Letters to the Editor
Guy Smith
Published Letters: 3 Editor's Choice: 1
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Other Stegner works
[Read the article: Destination: Arizona]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]Not specific to Arizona, but I'd also highly recommend Stegner's biography of John Wesley Powell: "Beyond the 100th Meridian". It's nominally a biography, but it's really more about the settlement of the West and how that played out against the scarcity of water.
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Hardly forgotten
[Read the article: Sacbuts and Birotrons]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]There's a substantial professional and amateur early music community that plays and performs on instruments like the shawm sackbut, and lute regularly. I personally own two lutes, a serpent, and a Renaissance cittern, and I don't plan to stop there:-)
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Playing a hurdy gurdy
[Read the article: Sacbuts and Birotrons]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]I don't play one myself, but several friends are enthusiasts. You turn a crank on one end, which turns a rosined disk inside the box that rubs against several strings (sort of like a circular violin bow...). There are keys along one side of the box that you depress to fret the melody string and play the tune(the others are drones). They tend to be a rather loud and raucous, perfect for dance music.