Author Archives: wmergler
The Vanishing Storyteller
“I used to sit on the porch steps, usually with a stick in my hand, digging at the dirt by the brick-lined walk. My parents and aunts and uncles sat on benches or straight-back wicker chairs; my grandfather always got the rocker and my grandmother usually sat in the swing. Sometimes, I would sit with [...]
Nomenclature Blues
“Now, if Jaiziriquon is reading this column (seems unlikely), I should start out by apologizing. I have no idea how to spell his name or even if I heard it quite right, but this is the closest I can come to accuracy. I hope he will forgive me.” Wayne Mergler Above The Timberline by Wayne [...]
Adventure with Moose & Squirrel
Above The Timberline by Wayne Mergler ANCHORAGE Alaska—(Weekly Hubris)—3/5/12—A moose fell on my car today. Probably, most Americans don’t have that experience but, in Alaska, where I live, it is not so rare an occurrence. And the winter of 2012 has been more “moose-active” than most. At the time of this writing, the city of [...]
Where Have All The Children Gone
Above The Timberline by Wayne Mergler Editor’s Note: Since Wayne’s still convalescing, Weekly Hubris offers up yet another of his early columns for the –zine. ANCHORAGE Alaska—(Weekly Hubris)—1/23/12—Anyone who has been to Anchorage, Alaska knows that we are surrounded by mountain ranges, most notably the spectacular Chugach Range, which looms over the city like protective [...]
Grandma Mergler Goes To Vegas
Above The Timberline by Wayne Mergler (Columnist Wayne Mergler, First Class, is still on the DL, so I’m running his tribute to his Vegas Showgirl Spouse yet again. EB-H) ANCHORAGE Alaska—(Weekly Hubris)—12/11/11—She has evolved amusingly and interestingly from the 21-year-old Cher-tressed, mini-skirted, free-living babe that I married in 1965 to, now in her 60s, one [...]
Confessions of a Luddite: Nothing that Bleeps in MY Stocking, Thank You!
Above The Timberline by Wayne Mergler Editor’s Note: Still on the mend after open-heart surgery, Wayne’s not yet up to posting brand new columns, so we’ll just have to make do with past masterpieces. ANCHORAGE Alaska—(Weekly Hubris)—12/5/11—Now that the Christmas season is here again, I am forced anew to take a good, hard look at [...]
Living In The Age Of Pornography
Above The Timberline by Wayne Mergler Editor’s Note: While Wayne’s recuperating from open-heart surgery, we are running some of his early columns. ANCHORAGE Alaska—(Weekly Hubris)—11/14/11—A couple of years ago, when I was working in a downtown Anchorage bookstore, two young boys came into the shop to peruse the comic books and magazines. They were about [...]
The Inevitable Penis Column
Above The Timberline by Wayne Mergler Wayne Mergler is still on temporary medical leave: this column originally ran in 2010, but who can resist reading it again: I couldn’t. The Editor ANCHORAGE Alaska—(Weekly Hubris)—10/17/11—On a recent “Oprah Winfrey Show,” devoted to medical issues, the popular Dr. Oz, her physician-guest, took questions from the audience. Women, [...]
Magic from The East: Those Arabian Nights
Above The Timberline by Wayne Mergle ANCHORAGE Alaska—(Weekly Hubris)—10/3/11—Charles Dickens claimed it was his favorite book in all the world and that it was single-handedly responsible for his wanting to be a writer. The Brontés, as children, loved the book so much that it inspired them to write and act out their own imaginative tales [...]
The Vanishing Storyteller
Above The Timberline by Wayne Mergler ANCHORAGE Alaska—(Weekly Hubris)—9/5/11—The late, wonderful Eudora Welty wrote in her memoir, One Writer’s Beginnings, that she learned to be a writer mainly by listening, as a child, to the conversations of the adults around her. I was particularly moved by that description because I remember how much that kind [...]