COVID-19 is one of the biggest challenges we face today. As such, it deserves our utmost attention. But talking about anything related to COVID-19 has become progressively harder. What’s an independent newspaper to do? At The Vashon Loop, our decision is to turn to you for guidance before we start including this coverage. Readers, neighbors,…
Health Matters
It Is Reasonable To Be Skeptical
Have you heard about the “bivalent” and “monovalent” COVID vaccines? These are the old and new versions of the Pfizer and Moderna injections. The original injection is monovalent because it contains messenger RNA (mRNA) for only the Wuhan strain of SARS-CoV-2. The bivalent booster has mRNA from the Wuhan strain and the Omicron strain variants BA….
Editorial Page
When We Embrace Death
Who among us can say, “I embrace death?” There are only two experiences all humans share in common. Birth and death. Since our earliest beginnings, humans have managed to deal with, avoid, celebrate, flee, focus upon, ignore, formulate theories, and flagrantly seek to deny these two inevitable events with exquisite creativity. Proving one thing: Birth…
Island Resilience
Home Maintenance, Series #1 – What Goes in Must Come Out…
Many people who move to Vashon Island are unfamiliar with rural living and landowner responsibilities. Whether you’re from a small town, big city, or suburb, who provides your drinking water and manages your sewage matters only when the tap won’t work or the toilet floweth over! Here on the island, it’s a bit different. On…
Recipes
Horseradish & Fire Cider Recipe
Local horseradish is in, and so are all the ingredients (including Ball gift jars) to make your fire cider vinegar remedy for winter’s woes and health. We owe a big thanks to Rosemary Gladstar for bringing her fire cider concoction to the forefront and sharing her recipes for all to use for health. Use her…
Announcements
WA Trails Association Comes to Vashon
Trails are incredible for a reason! Humans clear them, protect them, design them, and otherwise bring them into being, and all of this is usually done by volunteer teams working together. Want to spend a day on the trail, in the company of awesome folk, under the gracefully swaying branches of colossal trees as fall…
Entertainment
Scone-Loving Author Searches for Treasure on Vashon Island – Needs Our Help!
The title says it all, and if you enjoyed some freshly baked Fisher Scones in the Thriftway parking lot this past weekend (October 7-8), then you already know all about it! If not, perk up your eyeballs and read slowly – so you don’t miss a single clue. Yes, it’s true! The famed author of,…
Literary
Poems of the Harvest
Selected by Merna Ann Hecht These poems are in celebration of autumn as a time of harvest and a time when a rich tapestry of color is paraded for us by the natural world. Merna Ann Hecht has contributed two poems and two favorites, one by Canadian poet Lorna Crozier and one by Jane Hirschfield….
Commentary
The Roasterie News
by Eva Deloach My Foundation, called Traditions, (est. 2003) is a 501(C)(3) that contributes to indigenous communities and individuals at the vanguard of the natural environment. Indigenous Elders and these communities protect the natural environment. Numbering more than 370 million individuals worldwide, these cultures have not lost their unique understanding of local environments and cosmic…
News
Cathlamet – Some Background
By Andy Valencia While we wait for Washington State Ferries to announce any initial findings in the Cathlamet accident, the Vashon Loop has been gathering background information to help interpret what we’ll eventually be told about this incident. An important piece of the Cathlamet’s history is its tendency to crash into docks; thus, it was…