By Caitlin Rothermel Last month’s article looked at the increase in myocarditis in the United States since the COVID-19 pandemic. Among young men in particular, vaccine-induced myocarditis seems to have at least doubled. This month, I looked at some new research that used national vaccine databases to study patients who developed myocarditis after COVID-19 vaccination. A…
By Melanie Farmer Eclipses are pure astronomical phenomena; those who experience its shadow share this with the world. The events, live-streamed globally, have no political attachment, no violent content, no war., no race, no gender … nothing. The eclipse is separate from all expectation or meaning, from new-age interpretation, from history. Here’s our chance to…
By Deborah H. Anderson The original draft of this was written in hunter green. I used to write words that came from my interior place, personal experience words, in mahogany. It’s a shade that looks deep red, like blood poured on the page. Life has gotten a little lighter, and those feeling words are like…
By Michael Shook The question came to mind because we bought an electric car. Well, a partially electric car, a plug-in hybrid. It feels like a tank compared to our 16 year-old Subaru, but nonetheless drives very nicely, and is quiet as can be, even when the gas/hybrid motor kicks in. The Subaru was doing…
By Seán C. Malone and John Sweetman “How many of these joints have you done?” “Well, only one today, but it’s not even lunchtime yet.” That refers to the “Mortise and Tenon” joints we were making to assemble a “picnic cover” for our friend Bill who had a property on Indian Point. It has been…
By O.S. Van Olinda Some 13 years after the first settlement was made on Vashon, the summer of 1891 to be exact, J.E. Mace bought a 10-acre tract of wild land in what was then known as the “Vermontville settlement,” now the Glen Acres district. Thirteen years wasn’t really much time in those days, when…
By Ed Swan Ed Swan, a master ornithologist with an incredible depth of knowledge and a generous enthusiasm to share it, inspired many Islanders to learn about birds. His column, “Don’t Forget the Birds” appeared for years in The Vashon Loop. Ed passed away on Oct. 28, 2022. With birds returning from their migrations, and…
By March Twisdale After a year of talking with Island businesses about the significant negative impacts of point-of-service (POS) transaction fees (Bank Taxes), I came up with an idea. How about passing these fees back to customers paying with plastic, just like the grocery stores charge customers who show up without a bag? The only…
By Andy Valencia Last issue, I talked about the strength of ham radio in providing communications during catastrophic disruptions of our traditional networks. But what does a ham radio operator do when the world hasn’t gone full Mad Max? If you have a handie-talkie (a hand-held radio, about the size of a cell phone), the…