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I practice my piece for Friday’s reading to benefit ILWU Local Five, the union that supports Powell's - while workers’ rights are being taken away across the country.

I work to promote my early June Olympia, Washington, reading in honor of the Pacific Northwest Reader — and take a look at the piece I'll be reading - about the tsunami warning off the Oregon Coast, including the flip line, “I didn’t get a tsunami for my birthday” — while Japan is embroiled in the aftermath of the earthquake and tsunami that killed thousands.

I walk to work and am almost surprised by the pink blossoms in trees, the tiny yellow daffodils. Such a strange spring.