Wednesday, August 24, 2016 The Nugget Newspaper, Sisters, Oregon
Commentary...
A weather forecast from a legend
By Macgregor hay
Correspondent
“...And so your 10 days
here in Edinburgh should
give you decent weather.”
This weather forecast was
delivered to me at the Oxford
Bar in New Town, Edinburgh,
Scotland by none other than
legendary Scottish novelist
Ian Rankin.
That’s how things are
going at the Edinburgh
International Book Festival.
The day began by a warm
welcome to The Nugget’s
correspondent by Frances
Sutton, press manager for the
Festival — the largest book
event in the world — put on
every August. It attracts 800
authors/speakers and 250,000
attendees.
It is a well-organized
and user-friendly operation;
the audience, which is usu-
ally 200-500 people, and the
speakers bond almost magi-
cally. Each speaker is inter-
viewed, generally gives a
short summary of their work,
and then the session is open
to questions from the audi-
ence. In attending three
events yesterday, the ques-
tions are well-thought-out
and the speakers very candid
with their response.
In the first event was
Alistair McIntosh, a Glascow,
Scotland-based writer and
activist on land reform and
ecology and a pacifist and
Quaker. I was very skepti-
cal of his topic but went, as
the setting of his book is
the Outer Hebrides, a set of
islands off the west coast of
Scotland — one of my favor-
ite destinations.
His approach to contro-
versial issues was so compel-
ling I asked his interviewer,
Jane Fowler from the British
Broadcasting Corporation
(BBC) and festival press
manager if I could interview
him after his talk.
His approach is not to cor-
ner people and argue about
who is right but more to find
common ground and ways
to reach some sort of com-
promise rather than polar-
ize each other. He has been
invited annually to the British
War College annual meeting
to talk about his approach
to war and violence and has
been well received. He’d like
to do the same in America but
hasn’t been invited ... yet.
The last function of the
night was an interview of
Tim Burgess, a musician, DJ
and vinyl record collector by
Ian Rankin, Scottish crime
writer and vinyl
record fan and
collector.
I admit I
struggled a
bit with their
Scottish accents
but managed to
follow most of
the interchange
between them.
These two guys
really got into
the British and
other world-
famous — and
infamous —
musicians and
bands. The
audience loved
it and seemed
to follow every
mention of
groups and
musicians I had
photo by MacGreGor hay
never heard of.
Burgess was a hangin’ out in the pub... with Ian rankin.
very shy, quiet
person and
start chatting with me but Ian
Rankin was working hard, Rankin! What a thrill; he’s
and successfully, to bring him one of my favorite authors
out in the interview.
and a great guy. We had a
After the event I retired very normal conversation:
to the Oxford Bar, a pub Ian his books, the weather and
Rankin’s main character, Oregon, Portland specifically.
John Rebus, frequents in all He somehow missed Sisters
his crime novels. As I was so I invited him to come next
quietly thinking about my time he’s in the U.S.
day, who should walk in and
23
EAToN: Athlete
looking for new
worlds to conquer
Continued from page 8
him, and he is just as eager
to meet with those who have
supported him the past eight
years.
“It’s kind of like network-
ing,” he says, “for when I start
thinking about what is next.”
In truth, Eaton is already
thinking about what’s next.
He’s been on top of the
decathlon world for the better
part of a decade, and in a one-
on-one interview with The
Associated Press on Saturday
night, he acknowledged that
retirement is coming soon.
He may compete next year.
He may not.
But there is no chance
you’ll see him at the 2020
Tokyo Olympics.
It’s not because time is
catching him, like so many
rivals have failed to do. The
28-year-old Eaton would
probably medal in Tokyo, if
not win a third straight gold.
It’s more that Eaton and his
wife, Canadian heptathlon
bronze-medalist Brianne
Theisen-Eaton, have other
things they want to pursue,
their lives in no way measured
solely on the field of play.
See eAToN on page 28