Doug Fine: Author, Journalist, Adventurer, Goat-Herder

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tarting when I was in my 20s, a time when most everyone was telling me to get a real job, I called myself a journalist and set sail for places that interested me, usually for cultural reasons. It’s a small planet, I reasoned, and one can get anywhere from anywhere with one plane ticket and a forged press pass or two. Here are a few of the resulting pieces, some from back in “International Couch Surfing” phase, and some from more recent incarnations.

ATTACK OF THE TOMATO KILLERS — Essay In the New York Times Magazine

Never one to let a Biblical Hailstorm go un-tax-deducted, my essay about the (as of publication time) latest Climate Change-induced carnage on the Funky Butte Ranch appeared in the New York Times Magazine. Meanwhile, Farewell, My Subaru is continuing to fuel the worldwide theft of waste vegetable oil from behind the planet’s Chinese restaurants. Thanks to everyone for their support of the book.

IN THE YEAR 2049: WOULD I SURVIVE A WORST-CASE SCENARIO? A Former Suburbanite Plans For Post-Globalization — Essay in The Washington Post

Ever wonder what would happen if you popped into the Quickie Mart for a quart of juice and some batteries and found the shelves were empty…permanently? I do. An essay I wrote on this issue, which I’ve thought about for several years and which partly explains the Digital Age Carbon-Neutral life I’m attempting here on the Funky Butte Ranch, ran in the Washington Post’s Sunday Outlook section.

BABY ON BOARD…THE KAYAK — Essay in Sierra Magazine

Has this ever happened to you? You’re lost in heart-stopping wilderness beauty. Unsure of water supply. Temperatures are approaching those on Planet Mercury. It’s all part of the fun of a week-long river trip in Utah’s Canyonlands, right? What about when your (then) three-month-old son is along? My recent adventure along these lines is documented in the current edition of Sierra Magazine

RWANDA

The Misty Future of Rwanda’s Mountain Gorillas

BURMA

Burmese Opposition Leader Snubs Junta’s Constitution Talks

I Get My Jade at the Source

LAOS

The General and Me

The Mets Away in Laos

UZBEKISTAN

Uzbekistan Airways Flight 207, Somewhere Over the Atlantic Ocean

TAJIKISTAN

Iron Curtain Call?

GUATEMALA

On Guatemala’s Gringo Circuit

More recently, I’ve focused my shorter journalistic endeavors in the radio medium. When I write, it tends to be longer projects like books and screenplays (and, of course, these Dispatches From the Funky Butte Ranch). But I’m starting to get into print journalism again, and here are some pieces I like.