The latest 100 posts, with excerpts

  • All of Estes Park ordered to evacuate (10/22/2020) - Colorado Governor Jared Polis has just announced that Estes Park residents are being asked to evacuate because of all the fires in the area. Not to mention the lousy air […]
  • Fire closes Rocky Mountain National Park (10/22/2020) - Late yesterday the East Troublesome fire near Granby, Colo., blew up and raced east at the rate of 100 acres per minute. That’s 100,000 acres since yesterday. Evacuation orders for […]
  • Consider the consequences (10/21/2020) -
  • Forest Service closes north Colorado forests (10/21/2020) - Extreme, historic fire conditions exist in the forests of northern Colorado, with fires seeming to spring up almost daily. With that in mind, the US Forest Service has taken unusual […]
  • This is firefighting in Colorado (10/19/2020) - Firefighting in Colorado’s mountains is tough. Really tough. Temperatures, precipitation, and wind can change in minutes. And this is in addition to rough, often steep terrain and high elevation. (Remember, […]
  • New: Weather and landscape photo winners (10/19/2020) -
  • Don’t look now, but … (10/18/2020) - Yep, another fire. This one is the Lefthand Canyon fire. The evacuation area is just southwest of the still-burning Calwood fire northwest of Boulder, Colo. Lefthand Canyon runs west from […]
  • Colorado’s Cameron Peak fire now visible from Estes Park (10/17/2020) - The Cameron Peak fire, now the largest in Colorado history, continues to burn from west to east and is visible from vantage points in Estes Park. It has consumed more […]
  • I voted today (10/14/2020) - As I sat here yesterday marking my mail-in ballot, I watched the long, long lines in Texas on their first day of early voting. All I can say is thank […]
  • Yes indeed, your president plays the accordion (10/8/2020) - In the not-too-distant past, I read a comment about Trump “playing the accordion” — a reference to his characteristic gesture of spreading his hands apart, then bringing them together, then […]
  • New England Journal of Medicine gets political (10/7/2020) - Editors at The New England Journal of Medicine have come together in an editorial condemning the Trump administration’s handling of the Covid-19 pandemic. Titled “Dying in a Leadership Vacuum,” the […]
  • The immor(t)al Donald Trump (10/5/2020) - Yesterday, shortly after releasing a video in which he declared, “I get it,” Pres. Donald Trump left his Walter Reed hospital room and commandeered his personal vehicle to drive past […]
  • It’s about the light (10/4/2020) - Seeking an escape from unrelentingly awful news, I visited Erik Stensland’s “Images of RMNP.” And as usual I was met with dozens of beautiful shots of Rocky Mountain National Park, […]
  • The WordPress apple cart (10/4/2020) - WordPress really upset the apple cart a few nights ago by converting all users to their new “block editor.” Readers who don’t blog on WP won’t understand or care what […]
  • Trump tests positive for Covid-19 (10/2/2020) - Well, well, it seems the chickens have finally come home to roost. Donald and Melania Trump have tested positive for coronavirus. And they have begun their “quarantine and recovery process” […]
  • Debate solution: Zoom (9/30/2020) - Covid-safe, socially distanced, from the comfort of one’s home. No mask required. That’s Zoom. That’s the solution for the next presidential debate. If either candidate gets out of line, goes […]
  • Re Tuesday’s presidential ‘debate’ (9/29/2020) - Good lord what a horror show. I suggest the rest of the debates be canceled. There’s absolutely no point in continuing unless Trump can be silenced. In lieu of cancellation, […]
  • Wishful thinking (9/29/2020) - This, of course, should have happened the moment Trump issued his first tweet.
  • Opinion piece offers rays of hope for democracy (9/23/2020) - In The Guardian today, political speechwriter David Litt contends “Republicans will replace RBG but Democrats hold the trump cards – no, really.”  He suggests several ways in which Democrats can, […]
  • Hypocrites, lame ducks, and the Supreme Court (9/22/2020) - Originally published here on December 19, 2010: Back in November 2008, after the election, I wrote about the need for a 28th amendment to the Constitution. Said amendment would reduce the length […]
  • Best Biden commercial I’ve seen (9/21/2020) - Stephen Colbert ran this tonight and I got a big laugh from it. I don’t know if it’s a legitimate ad or not but given the formatting, I suspect it […]
  • Justice Ginsburg, champion for gender equality, dead at 87 (9/18/2020) - Ruth Bader Ginsburg 1933 – 2020 R.I.P.
