https://picoalaska.com/2024/12/15/a-camelot-moment-in-alaska-journalism/https://picoalaska.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/12/weaver-book-cover-3.jpgWeaver book cover (3)https://picoalaska.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/12/hw-in-adn-downtown-newsroom-1970s.pngHW in ADN downtown newsroom, 1970s2025-09-30T07:36:53+00:00monthlyhttps://picoalaska.com/2025/03/04/what-she-learned-as-a-journalist-living-under-a-dictator/https://picoalaska.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/03/screenshot-2025-03-04-at-1.55.42e280afam.pngScreenshot 2025-03-04 at 1.55.42 AM2025-03-10T11:38:22+00:00monthlyhttps://picoalaska.com/2022/10/20/island-of-peace/https://picoalaska.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/10/img_6078.jpgimg_6078Photo displayed in the Yeats Country Hotel at Rosses Point, outside the town of Sligo, County Sligo, Ireland. Names of children unavavilable.https://picoalaska.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/10/img_6066.jpgimg_6066This little island in Lough ("Loch") Gill, not far from Sligo in County Sligo, Ireland, is the titular Innisfree of the famous poem by William Butler Yeats, who knew this country well.2022-12-21T08:47:42+00:00monthlyhttps://picoalaska.com/2022/11/07/keeping-the-english-sober/https://picoalaska.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/11/single-shot-double-shot.jpgsingle-shot-double-shotA cup for measuring out an exact shot of spirits as defined by alcohol-beverage regulations in England, according to a bartender in Cambridge, England. Turn the cup over and you can pour an exact double.https://picoalaska.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/11/bartender-measuring-cups.jpgbartender-measuring-cupsMeasure for measure, the English people may among the most discplined drinkers on earth. Bartenders are required by law (and by their bosses and bar owners) to dispense certain types of alcoholic beverages in precise amounts. So, for example, when you order still wine at the bar or at table, you'll likely be offered small, medium or large. Those sizes correspond to 125 ml, 175 ml and 250 ml (roughtly 4¼, 6 and 8½ fluid oz.). At a theatre bar we recently drank at, the barkeep would dole out those amounts in, respectively, the 2nd, 3rd and 4th measuring cups in the photo. The 1st cup is for measuring certain spirits — gin, rum, vodka & whiskey. With this end up, it holds 50 ml. (roughly 1 ¾ oz.), or what amounts to a double shot. Turn the cup over — as in the photo below — and you have the means to pour a single shot, 25 ml. ¶ I'm not certain, but I believe that Irish bars may have to dispense with their beverages under similar guidelies. I wondered when we were in Ireland and later during our first travels through England why the drinks seemed pallid. I seriously wondered if the gin, for example, was being watered down (the Negronis I ordered at a wonderful oyster bar in Galway were frankly of no consequence whatever, and I departed an unhappy patron. But now I understand: when ordering certain cocktailis, you'll probably want to make it a double shot and, depending on your taste, budget and tolerance, perhaps order more than one.2022-11-22T01:14:34+00:00monthlyhttps://picoalaska.com/2022/11/04/pico-pub-crawl-the-eagle-cambridge-england/https://picoalaska.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/11/eagle-floor-plan-1992.jpgA 1992 drawing of the Eagle's floorplan.A 1992 drawing of the Eagle's floorplan.https://picoalaska.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/11/writing-on-the-wall.jpgwriting-on-the-wallThe writing is on the wall at The Eagle, probably the most famous pub in Cambridge, England. During WWI, British and American pilots and crews would put aside their concerns — and their rivalries — and drink away an evening. They wrote the names of their units, their planes, the numbers that meant something to them, on the ceiling, using (as the sign says) candles and lipstick. Airmen writing important data and names has a long tradition at the Eagle and continued after the war. ¶ Another story told by pub workers and its patrons, today and back when, is about the time that Francis Crick and James Watson, molecular biologists at Cambridge University, stood up excitedly to tell all within hearingx distance that they had worked out the solution to the structure of DNA. The world learned at the moment, in this pub, of the double-helix formation. ¶ The pub has been serving ales and more since 1667, but we haven't heard of other great moments from its past.2022-11-04T18:47:55+00:00monthlyhttps://picoalaska.com/2022/11/02/pico-pub-crawl-the-turf-tavern-oxford-england/https://picoalaska.