Author: David Gorsline

Contemporary American Theater Festival 2026

Best Line Wins does a good job of capturing the flavor of the best-loved sketches from the 1950s and 60s by Mike Nichols and Elaine May, without (as the dramaturg’s notes tell us) infringing on material that is still in copyright.

My Favorite Sociopath is a sharp satire of hypercompetitive journalism graduate students chasing (and besmirching) reputation in the early twilight years of news in print. I wonder what my newsroom colleagues would say. I wonder what Truman Capote would say.

In The Smoker, Lisa D’Amour spins a tale of striving (working-class, middle-class, artistic-class) out of a relatively recent opportunity for socializing, the front stoop nicotine break. There are some interesting doublets, among them two mishaps that fall from the skies. Regina Gibson is particularly winning as Kim, an opera singer with auditions but no gigs, who imagines a prospective hookup in sad detail.

In her interview in the program notes, D’Amour identifies why I am not always taken in by a new play:

[My mentor, Sherry Kramer]… told me that audiences will not tolerate didacticism. They will shut down and not listen. Nobody wants to feel like they’re being lectured to in a play. So this is part of the magic trick of writing a play. It’s a little bit of a sleight of hand. You’re trying to hide what you’re talking about in something very casual, and hopefully by the end of the play, the audience realizes what we were talking about the whole time.

To realize Refugee Rhapsody, cheers for the design and technical crew for accomplishing multiple playing spaces in the white box of Studio 112, chief among them a minimalist apartment for the uber-rich, all cream and ivory right down to the faux Mark Rothko on the wall. How do we frame someone else’s suffering, someone else’s disaster? The question is made concrete in the most theatrical elements of this play.

¡VOS!, by Christina Pumariega, braids together two story lines, a middle-aged woman’s last chance at IVF, and the Argentine military’s 1976 coup that suspended Peronism1 and resulted in tens of thousands of desaparecidos.

A design/direction quibble: a few scenes consist of telephone calls between Annie and her OB-GYN, Dr. Cossi. Annie is where we can easily see her from three sides (in the often challenging Marinoff black box) but Dr. Cossi is at a corner between two of the seating areas, where she can’t easily be seen by many in the audience.

1About which I am rather under-informed.

  • Contemporary American Theater Festival at Shepherd University, Shepherdstown, W. Va.
  • The Smoker, by Lisa D’Amour, directed by Shelley Butler
  • Refugee Rhapsody, by Yussef El Guindi, directed Zi Alikhan
  • Best Line Wins, by Beth Kander, directed by Jessica Kubzansky
  • ¡VOS!, by Christina Pumariega, directed by Kimberly Senior
  • My Favorite Sociopath, by Aurin Squire, directed by Céline Rosenthal

Clifton Institute Bioblitz July 2026 (Rappahannock)

Our third visit to this property in Rappahannock County, and there were still some new pockets of habitat to explore. It got pretty muggy and hot in the afternoon, and I slowed down, but I didn’t feel incapacitated like I did last year.

My top observations:

In a heretofore unexplored meadow, American Harlequin (Xanthogramma flavipes), a syrphid fly, and Riley’s Clearwing Moth (Synanthedon rileyana), both species sporting “don’t mess with me” yellow and black stripes. On a bit of wood in that same meadow, fruiting bodies of Physarum viride.

At the lights after dark, Carolina Pine Sawyer (Monochamus carolinensis), a longhorn beetle, Four-spotted Owlfly (Ululodes quadripunctatus), a nocturnal predator in the Neuroptera, and a very handsome tussock moth, Halysidota sp. I gotta invest in a field guide for moths.

I didn’t lose anything this time, but there was an hour and a half of panic when I realized I didn’t have my flip phone. Did I not pick it up from the charger in the morning? Yup, I did not.

Happy decade: 2

20 years, posts have slowed down a bit. A random slice through the 3100+: every 100th post, counting backwards, first sentence, more or less.

