Some of us would stay up late arguing unresolvable philosophical questions pretending we were studying. To study alone a diner was three blocks away. Getting a booth and spreading out happened often during finals week. To study hard one spent time where coffee was served in bottomless cups. But for fake study, we talked in our rooms into the early hours until the morning birds started singing. Inevitably, we would get hu...
On the twenty-eighth of October nineteen-sixty-five, the Llyn Celyn reservoir in North Wales was officially opened. Its primary purpose was to supply water for the city of Liverpool. The whole project had been steeped in controversy. To create the lake, the small village of Capel Celyn, which included twelve houses and farms, a post office, a school, and a chapel with cemetery, was to be drowned under the floodwater. The...
An abandoned quarry. High-walled stone pit. At the bottom strolling through newfound friendship. Looking up, a bold climber's dream. "Let's do it! We can climb it." Overreachingly confident--young. One led the way. Not too difficult really. Foolish? The next followed. Shorter, smaller, smiling--at first. One scrambled gaining the top edge, turned about. The other grimaced. So close. Gasping, "Can't do it. Can't make it!"...
