All posts tagged: 2011

The Challenge of Life Hill

By G. HARVEY SHEPARD

For two hours we watched storm clouds gather as our speedboat cut through coffee-colored waves on the Içana River.  We beached at the base of a sandy cliff called Paitsidzapani in the Baniwa language, named for a kind of edible frog. Brazilian Portuguese has no word for such herpetological minutiae, so the Baniwa also call the place Serra do Desafio da Vida, or “Challenge of Life Hill.”  Baniwa Indians stop here to partake of its dual enchantments: some stay at the base to gather coal shards endowed with a miraculous capacity to promulgate the eponymous (and by all accounts delectable) frogs. The brave, however, look towards the top, fix their eyes on dry twigs lining the precipice, and climb the steep embankment.

The Challenge of Life Hill
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One Circus Moment

By JULIA LICHTBLAU

On the third morning of our vacation in Barjac, a small Southern French town, a car pulling a trailer bearing a plastic tiger, gorilla, and elephant drove around the square announcing a circus via megaphone. Delighted to see the French tradition of traveling circuses was resisting extinction, I dragged Zoë and Gabriel from the computer and my husband from his French horn. A blue plastic tent was set up in a field below the village. A llama, goat, and minuscule pony with a ground-sweeping mane grazed between the caravans.

One Circus Moment
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Over the River and Down with the Woods?

By GENELLE DIAZ-SILVEIRA

Over the river

The year is 1972, and as you’re driving along the highway in Rifle, Colorado, a giant orange curtain appears, looming vibrantly over a distant valley. Or, maybe it’s 1997 and you’re in Switzerland. You’ve decided it’s a nice day for a walk in Berrower Park when you notice there’s something different about the trees—namely that they’re covered in gargantuan sheets of polyester fabric.

Over the River and Down with the Woods?
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Late Winter, Willamette Pass

By JAMES A. GILL

We drove straight from work and hit the trailhead at 6:15. The sun was already low, and the shadows of Douglas Fir fell long over six feet of snow. For the first hour, we had the false sense of warmth as dusk lit the air with alpenglow. Almost without notice, it became harder and harder to see; then it was dark. We turned on our headlamps, and the blue reflective diamonds marking the trail shone like gas flames among the trees. It was slow going. A foot of fresh powder had fallen the night before, and even with snowshoes, we waded ankle deep beneath our full packs, sweating under our fleece while the freezing air burned our faces.

Late Winter, Willamette Pass
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The Idiomatic Idiosyncrasies of Place

By LINDSAY STERN

 

In Germany, to be drunk is “to be full of stars and hail.”

French teachers urge their students to “seize the moon by the teeth.”

In Russia, the concept “never” calls crustaceans to mind: “when the crayfish sings on the mountain.”

The Idiomatic Idiosyncrasies of Place
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