Alex Hunt

For centuries Mexican people of the plains—or los Llaneros—have inhabited and embodied the borderland region known today as the Southern Great Plains. Yet their central presence in the area is often forgotten. This diverse collection of essays brings much-needed attention to the ethnic culture and history of the Llano, the vast grassland plains encompassing the Texas Panhandle, eastern New Mexico, and corners of Colorado, Kansas, and Oklahoma. Los Llaneros covers a broad period, beginning with the Coronado entrada of 1540 and ending in the big ranch era around 1900. It is a unique colonial history, involving Nuevomexicanos, Comanches and other Indigenous peoples, the Spanish, and Anglo-Texans. The volume is interdisciplinary in its approach, embracing archeological, folkloric, literary, and cultural knowledge. Through these multiple perspectives, Los Llaneros achieves a singular goal: counteracting a long silence—and at times silencing—of Mexican people. Collectively the contributors to this volume make a compelling argument that this region's ethnic history must be recovered and reinterpreted to understand fully the cultural, environmental, and racial dynamics of the Southern Plains. A timely reconsideration of an important borderland region, Los Llaneros opens new pathways for future examination of the Llano and its diverse peoples.

Pantex was built during World War II near the town of Amarillo, Texas. The site was converted early in the Cold War to assemble nuclear weapons and produce high explosives. For nearly fifty years Pantex has been the sole assembly and disassembly plant for nuclear weapons in the United States. Today, most of the activities of the plant consist of the manufacture of high explosive components and the dismantlement or life extension of weapons, including retrofitting aging warheads in the United States's arsenal.Unlike the much more famous nuclear-weapons-production sites at Los Alamos, Oak Ridge, Hanford, and Rocky Flats, the Pantex plant has drawn little attention, hidden under a metaphoric "cap of invisibility." Lucie Genay now lifts that invisibility cap to give the world its first in-depth look at Pantex and the people who have spent their lives as neighbors and employees of this secretive industry. The book investigates how Pantex has impacted local identity by molding elements of the past into the guaranty of its future and its concealment. It further examines the multiple facets of Pantexism—the reasons for embracing nuclear-weapons production as a solution to economic woes, the resulting dependence on this industry, and the unconditional support for the facility—through the voices of native and adoptive Panhandlers.

In 2018 Jens Skogen befriends a Chinese student while attending the University of Oslo. The Chinese student, Li Zheng, is in Norway at the university to study and learn the Norwegian language. He will be there for a year. He spends his free time watching Jens and his teammates practice rowing, getting ready for the summer Olympics in Japan in 2020. In the spring and summer of 2019 Jens and the Norwegian rowing team spend five months in the U.S., rowing against various U.S. university rowing teams, honing their rowing skills.When Jens returns to Oslo he turns on his computer and finds messages from his friend, Li Zheng, who is now back in China. The messages have world-wide implications. Jens shows the messages to his father who, in turn, shows them to his friend, the head of Norwegian Intelligence Service.Li Zheng keeps Jens updated on the latest happenings in China. To say the world changes, based on this information, would be the understatement of the century.The U.N., WHO declares it a world-wide Pandemic.

Pantex was built during World War II near the town of Amarillo, Texas. The site was converted early in the Cold War to assemble nuclear weapons and produce high explosives. For nearly fifty years Pantex has been the sole assembly and disassembly plant for nuclear weapons in the United States. Today, most of the activities of the plant consist of the manufacture of high explosive components and the dismantlement or life extension of weapons.Unlike the much more famous nuclear-weapons-production sites at Los Alamos, Oak Ridge, Hanford, and Rocky Flats, the Pantex plant has drawn little attention, hidden under a metaphoric "cap of invisibility." Lucie Genay now lifts that invisibility cap to give the world its first in-depth look at Pantex and the people who have spent their lives as neighbors and employees of this secretive industry. The book investigates how Pantex has impacted local identity by molding elements of the past into the guaranty of its future and its concealment. It further examines the multiple facets of Pantexism through the voices of native and adoptive Panhandlers.

The Monk stone is a real stone laying along a trail above my village in Norway. The Monks in the late 1100-1200 AD used to carry stones from a quarry outside my village to a monastery they built there. My maternal grandfather was a farmer, fisherman, and miller who was also a great storyteller. It was he who first made us aware of the Monk stone. He would sit in his big rocking chair in our century old farm with several grandchildren sitting on the floor in front of him on cold snowy winter nights, spellbound waiting for the next words to come out of his mouth. Were all of the stories true? At the time when I was 5 or 6 years old sitting there listening, you bet they were true. -From the preface

In the early 1960's, not many U.S. soldiers had been wounded in Vietnam and those who had been wounded were sent to military hospitals near their homes. In 1964, the war in Vietnam was starting to heat-up and soldiers with severe wounds were sent to military hospitals that had the expertise to treat them. One of the premier hospitals was Walter Reed Army General Hospital located outside Washington, D.C. This was also the hospital of choice for presidents, former presidents and other officials of the government.. In Ward #1, there was a section at the far end of the ward which became known as "The Pit", later on "The Snake Pit." In 1965, there were seven officers, captains, lieutenants and warrant officers assigned to the "Pit". Although other officers were assigned to "The Pit" their stay and personalities did not linger; i.e., seriousness of wounds or did not fit the "Pit" norm. The officers mentioned in this story remained together for at least one year or more, resulting in a close comradeship, helping each other when times were tough both physically and mentally.