The Hammer Times

Potluck (no Jello!)

Single stories on a topic.

  • The Road to Racial Empathy Runs Through the Comedy Club

    Talking about race is hard, and the conversation is often stifled by White guilt, the fear of making a fatal misstep in language, or the overwhelming weight of historical suffering. White people, even those in a group of friends, can have wildly disparate experiences with race themselves, making dialogue fragile. The only way forward is Read more

  • Un-Natural Selection

    What is it with this “extended size” nonsense. I was at a Columbia Outlet where the sales associate was obsessed with the phrase. “We don’t carry many extended sizes.” The phrase was repeated endlessly, as if the sizes themselves were an unfortunate anomaly. Why aren’t there just sizes? No one who wears a size 0 Read more

  • Drizzle & Stormie: The Emotion of Rain

    Have you ever been so sad that you couldn’t stop crying? Drizzle, the rain goddess of the Pacific Northwest, knows how you feel. She too is so, so sad. She sits in her gray sweats, wrapped in a gray comforter in her charcoal gray mountain house and weeps. The tears are gentle, yet exhausting to Read more

  • You Know You’re in the South, When

    I think I found my people. 😎 Read more

  • Coast to Coast – Day 6

    After being awakened at 10:00 PM by a tornado warning alert on Kelly’s phone and the town’s warning siren, we didn’t get much sleep last night. The thunder made Ziggy bark and made us jumpy. Still, after a long day in the car, we are here! Read more

  • Coast to Coast – Day 5

    Last night in a hotel! We’ve driven through Oregon, Idaho, Wyoming, Nebraska, a small corner of Iowa, Missouri, Illinois, Indiana and are in Kentucky. Tomorrow will include West Virginia and Virginia. We’ve crossed the Missouri twice, the North Platte, Mississippi and Ohio Rivers. Random notes: Read more

  • Coast to Coast – Day 4

    We hit the 2,000 mile mark today, with 1,000 to go. We are staying in Mexico, MO, passed through Paris, and Oregon, passed turn-offs to Pershing’s and Twain’s boyhood home; learned that the purple flower covering fields is called henbit, had a picnic lunch at Loess Bluffs National Wildlife Refuge, and listened to standup comedy Read more

  • Coast to Coast – Day 3

    Rock Springs, WY to Grand Island, NE We traveled about 700 mi today with a side trip up to Scott’s Bluff where Kelly’s dad was from. Read more

  • Coast to Coast – Day 2

    Meridian, ID to Rock Springs, WY Random Act of Kindness – At a rest stop today, I couldn’t get the key fob to work to lock my door. The travelers in the pickup next to me offered to watch my car while I went to the bathroom and then waited to make sure my car Read more

  • Coast to Coast – Day 1

    Portland to Meridian, Idaho Unexpected – One rest stop had a pen for horses in addition to the expected area for dogs. Beautiful – Snow capped mountains; Columbia River shimmering in the sunlight Ziggy – Read more