Author Archives: wmergler

“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 [...]

“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 [...]

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 [...]

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 [...]

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 [...]

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 [...]

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 [...]

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, [...]

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 [...]

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 [...]