  • First it was toilet paper (9/18/2020) - This has been a year of one frustration after another. A big one for me, self-isolating since March and dependent on delivered groceries, is not being able to get a […]
  • Burning like Washington (9/15/2020) - A tree burns in California — from the base and from the inside. Aerial slurry drops don’t help because they can’t penetrate the forest’s thick upper canopy. Control ultimately requires […]
  • Something old is new again (9/13/2020) - This morning I stumbled across this item on the Hammacher Schlemmer website. It’s billed as “the world’s only four-wheeled rowing cycle.” Well, it may be the only one now, but […]
  • Once, we were united … (9/11/2020) -
  • About Colorado’s Cameron Peak fire (9/9/2020) - The national media are focused on the California wildfires, and rightly so. They far surpass Colorado’s fires in size and threat to life and property. But here in Colorado, along […]
  • If only (8/31/2020) - I was rummaging through a box in the garage recently and found this — a Christmas card I received maybe forty or fifty years ago. I liked it so much […]
  • Another funny cat tale (8/26/2020) - Fair warning: Put your drink down before watching. A dozen views later and I still ROFL. But then, I’m a lifelong cat lover. Cat standing on his own tail from […]
  • A better metaphor (8/25/2020) - Three months ago I mentioned a reporter who opined that a dumpster fire was the perfect metaphor for the year 2020. And I agreed with him. Until I saw this […]
  • In case I wasn’t clear about voting (8/18/2020) - If you didn’t get my point the other day — the one about doing whatever is necessary to make sure your vote gets counted in November — here’s how Tom […]
  • About those mail-in ballots (8/15/2020) - “Neither snow nor rain nor heat nor gloom of night stays these couriers from the swift completion of their appointed rounds.” While the Postal Service has no official motto, the […]
  • Those silly Katmai bears (8/14/2020) - Here they are again, those brown bears that catch salmon at Brooks Falls in Katmai National Park, Alaska. They sit there casually above the falls or below while fish practically […]
  • Look out, Donald, here they come! (8/12/2020) - Well, Joe Biden’s out of his basement, and Kamala Harris is with him. Donald Trump had better watch out because neither of them is to be trifled with. Yours truly […]
  • The sun also rises (8/9/2020) - Estes Park photographer Erik Stensland probably isn’t thinking about politics when he’s in Colorado’s high country capturing images like this. After all, when you’re in the mountains, they fill your […]
  • Can we please just skip the rest of 2020? (8/6/2020) - I’m not the only one who saw the first videos from Beirut Tuesday and immediately thought “nuke.” But the thought passed as quickly as the mushroom-shaped cloud itself — unlike […]
  • Kanye gets on Colorado ballot (8/6/2020) - Well, isn’t this special. Kanye West is following through on his threat/promise to run for US president. And here in Colorado, he’s made it onto the ballot as an Unaffiliated […]
  • It’s back! ‘Vote Him Away #2’ (8/3/2020) - YouTube’s hugely popular “Vote Him Away (The Liar Tweets Tonight)” is back with all new lyrics and video. Enjoy! Copious kudos to Roy Zimmerman and The ReZisters featuring Peggy Seeger, […]
  • Yes, please move the election (8/3/2020) -
  • Fee-fi-fo-fraud (8/2/2020) - The Orange One is starting to sound a little desperate about his standing in the polls (ie, way behind Joe Biden). All his blabbering about mail-in ballot fraud is utterly […]
  • Deny science at your peril … and mine (7/27/2020) - The pandemic is real. Covid-19 is real, and it’s killing people, people of all ages. Believe the doctors, the scientists, the facts. Please wear a mask, keep your distance, and […]
  • A national emergency looms (and his name is Trump) (7/23/2020) - Has Trump’s sending of anonymous federal troops into Portland concerned you? Angered you? It certainly should. In today’s New York Times, former presidential candidate and former Democratic senator from Colorado […]
  • Portland’s Believe It or Not (7/21/2020) - Last week anonymous troops wearing no identification were grabbing people off the streets of Portland, Ore., forcing them into unmarked vans, and taking them to unspecified locations. No warrants, no […]
  • Hasta la vista, Facebook (7/13/2020) - I’ve often ranted about the evils of Facebook and yet, I confess, I’ve continued to have my WordPress posts auto-posted to Facebook. Well, that ends today. This is the last […]
  • Trump picture worth a thousand words (7/11/2020) - This photo is among The Guardian’s 20 Photographs of the Week this week.
  • Cool it (7/9/2020) -
  • Fourth of July, 2020 style (7/7/2020) - So how was your Fourth of July? Safe and fun, I hope. Mine was a mixed bag. It started in the afternoon when my son and granddaughter came over. First […]
  • Happy Fourth of July!!! (7/4/2020) - For all its faults and problems, this is still the greatest country on earth. Happy Independence Day, everyone! Stay safe and have a great day.  
