Here are this week's topics: suburban problems; Christmas news best forgotten; a great height revisited; governmental absurdities; the new space exploration; a volcano story; your life's inspiration; a quiet disaster; how to fight ISIS; Roll Call's quips of 2015; the final season; wildlife photos.

Suburbia blues. It probably never occurred to those moving "up" to the suburbs that somewhere down the road, their new place of residence might become the proverbial two-edged sword. A recent Washington Post article dealt with the unforeseen problems when a suburbanite becomes unemployed and is forced to rely on public transportation to get to prospective job locations.
     A news item near year's end noted that middle class whites were dying at an alarming rate, that the only comparable statistic among white men was when the USSR faded to black and alcoholism rose alarmingly. Fareed Zakaria wrote recently, The United States is going through a great power shift. Working-class whites don’t think of themselves as an elite group. But, in a sense, they have been, certainly compared with blacks, Hispanics, Native Americans and most immigrants. They were central to America’s economy, its society, indeed its very identity. They are not anymore. Donald Trump has promised that he will change this and make them win again. But he can’t. No one can. And deep down, they know it. 

Christmas Day mayhem. From the Washington Post comes this sad story about gun violence in America. The number of Americans killed in gun homicides on Christmas Day is comparable to the number of people killed in gun homicides in an entire year in places like Australia or Britain. The 27 people killed by guns in America on Christmas this year is equal to the total number of people killed in gun homicides in an entire year in Austria, New Zealand, Norway, Slovenia, Estonia, Bermuda, Hong Kong and Iceland, combined. By the  bye, the total of 27 does not include the unreported number of Christmas Day suicides.


Mt. Everest. The world's tallest mountain (known by many names, aka, Sagarmāthā [Nepalese], Chomolungma [Tibetan], Goddess Mother of the Earth, among others) has long been of interest to me. Everest's mountaineering history was the subject of my long-ago high school senior-year English project (1959). I recently came across a book note for The Keeper of the Mountains: The Elizabeth Hawley Story, (Bernadette McDonald, Rocky Mountain Books, 2012).
     I have long been fascinated by stories by/about women who have been world travelers. This book is a revision of I'll Call You in Kathmandu: the Elizabeth McDonald Story by the same author.
     Climbers are often asked why they climb. Of her long residence in Nepal, Mrs. Hawley says, "I came to Nepal. I never planned to stay. I just never left." She provides fascinating details about mountaineering, Kathmandu, and Nepal.
     Seems that Mrs. Hawley is the "....foremost authority on Himalayan climbing and 'a one-woman Nepal Himalayan mountaineering institution.' " She has compiled lengthy pre- and post-climb interviews with each expedition leader (sometimes members) for every climb originating in Nepal since September 1960. Where possible, she had added files for the climbs of the North Face originating in Tibet (China).
     Those expedition leaders who have been to Everest before are not at all surprised when their hotel phone rings just as they are checking in and find the 92 year-old Mrs. Hawley on the line wanting information about their upcoming climb. She goes to them because her humble abode is, she say, "rather hard to find."

Would you believe? Columnist George Will bid goodbye to 2015 with this column of governmental absurdities and overreaches. Oh, my! The line, "How low can you go?," came to mind as I read his list of ridiculousness.

The shoe on the other foot. Professor Bahrani (professor of journalism at American University in Dubai) presents a lucid, straightforward discussion of what the Muslim world needs to do to counter the west's all too prevalent "anti-" view.

Space X et. al. Columnist Charles Krauthammer writes that America's next space age will be increasingly in the hands of private enterprise. Elon Musk, Jeff Bezos, and their other billionaire friends will be the new Fords, Wrights, Bells, Edisons, et. al. Later, as I read David Ignatius's column (The next president will face tricky military questions), I wondered,  "How will that president fare with a military establishment largely schooled in the past?" Ignatius writes, The first reality check for a new president will be the Pentagon. This generation of military leaders has been through traumatic wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. They’ve cautioned President Obama about the potential cost in lives and money of new commitments in the Middle East, and they’ll do the same with the next commander in chief. If you want to hear arguments against deploying a big U.S. ground force in Syria, just ask a general.

Not Yogi's Y[J]ellowstone? The Last Volcano (John Dvorak, Pegasus, 2016) examines the life of the early volcanologist, Thomas Jagger, who studied the 1902 eruption of Mount Pelee in the Antilles. In his book review, Steve Donoghue, reminds us that, like Jagger, we live on a "quietly terrifying [and] tectonically active planet" and that volcanic eruptions have in the past "ended life on a truly massive scale." For me here in Denver, there is this simple fact: "If the so-called 'supervolcano' underneath Yellowstone National Park were to undergo a general eruption, 100,000 people would die, and half the [western] hemisphere would be blanketed in a foot of ash." I'll try not to worry too much in 2016.

J.Edgar Hoover's list. Read this column and in retrospect you can only chuckle about how Frank Askin (general counsel emeritus at the American Civil Liberties Union and the director of the Constitutional Rights Clinic at the Rutgers School of Law) occasionally profited from his FBI file. Did you do anything to warrant Jed-Gers's attention? (To those of you old enough to remember "Laugh In," my apologies to Lilly Tomlin.)

Methane leak. From the High Country News, "In the hills above suburban Los Angeles, a man-made natural disaster of sorts has been unfolding for nearly two months. One can't see it or hear it, and it's not leaving a trail of dead animals and plants in its wake. It's potentially catastrophic, nonetheless." A methane leak of gigantic proportions: more green house gases released in two months than a coal mine does in a year.

The necessary long haul. Fred Hiatt, editorial page editor for the Washington Post, opines about the ongoing contest with ISIS. He finds useful ideas from former Secretary of State of State, not from Republicans Trump or Cruz. Hiatt believes there is no "easy way out for the United States in the fight against terrorism." According to Secretary Clinton, the United States needs to wage both “an immediate war against an urgent enemy” and “a generational struggle against an ideology with deep roots. [This] will require sustained commitment in every pillar of American power. This is a worldwide fight, and America must lead it.”

2015, Capitol Hill in cartoons. Here is the link to the year in review from Roll Call. Have a final chuckle.

The fascination with things British.  Downton Abbey, the PBS award winning series, has begun its sixth and final season. One wonders, why are so many people worldwide drawn to this tale of the ups, now downs, of British aristocracy? Certainly the writing and acting are masterful, but I cannot help but feel there is more to it than this. Your thoughts?

Animals in the wild. Last, here are a series of rather amazing wildlife photos captured by trip-wired, hidden cameras. Had they been available, like CBS's Sunday Morning, I would have used them to close out 2015.

Thank you for beginning 2016 with me.