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Etymology: Purple Blob
There’s nothing subtle about purple. It leans longingly toward the garishness of pink but is restrained by the subsonic throb of black; it is demanding but not shrill. “I think it pisses God off if you walk by the color purple in a field somewhere and don’t notice it,” Alice Walker wrote, and that may … Read more
The Man Who Cut Off His Toes
Peter Freuchen called himself a ‘vagrant Viking’ but that only begins to tell his story
Intro
Freedom arrives in stages. My first came in kindergarten, when I was allowed to walk home from school by myself, remembered mostly because I dawdled in the woods until my mother freaked out and came to find me, storm clouds of fear over her head. After that came learning to ride a bike. Then “just … Read more
The Forest Hearth
Living in harmony with the seasons and the land is an ideal tightly wound up with Japanese national identity
Mojave Rattler
For nearly fifty years, Desert magazine was gritty and provocative and full of love for the American drylands
Intro
David and I met in the first class on the first day of high school. It was gym, home room, and when they assigned lockers our names were next to each other alphabetically so we looked at each other and said, You wanna? Within a few weeks, we were inseparable. It’s impossible to exaggerate how … Read more
A Nudge to Wildness
What’s the role of a guidebook? Mountain legend and author Joe Kelsey says it’s to help you to lose your way
