Warm Up A Cold Day with Mesclin Flatbrod and Hot Chicken Soup By Suzanna Leigh and Marj Watkins Marj Watkins’ “Gluten Free Baking” cookbook is a do-it-yourself project; Marj first printed in the 1970s under her publishing imprint, Firtree Press. This year, I dug it out of retirement, put a new cover on it, updated…
January 2025, Recipes
Pancakes for Matrona
By Jane Valencia We were heading soon to a gathering, and I unexpectedly found myself with a spare 45 minutes. Could I cook something to bring? We had a new large griddle, and over the years I’ve made a lot of pancakes. The pancakes today would need to be dairy-free. Gluten-free, or digestively gentle, would…
January 2025, Poetry
this train
By Claudia Hollander-Lucas This poem is inspired by a train ride I took from New York City to Washington, DC in early April last year. The seasons morphed in the frame of my window from bare limbs on budding shrubs to fragrant huge blooms on the evergreen Magnolias that line many streets and yards –…
Entertainment, January 2025, Poetry
Haiku Comic – While The Crescent Moon Sleeps
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…
Entertainment, January 2025, Llaughing Llamas
Llaughing Llamas Chronicles
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…
December 2024, Editorial Page
DispatchHealth Adoption
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,…
December 2024, Island Voices
Santa Loves Cigars!
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…