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/11/name-dropping-at-the-turf-oxford.jpgname-dropping-at-the-turf-oxfordBut of course management at The Turf, one of Oxford's most popular pubs, is merely modest about its fame. This board hangs along one of the pub's passageways & outdoor eating zones.2022-11-04T02:38:10+00:00monthlyhttps://picoalaska.com/2022/11/01/pico-pub-crawl-2/2022-11-01T23:29:52+00:00monthlyhttps://picoalaska.com/2022/10/28/irish-stew/https://picoalaska.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/10/kilmacdaugh-abbey.jpgkilmacdaugh-abbeyStone walls, ruins of ancient stone buildings and cows (also sheep, horses & hedgrows) are everywhere in the countryside of west Ireland where we toured in September. We also saw such pasturelands during our drive from Sligo to Belfast, but it was in County Kerry, County Clare, County Galway, and County Sligo where we did most of our driving. ¶ The ruins here are of the Kilmacduagh monastery in County Galway. According to on-site displays, the monastery was founded by St. Colman Mac Dutch early in the 7th century. The abbey is said to be one of the finest collections of monastic buildings in the country. The churches were plundered in the 13th century but the site remained the seat of the Bishop until the 16th century. The modern diocese still bears the name of the early monastery. ¶ The Round Tower seen in the background dates from around the 12th century. It functioned as a place of refuge for the monks in case of attack. ¶ The tower is actually a leaning tower: it tilts 2 feet from the perpendicular. For comparison, the Leaning Tower of Pisa leans 12 feet, 10 inches from the vertical.https://picoalaska.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/10/irelands-wild-west.jpgirelands-wild-westI can't look at this photo without seeing a vista from somewhere out west in America. But it's Ireland, near the town of Glenbeigh on the Iveragh peninsula, County Kerry. What I saw from inside our rental car and at those times when we stepped out and stepped forth into the towns or villages seemed no more developed than the American Southwest as I first saw it 43 years ago.https://picoalaska.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/10/padraic-o-conaire-statue.jpgpadraic-o-conaire-statueSome weeks ago I sat beside a statue of Irish poet Pádraic Ó Conaire in John F. Kennedy Memorial Park, Eyre Square, Galway. So much history and sadness seemed to come together in this image, in this park. JFK made a memorable journey through Ireland in June 1963, just 5 months before he was murdered. He gave a speech at this park attended by thousands (the Irish people loved that one of their own had become the U.S. president). This statue of Pádraic Ó Conaire is a replica. The original is in the Galway City Museum where it was moved after vandals decapitated it in 1999. The image of Ó Conaire, also known as Patrick O'Connor (he was a leader of the Irish language revival and wrote stories in Irish), shows him in the depths of a serious contemplation of sorrow. Not necessarily about himself, but about the people he knew and wrote about it. Maybe that's why the vandals attacked him: His inwardness, his ability to probe the sorrowful deep, to live with uncertainty, was too scary for those fools. Ó Conaire died in 1928 at about the age of 46.https://picoalaska.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/10/ballykissane-pier.jpgballykissane-pierThe plot was thick. A German ship, the Aud, carrying weapons intended for Irish revolutionaries, was headed for the west coast of Ireland on the night of Good Friday, 1916, awaiting a signal. Four members of the Irish Volunteers were driving through Killorglin in County Kerry that night. on their way to Cahirciveen to seize the wireless station at Valentia Island. According to the Irish Times, they intended to transmit “a series of false signals which would fool the [British] Royal Navy into believing that a German attack on Scottish naval bases was imminent. It was hoped that such a move would allow the Aud … to proceed unmolested through Irish waters." ¶ But the car's driver took a wrong turn and drove down a road that ended at this pier at the River Laune. Under pains of poor visibility because the car lacked a headlamp, driver Tommy McInerney saw too late that the vehicle was headed for the water, and in it plunged. McInerney survived, but the others drowned, the first casualties of the Easter 1916 Rising. The Aud's skipper scuttled the ship and its weaponry went down with it. The Irish Revolution was stillborn that Spring, forced to wait several more years. ¶ At Ballykissane Pier is a monument to the martyrs, while the concrete and stone structure is not very different than it was 106 years ago.https://picoalaska.