Just a heads-up that some stories I’ve written here are now in “private mode,” so no one can see them except me. Why? I’m in the process of switching my entire web site to a new design, and that takes time. It’s weird how it seems just yesterday this web template was “state of the … Continue reading
How to spend a winter Saturday in Seattle? With Uzbek journalists, of course! Too much fun!! Continue reading
From my summer visit to Wisconsin, quintessentially beautiful in every season. (click on photo for caption/backstory) Continue reading
I don’t usually post stories or videos that I create at work on my personal web sites, but I do like this Russian one, “Moscow in Photos: 12 Reasons Why We Love Red Square and the Kremlin,” published today. Continue reading
As a child growing up in Montana, I imagined my cowboy grandpa’s life to be as inspiring and majestic as the mountains around me. I was wrong. Continue reading
When my employer sent me to Siberia, it wasn’t punishment at all. It was a “once-in-a-lifetime” $25,000 train ticket on the Trans-Siberian Railway, creating on-the-fly videos and stories and unforgettable memories along the way. Continue reading
Five years ago this week I was exploring Silk Roads and back roads of Central Asia. Officially I was with the Seattle-Tashkent Sister City Association, an invited member of its 35th anniversary delegation. Continue reading
I can’t get no satisfaction. I grew up wanting more, and why not? It was my culture. Even the Rolling Stones’ Mick Jagger wailed dissatisfaction over a girl dissatisfied with him. But why? Blame it on TV… Continue reading
I’M NOT TURKISH, I don’t speak Turkish (much), and I don’t have ties to anything Turkish in the U.S.A. Yet when the plane touches down at Istanbul’s airport – my eighth trip so far – my heart still flutters as if it’s the first time: Continue reading
{Note: I wrote this on the flight to his funeral, after my dad died February 18, 2012.} Arthur Holter Born: Montana. Died: Wisconsin. Forever Home: Montana. May the circle be unbroken. My dad loved road trips. He died talking about them. There it is: that corded telephone. Dad was chatting with my older sister … Continue reading
February 18, 2012. A year, how can it be? Gone.
We, his children, dig his grave and bury him – our father. Continue reading
What’s in a name? These days, it’s not Leningrad, anymore. It’s not the USSR, anymore. And my “‘Baby Lenin”‘ pin isn’t worn anymore, but rather a sought-after relic for collectors. Change in St. Petersburg is the real name of the game: mind-boggling change. Continue reading
Dog bones and Thanksgiving–what’s the connection? It’s the meatiness of solid relationships – not wispy, virtual ones – that are most satisfying… Continue reading
Soviet military veteran joins others in a May Day parade honoring their service… service of a bygone era… Continue reading
Growing up in Montana, Good Friday was an often snowy, three-hour noontime service, “Seven Last Words From the Cross.” We got the day off from elementary school for such religious things back then. (Yes, I lived in ancient times.) Impressionable, I’d shed a tear as our Lutheran pastor whispered those first words from the cross: “Father, forgive them…” … Continue reading
My dad died suddenly a few weeks after all this happened. It turned out to be my last story for him, my last gift to him…. a lasting gift.
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While working for ABC News in Moscow, Russia I found this refreshing non-news: life goes on. Continue reading
“SOCIAL UPHEAVAL MEANS SOUP KITCHENS, STRUGGLES FOR SOME RUSSIANS”(First published in The Seattle Times, 05/08/1994) [My note, years later: I like this story as a reflection of the times, showing the resilience of Russia’s elderly struggling to adapt to changes, even as they wondered where their next meal would come from. I later volunteered at … Continue reading
