Dorothea Lange. One of my favorite Internet rabbit holes is the Library of Congress photo archives, and one of my favorite sub-rabbit holes there is the work of Dorothea Lange. For much of the 1930s Lange, working for …

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Lots and lots of people seem to be going to our National Parks

Driving back this week the long way from Las Vegas, Lissa and I were stunned by Zion National Park. The river was high, the rocks were red, and the people were everywhere. I’m guessing it’s been 50 years since my first Zion camping trip, with Mom and Dad and Lisa and one of those big …

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Sally Jewell’s post-cabinet road trip is the best thing on the Internet

I always figured Sally Jewell, who until January was the U.S. Secretary of the Interior, had the best job. If you followed her on social media, you’d see her visiting cool places, hiking around, looking at stuff. I realize being Secretary of the Interior has some hard bits, too, involving meetings and policy and big …

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