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/10/kathleens-birthday.jpgkathleens-birthdayOn September 24, towards the end of our first week in Ireland, we celebrated Kathleen's 70th birthday with a fabulous dinner at the Panorama restaurant in the Hotel Europe located outside the city of Killarney, County Kerry. I ate one of the most delicious restaurant meals ever — called Dingle Goat Cheese Ravioli, it came in a cheese sauce ("foam") with roast butternut squash, candied walnuts, pickled shallot, and crisp kale, Shared by the four of us (Kathleen's brother and their Dublin cousin Maurice, whom they met for the first time 2 days earlier, were the others) were a bowl of buttered new potatoes (cream nirvana) and one of mixed vegetables. Totally off the charts. ... Out beyond the window is Lough ("Lake") Leane.2022-10-31T01:02:04+00:00monthlyhttps://picoalaska.com/2022/10/13/launch-on-landing/https://picoalaska.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/10/jack-at-dublin-castle.jpgjack-at-dublin-castlehttps://picoalaska.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/10/pexels-photo-691668.jpeglandscape photography of mountains covered in snowPhoto by eberhard grossgasteiger on <a href="https://www.pexels.com/photo/landscape-photography-of-mountains-covered-in-snow-691668/" rel="nofollow">Pexels.com</a>https://picoalaska.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/10/blue-clouds-day-fluffy-53594.jpegblue skiesPhoto by Pixabay on <a href="https://www.pexels.com/photo/blue-skies-53594/" rel="nofollow">Pexels.com</a>https://picoalaska.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/10/pexels-photo-417173.jpeggray and brown mountainPhoto by Pixabay on <a href="https://www.pexels.com/photo/gray-and-brown-mountain-417173/" rel="nofollow">Pexels.com</a>2022-10-31T00:53:19+00:00monthlyhttps://picoalaska.com/2022/10/31/when-searching-for-irish-roots-irish-luck-helps/https://picoalaska.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/10/kevin-and-mccoys-in-gorteen.jpgkevin-and-mccoys-in-gorteenKevin McCoy explains to his newly encountered family members from the community of Gorteen, County Sligo, in northwest Ireland, the family relationships he has uncovered while doing genealogical research into his father's Irish roots.https://picoalaska.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/10/delias-schoolhouse.jpgdelias-schoolhouseThrough a chance encounter, Kathleen and her brother Kevin, traveling with their cousin Maurice in the village of Glenbeigh along the road known as the Ring of Kerry, found a man who gave them information about the place their grandmother, Brigid "Delia" Cronin, was born and went to school. This building is what's left of Delia's schoolhouse. Her family's home is in no better condition, given over to the ever-encroaching vegetation.https://picoalaska.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/10/mossy-john-barton-1.jpgmossy-john-barton-1Maurice "Mossy" Daly, Kevin McCoy (unseen, w/ phone/camera) and John Barton, an old-timer from the area whom they had just met, discuss the area near Glenbeigh where Delia Cronin had grown up in the late 19th, early 20th centuries. (Kathleen McCoy photo)https://picoalaska.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/10/mossy-john-barton.jpgmossy-john-bartonhttps://picoalaska.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/10/kathleen-maurice-at-lough-leane.jpgkathleen-maurice-at-lough-leaneKathleen and Maurice Daly of Dublin, who is her cousin (3rd cousin, to be exact) and whom she had never met until a few days before this photo was taken (and knew nothing about until a few months ago) reflect on the splendor of a view across Lough Leane, to the McGillicuddy Reeks, Ireland's highest mountains.https://picoalaska.