Thanks to readers for adding to the list of four-letter words worth keeping:
food tree frog yarn mint beer wine taco rest soon done.
Since I just celebrated my birthday, I can’t forget:
Speaking of birthdays, this year I spent mine in Portland, Oregon. My sister-in-law is a guide for Urban Tours, so she led my husband (her brother) and me to noteworthy sites in downtown Portland. A stop at The Heathman Hotel was a highlight; I showed my writer geekiness with a slow stroll through the hotel’s collection of first edition books by authors who have stayed there.
The next day, we went to Eugene where I collected my prize for first place (student category) in the Oregon Quarterly Northwest Perspectives Essay Contest: a writing workshop with contest judge Ellen Waterston and a public reading by the contest winners (you can read the winning essays
here; mine is “Boris’s Bluff).
As you’ll discover when you read this fine magazine, it’s published by the University of Oregon.
Better add one more four-letter word to my list:
*University of Oregon mascot