A Hop and a Sip to Fresh Ales

EARTHY CONES At Sodbuster Farms in Salem, Ore., Matt Swihart of Double Mountain Brewery checks his order of fresh hops. More Photos >
By LUCY BURNINGHAM
Published: October 20, 2009
Salem, Ore.

TINY emerald cones on 18-foot-tall hops plants trembled as workers whipped the freshly cut stalks into roaring machines here at Sodbuster Farms. Gnashing metal fingers then stripped off the sticky cones — female flowers of the Humulus lupulus — and poured them onto conveyor belts, setting afloat bits of hops, like ash from a fire. More

Happy Birthday!

Happy birthday, Ursula K. Le Guin, who is 80, and Martin Gardner, who is 95.

We now have been reading The Left Hand of Darkness for forty years.

Email from Vonda N. McIntyre:

Hi everybody,

Ursula K. Le Guin's 80th birthday is on 21 October 2009 and I'm going to post a Happy Birthday Ursula message on my website and my blogs that day, and I think I have some other folks talked into doing the same.

I just thought it might be fun if a lot of websites and blogs wished her Happy Birthday. (It's also the 40th anniversary of Left Hand of Darkness.) Her website is www.ursulakleguin.com (the actual content begins on http://www.ursulakleguin.com/ UKL_info.html )

Shamelessly Stolen from Wiscon and elsewhere