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/10/kathleen-at-the-cronin-farm.jpgkathleen-at-the-cronin-farmOur travels through Western Ireland — County Kerry and County Sligo, in particular — were genealogical searches. Kathleen and her brother Kevin, who joined us for most of our Ireland journey, were making contact for the first time in their lives with distant relatives on both their mother's and father's side. ¶ This farm in Aghadoe/Nunstown is where their grandfather, John Cronin, grew up. They could not learn who lived there now. No one but a dog and a flock of sheep in a pasture seemed to be at home.2022-10-31T00:40:01+00:00monthlyhttps://picoalaska.com/2022/10/14/tower-of-literary-power/https://picoalaska.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/10/joyce-death-mask.jpgjoyce-death-maskONE OF TWO PLASTER CASTS TAKEN FROM THE FACE OF THE BODY OF JAMES JOYCE, SHORTLY AFTER HIS DEATH IN ZÜRICH ON THE 13TH OF JANUARY 1941 ... (Caption by James Joyce Tower & Museum, Sandycove.)https://picoalaska.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/10/joyce-tie.jpgjoyce-tiehttps://picoalaska.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/10/gogarty-and-ulyssess-acct...jpggogarty-and-ulyssess-acct..https://picoalaska.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/10/where-joyce-slept-2.jpgwhere-joyce-slept-2https://picoalaska.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/10/where-joyce-slept.jpgwhere-joyce-sleptThe spot beneath the striped robe, where the brown valise lies, is where Joyce spent the first of his six nights in the tower in September 1904, at the invitation of a friend who had secured a lease and turned this room into an apartment. When a third man joined them, Joyce moved his spot to where the bed is presently.https://picoalaska.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/10/top-of-the-tower.jpgtop-of-the-towerIn the 1804 design of the Martello towers, a large cannon supported by a bulky wooden moveable scaffold could rotate 360 degrees on the rails visible here. Its range was about a mile. The coastal areas north and south of Dublin Bay were dotted with a couple dozen of the Martello Towers and effectively threatened any vessel coming within a mile of the shore. No Dublin Martello cannon was ever fired against an enemy. The opening in the wall is the stairhead up which, in the opening sentence of Joyce's novel "Ulysses," "Stately, plump Buck Mulligan" climbs "bearing a bowl on which a razor and a brush lay crossed."https://picoalaska.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/10/martello-tower-exterior.jpgmartello-tower-exteriorThe James Joyce Museum is an addition to the 1804 Martello Tower (No. 11) at Sandycove, about 14km southeast of the Dublin city center.2022-10-19T20:31:02+00:00monthlyhttps://picoalaska.com/2022/10/17/spirits-of-galway/https://picoalaska.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/10/nora-barnacle-house.jpgnora-barnacle-houseIn the house on the right (with the oval plaque) once lived one of the most famous muses in all literature: Nora Barnacle, who became the lover, mother of his two children and eventually wife of the Irish author James Joyce. Nora would move out of Galway to become a chambermaid in Dublin, which is where Joyce met here. To judge by the letters they wrote each other when they were apart for some time, they enjoyed as frankly erotic a relationship as a man & woman can enjoy. (I really do dare you to read those letters.) This house, which remained in Nora's family for many years after she left, is exceptionally modest, perhaps even humble. It is located very close to Galway's Latin Quarter, which is an exciting scene of pubs, Irish music, restaurants, shops, etc. When we were in Galway (Sept. 27 to Oct. 1), I was struck by how the Irish girls and young women dressed to show a lot of skin, even though the temperatures were in the 40s. And then I thought ... How did Nora Barnacle dress as a teenager and young adult in the late 19th and early 20th centuries? Ireland was no doubt much more repressive than it is today, so ... she was probably modest, well covered up. But maybe that's why she moved to Dublin. ... Joyce's father, John Stanislaus Joyce, was a bit of a wit (which he passed on to his son). When he learned that Jim's girl was named Barnacle, he said, "Well, she'll never leave him."2022-10-17T20:33:23+00:00monthlyhttps://picoalaska.com/about/2022-10-06T23:24:49+00:00weekly0.6https://picoalaska.comdaily1.02025-09-30T07:36:53+00:00