  • The bears are back in town (7/4/2020) - The bears are back at Katmai National Park, Alaska, fishing Brooks Falls in front of live cameras. The salmon are leaping, the gulls are lurking, the icy water is rushing. […]
  • Our long hot summer (6/29/2020) -
  • On the destruction of statues (6/27/2020) - I’ve written before about the destruction of public statues and monuments, and I’ve supported leaving them in place — with appropriate signage added to explain their history. More recently I’ve […]
  • New Foothills webcams found (6/25/2020) - For those interested in northern Colorado webcams, there is another site available. The foothills weather station features north-, east-, and south-facing webcams, with time-lapse videos from each. Night views are […]
  • Anti-maskers, it’s not about your rights (6/24/2020) - To those out there not wearing masks because you think it infringes on your rights: You’re infringing on the rights of others to stay healthy. You’re infringing on my rights. […]
  • Trump’s long walk home (6/22/2020) -
  • Trump’s Tulsa rally in one picture (6/21/2020) - June 21, 2020 — Trump’s rally in Tulsa yesterday took place in the Bank of America Center, which has a seating capacity of 19,000 to 20,000. It appears he fell […]
  • Why, Tulsa, why? (6/19/2020) - June 19, 2020 — Tomorrow is the day chosen by Pres. Trump for his big rally in Tulsa at the Bank of Oklahoma Center. Some 19,000 supporters are expected to […]
  • Surprise from conservative Supreme Court (6/18/2020) - June 18, 2020 — Still missing black and brown, but it’s a start. And from Trump’s conservative court at that. And for an encore the court upheld Obama’s DACA law […]
  • Why the aspen quakes (6/16/2020) - June 16, 2020 — Everyone has heard of quaking aspens, but do you know why they quake even when other trees are still? The answer is right there in the […]
  • I’ll believe it when I see it (6/15/2020) -
  • Let’s ask kids about Donald Trump (6/12/2020) - I just came across this 2018 video from Jimmy Kimmel Live. In it, kids are asked questions about Donald Trump. It made me laugh and reminded me to never underestimate […]
  • There’s something happening here (6/9/2020) - “For What It’s Worth” by Buffalo Springfield, 1967 The song is 53 years old! That’s older than most of today’s demonstrators. Maybe, just maybe, this time will be different. Maybe […]
  • Getting away from it all in Colorado (6/8/2020) - There is peace, quiet, and beauty in Colorado, but these days one has to go to the mountains to find it. This colorful sunset, viewed from Trail Ridge Road in […]
  • Charges upgraded against George Floyd’s killer (6/3/2020) - June 3, 2020 — The Minnesota Attorney General Keith Ellison has taken over the George Floyd murder case. The charge against Derek Chauvin, the police officer who kept his knee […]
  • Liberty and justice for all (6/2/2020) -
  • Worth noting: No police, no violence (6/2/2020) - June 2, 2020 — When Denver’s 10 pm news ended Monday night, the demonstrations downtown were still peaceful. They’d been that way all day. During the afternoon Denver Police Chief […]
  • Peaceful demonstrations vs lawless riots (6/1/2020) - June 1, 2020 — Demonstrators in Denver Saturday remembered George Floyd by lying face down with their hands behind their backs for 9 minutes while repeating “I can’t breathe.” They […]
  • Outraged (6/1/2020) -
  • Metaphor for 2020 (5/31/2020) - May 30, 2020 — The national news media haven’t devoted much time to the demonstrations occurring in Denver the last few nights, probably because Denver is a smaller city with […]
  • It was murder … in the street … with a knee (5/29/2020) -   May 29, 2020 — It didn’t take a genius to see and hear that Minneapolis police officer Derek Chauvin was suffocating George Floyd. Floyd gasped repeatedly for several minutes […]
  • Pied Type is now Windwhistle (5/28/2020) - May 28, 2020 — It’s only a fresh title and theme. The content will remain the same. I’ll remain the same. But things needed freshening up around here and the […]
  • Memorial Day 2020 (5/25/2020) - ~ Remember and Honor ~    
  • Alas, delivery doesn’t work for everything (5/18/2020) -    
  • Best flashmob ever! (5/13/2020) - Crank up the volume for this one. And maybe grab some tissues.