  • 25 June 2025: Sunday, more of the same heat.
  • 24 July 2024: Florida’s Commissioner of Education thinks Jane Austen was an American.
  • 30 August 2023: Reminders from John D. Cook and Valerie Tiberius that my next planning session should focus on deciding not to do something.
  • 30 October 2022: One more nuance in Shakespeare to look out for: pronoun choice.
  • 1 August 2021: “The Lost Episodes of I Love Lucy,” by Julian George.
  • 13 August 2020: [Clem] Whitaker and [Leone] Baxter won nearly every [political] campaign they waged….
  • 31 August 2019: More scouting of Rachel Carson Conservation Park, in preparation for next weekend’s walk.
  • 30 September 2018: I attended the Strange Loop conference in St. Louis this past week.
  • 19 November 2017: Keegan Theatre delivers a solid production of this story of the accomplished businesswoman Marlene (Karina Hilleard), recently promoted to managing director of her employment agency, who may be having second thoughts about the sacrifices she has made to ensure her success.
  • 25 November 2016: A message of hope from Vi Hart.
  • 21 February 2016: David Crystal and Ben Crystal talk to Michael Rosen and Laura Wright of BBC Four’s Word of Mouth about Shakespearean Original Pronunciation (OP), with generous audio demonstrations.
  • 30 July 2015: Mark Garland led two days of field trips to various off-the-map locations in southern New Jersey.
  • 8 December 2014: State-of-the-art stormwater management—in Los Angeles?
  • 17 June 2014: Joshua J. Tewksbury et al. make the case for restoring natural history’s importance to answering questions of public health, food security, and biology as a whole.
  • 3 November 2013: Round House Theatre marks its return to more engaging, contemporary material with a balanced ensemble performance of Melissa James Gibson’s This, a romantic comedy-drama for grieving grownups.
  • 15 March 2013: Ian Bogost ends a call.
  • 3 September 2012: Kathleen Akerley premieres another of her enjoyable head-scratchers.
  • 8 February 2012: Dear David L Gorsline: This letter is to acknowledge that Chase has received the funds to pay off your mortgage loan referenced above.
  • 22 September 2011: Eric Fidler answers a question that’s been gnawing on my mind ever since my last ride down North Capitol Street from the Catholic campus: what’s with the brick silos and open fields between Michigan Avenue, N.W., and Channing Street, N.W.?
  • 31 March 2011: Because there is no end, happy or otherwise.
  • 24 October 2010: We had a good, if tiring, time over the last two days talking to the kids visiting the USA Science & Engineering Festival.
  • 24 May 2010: James Ellroy’s editors let him down a few times in the early chapters of American Tabloid.
  • 25 December 2009: Taking a couple of classes, plus a concerted effort to spend more time in the field and documenting it, means I have lots of field trip notes this year.
  • 8 July 2009: The image from Henry Darger used in the cover design of the NYRB’s reissue of a novel from 1929 by Richard Hughes, is apparently all too appropriate, if we trust reviewer Andrew Sean Greer.
  • 7 January 2009: HP is offering to buy back your used computer, PDA, printer, camera, or smartphone—anything with residual value, irrespective of manufacturer, report Gina Trapani and Candace Lombardi.
  • 25 August 2008: I am not this guy, either.
  • 4 April 2008: 60s spandex stunner Yvonne Craig—Batgirl, alter ego of Barbara Gordon, daughter to Police Commissioner Gordon—played by Neil Hamilton: Craig and Hamilton appeared as father and stepdaughter in a 1958 episode of Perry Mason titled “The Case of the Lazy Lover.”
  • 30 October 2007: Fup, mascot of Powell’s Books, has passed away.
  • 9 June 2007: A leader from the traditionally eco-skeptic Economist admits that recycling is “mostly worthwhile,” and proposes three steps to encourage the practice.
  • 4 February 2007: Septime Webre and the Washington Ballet mix it up Latin style with live music—in the lobby, on stage, and in the pit—and Latin works by three choreographers, including a restaging of Webre’s own Juanita y Alicia.
  • 14 September 2006: Tales from the computing trenches, back in the time when we wore those funny flat helmets: Jim Horning’s The Way It Was.

Of the posts above, I didn’t track how many have succumbed to linkrot. Too discouraging.

Hoping that I’m still kicking for a 30-year roundup—hey, that’ll be only 18 months from the Y2K38 apocalypse.

