Category: About the Author

Another word on how I work. One thing I started doing last fall was writing and editing on a stand-up desk. Here’s a photo of the one I use at my law office.

I can’t really remember where I started thinking about it. I think it was probably a fellow at my office who I saw working at a stand-up desk. I had a brief conversation with him, but didn’t think that much about it. Somehow I started encountering articles about the use of stand-up desks, and in particular figures in history who have used them. I’m always a sucker for a historical reference, so when I heard that Ernest Hemingway and Thomas Jefferson used stand-up desks, I was automatically intrigued. Here’s EH at his stand up desk.

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In early August I was in Alaska, fishing and kayaking. Every time I go there (now a grand total of two) I remark how unspoiled it is. Alaskans probably think it’s plenty spoiled. But to those of us in the lower forty-eight, we are so accustomed to a denser population and what goes with that that we are surprised to see what the earth looks like when there aren’t many people around. But the real story from this trip is how I encountered a couple of grizzly bears, or as they’re called in Alaska, brown bears.

I was fishing with several other people and a guide on Chichagof Island, a large island across the Icy Strait from Gustavus Alaska, where I was staying. To say it is beautiful doesn’t capture it. It takes your breath away. There are large snow-capped mountains and rivers, and marshes. There are birds everywhere and wildlife. Salmon in the rivers and Dolly Vardens—large, silvery fish from the trout family.

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