By Laura Jones Introduction from Jane Valencia Recently, my friend Laura Jones shared with me some comics she had created for an online Haiku Comic class with David Lasky. I was captivated and charmed, and asked if we could print one. Though traditional haiku has three lines containing 5-7-5 syllables, not all haikus stick to…
By Daniel Hooker Amelia, a librarian at the Vashon Library, said that she ate a synonym roll yesterday. It gave her the saurus’t throat she ever had. ~ From Chad at the library: What is Grumpy of the Seven Dwarves’ favorite bread? Sour, d’oh. ~ From a checker at Thriftway: Q. Have you heard about…
Investor and Warren Buffet partner Charlie Munger famously said, “Show me the incentive, and I’ll show you the outcome.” The quote serves as a rule of thumb when thinking about business and performance metrics, shorthand for how human behaviors can be profoundly altered by what at first glance may appear to be minor changes. Recently,…
By Seán C. Malone and John Sweetman As very young children, Christmas was always an exciting and wondrous time, but not for the same reasons that adults experienced. We were totally taken in by the family and church gatherings. Religious rituals, stories, and experiences were just taken for granted. We did have the eminently logical…
Legends of Vashon By O.S. Van Olinda This account of a day’s shopping in 1878 is from the diary of a fifteen-year-old boy, whom I shall call Bill Jones. His real name is John Smith, but he might not wish that his identity be disclosed. Bill’s father was among the first settlers on Vashon Island,…
By Neil Orint Earth has a magical twin, and it is called Geminus. While on Vashon Island, 15-year-old Henry Brooks discovers Geminus, a twin world to Earth powered by spirit and magic instead of materialism and technology. He travels to this new land with his friends Kate, Max, and his faithful dog Rocky. Upon his…
By Andy Valencia Even as an old dude, I still remember bits of my own boyhood. Parts were great, and parts were terrible. But I thought I should mention the thing that really sticks out in my memory: Boys are the greatest force for good in the world. The odd part is that, mostly, modern…
By Michael Shook “Christmas is coming” … I don’t know if the goose is getting fat, but some of us undoubtedly will add some, given all the delicious, butter-laden food that is such a wonderful part of the season. We should also grant that, for those not fond of wet, short, cold, and dark days,…
By Suzanna Leigh In Oatman, Arizona, the gold-mining ghost town where we were living when the boys were small, there were no malls, no blaring of tired old Christmas Carols, no Salvation Army Santa’s jingling bells on the street corners. Actually, there were no street corners to speak of, unless you count where the pot-holed…