Glacier National Park

My last stop on my May trip was Glacier National Park. My timing wasn’t great: the upper stretches of the Going to the Sun Road were still closed for the season, which meant a long drive from my lodge on the west side of the park around to the east side. More glacier action at Grand Teton (and higher elevation), but I enjoyed my brief visit to Glacier.

buffalo jamBut first I had to get there. The only road going north out of Grand Teton goes through Yellowstone, so I got the nickel tour of that property. Some up-close-and-personal views of Bison bison. The hoofers seemed to be keeping to the southbound side of the road; the traffic was much more backed up in that direction.

don't move the treesleeps twoMy digs on the lodge campus were spartan: a two story cabin called Snyder Hall, which had served several purposes in its lifetime. Private rooms sleep two; bathrooms down the hall.

Saturday the 24th I made that long drive around to the east side to the Sun Point Nature Trail, which yielded some nice wildflowers—White-leaved Cinquefoil (Potentilla pulcherrima) on exposed rocks overlooking Saint Mary Lake; butter-yellow False Rock-loving Cinquefoil (Drymocallis pseudorupestris) on another outcrop visible from the parking lot; Bearberry (A/K/A Kinnikinnick) (Arctostaphylos uva-ursi) along the trail; and yet again I did not collect enough information to identify a Castilleja to species—and butterflies—two nice nymphalids, California Tortoiseshell (Nymphalis californica) and Milbert’s Tortoiseshell (Aglais milberti). The trail passed through a burned-over area, so there was nothing to cut the wind, and I retraced my steps.

Back on the west side towards evening, I strolled the Trail of the Cedars. My sources say that the flowers of Pacific Trillium (Trillium ovatum) open as white, but turn purple to red as they mature. And I found a Maianthemum that is not racemosum: a delicate Star-flowered Lily-of-the-Valley (Maianthemum stellaturm).

For my last day in the field, I walked a trail with a loop at the end in the Fish Creek area. I sighted one more squirrel species—Red Squirrel (Tamiasciurus hudsonicus)—some green stuff—Pipsissewa (Chimaphila umbellata) showing last year’s fruit and Wood Forget-me-not (Myosotis sylvatica) in flower—and distant Red-necked Grebes (Podiceps grisegena) on Lake McDonald.

Merlin signaled both Hammond’s and Dusky Flycatchers. I got glasses on a couple birds, and photographed one from behind. I don’t know these Empids’ vocalizations. So nothing to confirm an ID to species. Two for next time.

A short visit: maybe worth a trip in another season.

Peculiar muzak: 9

Again, in my neighborhood Safeway: “Cars,” by Gary Numan, ca. 1979. I rather like the song—I saw Numan in concert in Minneapolis (I remember the Orpheum but an online source says the Guthrie?1)—but could there be a more dystopian pop song?

1No, I’m pretty sure was the Orpheum. The opening act would have been Nash the Slash, who appeared masked and playing a guitar-like thing, à la Angine de Poitrine. I don’t remember the name, but the dates line up. He was not well received.

Confirmed! And, holy moley, I was there!

Grand Teton National Park: 2

In the afternoon, after my short climbing adventure, I did a driving tour of Antelope Flats. At a pullout near a bridge over Carpenter Draw I found some beautiful gnarly bark on a Narrowleaf Cottonwood (Populus angustifolia). Merlin-assisted again, I found a lifer Vesper Sparrow (Pooecetes gramineus).

Returning to my lodge, on US 191, I found a distant bull Elk (Cervus canadensis) and my first herd of Bison (Bison bison).

Next day, 21 May, there was a frosting of snow from overnight at the lodge, with rain in the forecast for the morning. I needed to do laundry, so—

my rideIn the afternoon, trying to stay out of the wind, I walked the approach to Grand View Point. Here’s my rental Nissan Altima; she was very bossy about lane drift and other peccadilloes of my driving, so she never got a name.

I found a few interesting small wildflowers. However, the big surprise caught on the way back to the car: a stirring in the forb layer just to the left of the trail, and then out sauntered a Dusky Grouse (Dendragapus obscurus)! This sighting brought my total of life birds for the trip to nine, rather more than I expected/hoped for.

closed areaMy last day in the Park called for some flexibility. I was planning to explore Willow Flats, in search of more Moose and other good things, but the area was closed due to bear activity. So I pieced together some walks on Lunch Tree Hill, around the Colter Bay area, and the easy part of the Lupine Meadows trail. I met yet another new ground squirrel, Uinta Ground Squirrel (Urocitellus armatus). At Colter Bay, I spied a group of about six of them making use of horse dung. Another new butterfly, Large Marble (Euchloe ausonides). And I achieved another objective: a fine photo of American Dipper (Cinclus mexicanus) (one of my favorite birds) at the bridge over Cottonwood Creek on the way to Lupine Meadows.

