Thanks to all of you good readers who were fed up with the slow pace of our News Page updates and complained. It worked! (Keep at us!)

This issue includes a page showing highlights of our spectacular tour of Norway this past summer. As you can see from this "postcard shot" of Geiranger Fjord, it is rugged and beautiful.

Seven Sisters Falls, Geiranger Fjord, Norway

We were again warmly and graciously hosted by Hilde and Are Borgir. Are was the travel guide for our road trip to the high points (literally) of this most scenic country. It was a trip to remember, and we are delighted to have shared this adventure with him.

News & Notes

• It is with deep sadness that we report the death of our friend Are. He was a journalist, recently retired from Oslo's Dagbladet newspaper, and his passing was completely unexpected. Are was a keen observer, widely read, a thoughtful and knowledgeable conversationalist, the perfect host, and a warm friend.

  

  Are Borgir

  He showed us the beauty of Norway with the enthusiasm of a school boy!

• In August we headed to Jim and Julie Shadle's in Libby Montana. We managed to rouse ourselves from lolling on the deck and feasting on their garden produce long enough to get in a little fishing and a couple of excursions. First was a hike along the remains of a very old road near Kootani Falls. It is interesting historically, but also geologically. Check out this rock which has split along some fossil ripple marks, exposing not the positive, but the negative.

  

  
  Then we drove up to Fort Steele in Eastern BC. The fort was named for Superintendent Sam Steele of the Canadian Mounties, who resolved a dispute between settlers and local Indians, reportedly to everyone's satisfaction. The historical displays were as interesting as the setting is spectacular.

  

• Yo and Sayoko Ogawa, Tomoko's uncle and aunt, were living in Vancouver this fall while Yo did sabbatical research. On one lovely fall afternoon, they were in Seattle for a baseball game. We joined them to watch Ichiro add more hits to his 2010 stats. It has been a pleasure to see them in both Canada and the US.

  

  Yo and Sayoko At The Chittenden Locks

• The quick Kid Report: Dan went to Pittsburgh for the Vertebrate Paleontology conference; Tomo went to Tampa for a nursing conference; Dave went to Turin Italy for an International Slow Foods Conference. The long Kid Report probably involves stories only their parents are interested in. (We'll save you.)

• Again this year Ken and Shelley Burr invited us to Lopez Island in the San Juans for Labor Day weekend. In addition to just hanging out with them, we took advantage of the Lopez Labor Day tradition in which artists and craftsmen open up their workshops and homes to visitors. There is much to admire!

• L's publisher acknowledged his retirement with a very clever gift. As you might recall, his Fluency book always has a wave on the cover. His editors at Addison Wesley, knowing of his love of Japan, asked their cover designer to re-imagine his book as Japanese. She used Hokusai's legendary Kanagawa Wave! If you don't read Japanese, it does say Fluency above his name.

  

  
  If you are Japanese, the designer obviously missed the importance of Mt. Fuji in this woodcut. Apologies.

• ... one more retirement celebration! L's three administrative assistants, who became known collectively as the "Luncheonettes," took him to lunch to celebrate their years of friendship. It was both a lovely gift and a delightful event.

  

  Eriko Kosanke, Judy Watson, Vicky Palm