  • Darwin would be horrified (5/12/2020) -
  • CO governor yanks Castle Rock diner’s business license (5/11/2020) - You’ve seen it by now — video of the diner in Castle Rock, Colorado, that opened on Mother’s Day with standing-room-only crowds. Well, now you see it, now you don’t. […]
  • Animated graph tracks adoption of technology in US (5/7/2020) - Throughout the 20th Century, the United States was swamped with new technologies. In this graph one can see when each was introduced, how fast and widely it was adopted, and […]
  • It’s National Nurses Day (5/6/2020) - Thank you, nurses everywhere!! Today, May 6, is National Nurses Day. It marks the beginning of National Nurses Week, which ends on May 12th, Florence Nightingale’s birthday. There are not […]
  • It can’t be said enough (5/4/2020) - Say it loud, say it strong, say it every chance you get!
  • Second only to his ‘stable genius’ of a boss (4/29/2020) - Vice President of the US or not, Mike Pence should have been refused admission to the Mayo Clinic if he wasn’t willing to abide by the rules and put on […]
  • Laughed so hard I cried (4/28/2020) - This birds-and-bees lesson was aired on the Ellen DeGeneres show (S17/Ep140) this afternoon and I happened to see it. All I can say is that before it was over, I […]
  • Shut him up, shut him down (4/24/2020) - I was horrified yesterday when our “stable genius” of a president mentioned injecting disinfectant to get rid of the coronavirus. You just know some numbskull out there is going to […]
  • The Liar Tweets Tonight — Vote him away! (4/23/2020) - The Liar Tweets Tonight by Roy Zimmerman and The ReZisters, featuring Sandy Riccardi. Made in collaboration with the Raging Grannies of Mendocino. “The Lion Sleeps Tonight” words and music by Solomon Linda. Parody lyrics by Ede Morris, Roy Zimmerman, Melanie Harby.
  • Those crafty Iranians have flying gunboats (4/22/2020) - Poor Trump. He so desperately wants to be a masterful Commander-in-Chief but he just can’t get the hang of it.
  • Earth Day is 50 years old today (4/22/2020) -
  • We are broken … but not forever (4/20/2020) - In major cities across the US yesterday, people marched to protest the nearly universal lockdown orders designed to slow the spread of the coronavirus. And Denver was no exception. An […]
  • Twenty-five years ago (4/19/2020) - Twenty-five years ago Timothy McVeigh’s bomb ripped the front off the Murrah Federal Building in Oklahoma City, killing 168 innocent men, women, and children. Oklahoma City was and always will […]
  • One can’t help wondering (4/17/2020) -
  • We know who ordered Trump’s name on those checks (4/16/2020) - … don’t miss the little note at the bottom right  
  • ‘Stable genius’ rolls on (4/15/2020) - Just when I thought Donald Trump couldn’t disgust me any more than he already has, Tuesday’s Washington Post reported this: President Trump announced Tuesday that he intends to halt payments to […]
  • This woman cracked me up (4/10/2020) - Some of you may be familiar with Mrs. Hughes, but I’d never heard of her until my sister sent me this video. Maybe I was just in a receptive mood […]
  • ‘Hope on a Dark Morning’ (4/7/2020) - This is one of Erik Stensland’s newest photographs from Rocky Mountain National Park. Regular Pied Type readers are well acquainted with Stensland’s spectacular photos of the park, currently closed because […]
  • Howling in Denver (4/5/2020) - Last night for the first time I remembered to turn off the tv at 8 pm and listen. Sure enough, I thought I heard a distant howl. But not certain, […]
  • Wise we must be (4/3/2020) -
  • Too cute for words (3/31/2020) - This is “Cotton.” I found her in Bored Panda’s story “40 Most Wholesome Rescue Pet Photos Of This Month (March Edition).” She’s there with 39 other adopted pets, mostly felines […]
  • Love in the time of pandemic (3/30/2020) - I’m a hermit by trade. A loner. And I’m perfectly happy home alone most of the time. Until I was told I HAD to stay home. Now I fret constantly. […]
  • ‘Joy’ in Colorado (3/29/2020) - While sheltering-in-place as ordered, members of the Colorado Symphony used modern technology to get together and play Beethoven’s “Ode to Joy,” one of my all-time favorites. I still get goosebumps […]
  • Feed a cold, starve a virus (3/27/2020) - Time Magazine writers Elijah Wolfson and Chris Wilson said it yesterday: Short of a miracle cure, the only way to halt this pandemic, experts say, is to starve it. And […]
  • Social distancing for everyone (3/27/2020) -
  • A cat tale, part II (3/25/2020) - Some of you may remember that I adopted a kitten last May. He was a wee thing, 8 weeks old and just 2 pounds. I named him Rowdy. Time passed […]
  • Media mishaps: Grammar grinch gripes again (3/25/2020) - I heard it again this morning: NASA pronounced “nassau.” NASA is not pronounced “nassau.” Nassau (NASS-aw) is a city, the capital of the Bahamas. NASA (NASS-uh) is an acronym for […]