13/10 would come again.

Clifton Institute dragonfly/damselfly count 2026

At last, some pleasant weather for this count, with occasional cooling breezes. As usual, we started at Leopold’s Preserve. Not much vegetation around the pond at the Farm Brewery; we didn’t spend much time at Silver Lake. Perhaps my only new dragonfly observed was a darner, ID TBD. But the team found some interesting critters that weren’t odonates, including a leaf-footed bug, Acanthocephala terminals, and a lacewing, Leucochrysa insularis. I got a really nice image of a male Citrine Forktail (Ischnura hastata). And maybe a new butterfly for me.

Grand Teton National Park: 1

still thereI left the Salt Lake City metro for four days in Grand Teton National Park. It did not disappoint, as the cliché goes. I even spotted a few species of charismatic megafauna.

some assembly requiredThe first two days I spent in the vicinity of Jenny Lake. Tuesday I took two walks along the east and north sides: I had ambitions of walking the three-quarter loop around to the shuttle boat dock, but the elevation and my conditioning quashed that idea. Generally the trails were in good shape, but I encountered at least one choose-your-own-adventure opportunity.

Lots of new plants, many of them in flower: a native mahonia, Berberis repens. An orangetip butterfly, Julia Orangetip (Anthocharis julia). The first of several new ground squirrels for me, Yellow-pine Chipmunk (Neotamias amoenus): my guidebook says, “Steals campground food,” and I often found them around buildings and parking lots.

I gradually figured out that the unfamiliar warblers were Audubon’s, conspecifics of the Myrtle Warblers from back home. My notes say, “Yellow-rumped Warbler and Ruby-crowned Kinglet and Chipping Sparrow are all over—but can I get a good photo? No.”

on offerI had acquired a bell and a canister of bear spray in preparation for this part of the trip, but I might have been able to rent my bear spray. Brown-headed Cowbirds were the mooch birds on the Jenny Lake campus. My trail tracker app reported that I hiked 4.5 miles.

where to next?The next day was devoted to as much vertical as I could handle. I rode the boat shuttle to the west side of Jenny Lake and started the climb toward Inspiration Point. The first stretches were fairly easy, and the junctions were more clearly marked. A tip was being passed along the trail that a cow Moose (Alces alces) was hanging out, so I took a little side trip.

As indicated by guidebooks, the trail was very popular, even on a Wednesday morning; I wouldn’t have needed the bear spray.

Another example of a wildflower genus that I know from the mid-Atlantic, but a different species, Lanceleaf Spring Beauty (Claytonia lanceolata). A second new ground squirrel, Common Golden-mantled Ground Squirrel (Callospermophilus lateralis)—it didn’t hang around very long. A shrub that I would find often, Mountain Lover, or Oregon Boxwood (Paxistima myrsinites).

mountain viewOnce you’re at the fork for Hidden Falls, the going gets steeper. The good thing about an out-and-back hike, I wrote in my field notes, is that you can decide when to stop. My trail tracker app reported that I had reached 7000 feet of elevation, and that was good enough for me. A net climb of 300 feet on a 1.7 mile walk.

gently down the streamI took the first of many looks for American Dipper in the fast-running mountain streams.

Some links: 113

  • An interesting perspective from Quico Toro on resolving the global warming crisis without stifling economic development: How to Save the Planet Without Screwing Over Poor People.
  • When “effective immediately” means “maybe.”
  • Richard Gilbert explains why I was confused by Harold G. Henderson’s statement that “haiku is written in 5-7-5 jion.”
  • Two pieces that sound the alarm that everything is ruined, by Julian Baggini and Christian B. Miller. I agree with Miller that patience is still a virtue to be sought, but the dependence on instant answers pre-dates easy access to LLMs and AI-assisted search.
  • I Am Hummingbird, Lord of Your Doorknob, by Julie Sharbutt.

