Carl Sandburg was called upon to give a talk and play his guitar at the 1962 Seattle World's Fair. His talk was a success, but he left the stage without touching the lonely guitar.

Perhaps sensing a bleak mood among their readers, some of the columnists/commentators I follow began the year by trying, or so it appeared, to talk us back from the edge.

As a Deputy King County Prosecuting Attorney, George Vanderveer stepped into one courtroom fracas after another.  His legal life was a baptism in the world of radicals, pickpockets, and their neighbors.

The other side had a story.

The Olympic Peninsula was once set aside for hunting elk and mining manganese. Thanks to Ickes and Gov Wallgren, those lands are now protected for recreation.