    So you and your creatures went inside to stuff your flesh beaks with sauce worms and stare at your RAWRAWRAWR wall. The time was nigh and I went to work, collecting twigs and sticks and dog fur and stems and cattails and twigs and string and SNAKESKIN and bark and moss and fish scales and thistle and hay and twine and thread and tinsel and CAT WHISKERS and leaves and twigs and DANDELION DOWN and pine needles and Halloween wig hair and USED SPIDERWEBS—THEY WERE EMPTY WHEN I FOUND THEM, GET A GRIP, THE SPIDERS ARE FINE, YOU THINK A SPIDER’S NOT JUST FINE?

Indecent

1st Stage’s production of Paula Vogel’s meta-play (an earlier production reviewed) is enlivened by cabaret-style music composed and arranged by Lisa Gutkin and Aaron Halva; music direction by Joe Walsh, Marika Anne Countouris, and Deborah Jacobson; and choreography by Robert Bowrn Smith. Alex Levy’s crisp direction keeps the multiple scene shifts and costume changes snappy. And the practical water effect in the show’s closing moments is a knockout.

YHBL

Yellow-headed Blackbird (Xanthocephalus xanthocephalus Bonaparte) (YHBL)1 has been a nemesis bird, a jinx bird for me. Over the course of six or eight trips to the west, I have not seen one for myself.

I was chatting with birders at the Great Salt Lake Bird Festival, and talked about birds we wanted to see. I sheepishly admitted that I was still on the trail of YHBL. “Oh, go to Farmington Bay, you’ll see them, no problem,” was the first bit of advice. Farmington Bay is an arm of the lake in Davis County; presumably they meant the sprawling Wildlife Management Area by that name. Then, on that Saturday, I got more targeted advice: Eccles Wildlife Education Center. “It’s where we used to have the festival until we outgrew it.”

So that afternoon, off I went. I headed up the track that runs north from the Center’s visitor center. Some nice birds in the ponds on either side, some of them a bit distant but photographable. Cornell’s Merlin app was running, and it suggested an audio match for Yellow-headed Blackbird. It occurred to me that I should review what the bird sounded like, so I pulled up the Sibley app as well. Towards the end of the track, almost to the northern boundary of the property, Merlin was matching on hardly anything else than YHBL.

So that raucous, creaky sound I was hearing, like an rusty screen door falling downstairs, was my bird.2 And then, a flash of yellow dropped out of the phragmites into the shorter grass.

Yay! a glimpse of the bird, enough for a twitch. But for a bird that I had sought for so long, could I get an identifiable photograph?

A bit of patience was in order.

Maybe a half dozen birds were up in the tops of the reeds, singing (yes, technically they’re songbirds). I snapped a few pix, generally seeing most of a partly obscured bird. All the while they continued to, um, vocalize.

I was ready to declare victory and return down the track, when my best photo op appeared, out in the open with the flick of white on the wing visible. Fifteen minutes of watching and listening had paid off.3

ABA Area lifer #453, Yellow-headed Blackbird.

1The only member of its genus, it is saddled with a binomial that repeats the genus and species epithet, literally “yellow-head yellow-head.” Perhaps Charles Bonaparte expected that it would be moved into a different genus, retaining the species epithet.

2Honestly, if I were a Briton, I would be miffed that we use the same name for the all-black singing thrush of Paul McCartney’s song (Turdus merula)and for the group of squonky oriole relatives of North America: grackles, cowbirds, and blackbirds.

3Casual birder and even more casual photographer that I am, armed with no more than a 300mm lens, I got an image good enough for my purposes. But it’s hardly going to be a competition winner.

Rappahannock County dragonfly/damselfly count 2026

A return to The Farm at Sunnyside to look for odonates. I photographed two new species for me, a really nice image of Amber-winged Spreadwing (Lestes eurinus), and Stream Bluet (Enallagma exsulans).

I didn’t stop for plants (trip leader John Lenox was only into dragonflies) but, on the run, I did catch a lovely dorsal view of one of our super-common small butterflies, Eastern Tailed-Blue (Cupido comyntas), a female. Mixed feelings about the dipteran I snapped which turned out to be a species of deer fly, Chrysops callidus, and which turned out to be ovipositing. Quite surprised to get the ID on something in an order I rarely see, Black Dancer Caddisfly (Mystacides sepulchralis).

I must have sweated more than I thought: I’ve been slurping fluids all evening.

Great Salt Lake Bird Festival

Every birding festival is different. The Great Salt Lake Bird Festival, based in Davis County, Utah, provided field trips to some interesting sites—and a keynote speaker with great photos who, alas, overstayed his welcome.

dry creekbedFirst up was a walk in Dimple Dell Regional Park, in the foothills of the Wasatch Front, led by Tori Sohn and Rachel Lake. A focus of this walk was the flora of the region, so I got first looks at several common plants that I would see throughout the trip, from Cheatgrass (Bromus tectorum) (no pic?!) to Gambel Oak (Quercus gambelii) to Lewis Flax (Linum lewisii). Also picked up my first lifer, a bird that I would see often in Utah, Lazuli Bunting (Passerina amoena) (LAZB).

Rachel lumped all the sagebrush into Big Wyoming Sage; she said that there is an entire manual just for Artemisia ID.

There were reaches of the creek running through the canyon that were wet, but most of it was dry, as in the photo.

In the evening, Adam and Marzena Blundell led a short walk through Mountain Wilderness Park, ending at their home, fitted with a multitude of bird feeders. More LAZB, including a good look at a female.

Next day was a drive-stop-bird-repeat trip up Diamond Fork Canyon with leader Keeli Marvel. The canyon is in Utah County, southeast of Springville. I quickly caught on that everyone had a a different pronunciation of lazuli (Z or ZH, for instance), but less quickly that I have been pronouncing this word wrong for decades. Lewis’s Woodpecker (Melanerpes lewis), another western speciality; Canyon Wren (Catherpes mexicanus) at the top of the Red Ledges outcrop, with a voice that sounds like a ball bouncing downstairs; and a nifty butterfly, Sagebrush Checkerspot (Chlosyne acastus). It was nice to get some decent photos and audio of an east-west bird, Yellow-breasted Chat (Icteria virens).

Stephanie Greenwood took us through Springhill Geologic Park in North Salt Lake. This is a lemons-to-lemonade recovering natural space. One of the dirty little secrets I learned from this trip to Salt Lake is that the foothills are mined for Lake Bonneville gravel, with houses perched on the ridgeline above. The residents of this patch were not so lucky; a slow-moving landslide in the 90s ultimately dispatched about a dozen homes.

Song Sparrows here demonstrated some of their regional dialects; Mule Deer (Odocoileus hemionus) like suburbs as much as their congener White-taileds do; we saw lots of Arrowleaf Balsamroot (Balsamorhiza sagittata), which I would continue to see farther north; I found several very sluggish Obscure Darkling Beetles (Eleodes obscura), some of them showing unusual behavior: one was flopped over on its back as if dead, another showed a head-down posture.

jetty and vegwalking the lakebedSunday was my destination trip, a school bus ride (leaders: Max Malmquist and Jaimi Butler) (I sat in Scatlett’s seat) down the washboard road to Robert Smithson’s Spiral Jetty. The work is beached now, with the dusty pink water so special to Smithson a good half mile walk away. I packed for this trip prepared for bugs and sun, but on this day we got chilly wind and a bit of rain.

The area has been explored for petroleum, and there are scattered seeps of sticky tar that can catch wildlife unawares. Some opportunities for botanizing along the remains of the structures built to support the mineral exploration: a native wild rye, Squirreltail (Elymus elymoides).

yep, it's pinkWe reached the water! Salt concentrations run very high here (as a taste test confirmed); winds whip up the salt into ephemeral whitecaps. Catch a bit in your hand and give your fellow birder a Salt Lake high five!

Oh yes, birds. We stopped at the Golden Spike National Historical Park, where a Great Horned Owl (Bubo virginianus) was tending near-fledglings—this is why you go with a guide. A fleeting look at Gray Partridge (Perdix perdix) from the vehicle—not many field marks visible in my grainy photos but what else could it be?

I got an even briefer look at another western specialty that I’m not going to count, and I missed MacGillivray’s Warbler (seen by others) on two trips.