Writing Samples
Below are four writing samples by Annie Belt: "Disappearing Act: The California red-legged frog and the Endangered Species Act prepare to croak," "The high price of convenience: Pollution takes its toll on the environment," "Commission to Adobe Inn owner: Repaint," and "Cormorant grabs pet koi from pond."
"Disappearing Act: The California red-legged frog and the Endangered Species Act prepare to croak," Metro, April 20-26, 1995. San Jose, California.
You never see a frog so modest and straightfor'ard as he was, for all he was so gifted.Mark Twain
"The Celebrated Jumping Frog of Calaveras County"Mark Jennings was spellbound the first time he saw a California red-legged frog finishing off a mouse. It was the kind of experience that scientists devoted to the study of amphibians happily file away for future reference, the way workers with more mundane jobs might fondly recall the memory of their first big promotion.
Jennings was in his element that night, some 15 years ago. Notebook in hand, outfitted with a miner's headlamp and hip-waders, the six-foot-tall doctor of herpetology was slogging through the wilds of Northern California in search of a nocturnal amphibian which likes to float in deep, icy riverine ponds and squat on river banks.
"The high price of convenience: Pollution takes its toll on the environment," Metro Newspapers, Saratoga News, April 18, 1990. Saratoga, California.
We never seem to catch up.The more conveniences we invent, the less time we have to appreciate them--and the more we seem to need them.
But it's time to apply the brakes on our accelerated modern lifestyles. Pollution, the byproduct of convenience, is threatening our health, our lives.
Smog.
Global warming.
The depletion of the ozone layer in the earth's outer atmosphere.
Acid rain.
Pesticides.
Toxics.These products, the dark side of modern day invention, either threaten, or translate into dying ecosystems, lung cancer, emphysema, cataracts, skin cancer, birth defects, poisoned fruit and vegetables, fish ands fowl unfit for human consumption, and the list goes on.
"Commission to Adobe Inn owner: Repaint," Metro Newspapers, The Neighbor, Dec. 8, 1993. Cupertino, California.
The Cupertino Planning Commission last week ordered a local restaurateur to repaint his peach-colored building in a more appropriate color, touching off opposition from the Cupertino Chamber of Commerce.Victor Mandella, owner of the Adobe Inn Restaurant at 20128 Stevens Creek Blvd., plans to appeal the decision to the Cupertino City Council with backing from the city's Chamber of Commerce.
Mandella paid about $2,000 to repaint his eatery in pale peach hues nearly two years ago. The restaurant's color scheme matches that of adjacent three-story condominiums.
But City Planner Tom Robillard maintained that the restaurant's peach tones are incompatible with its adobe architectural style.
"It's an old adobe-style building, and the colors the owner has chosen aren't, in our view, compatible with that style," Robillard said. "Usually, [such buildings] are painted in more of a tan or whitish color, rather than in a peachish color."
"Cormorant grabs pet koi from pond," The Neighbor. Cupertino, California.
Bill Lauer and his faithful dog, Baron, devoted most of their Memorial Day weekend to guarding a koi pond in the backyard of his September Drive home.The two joined forces in a tense standoff with an unwelcome visitor—a black cormorant, defined in Webster's Dictionary as "a large, voracious seabird."
The bird, with its long neck, solid black body and pointed beak, stood erect atop the rooftop of Lauer's next-door neighbor and stared patiently and determinedly down on the gray-haired World War II veteran and his hulking German Shepherd puppy.
The strained silence was broken only by Baron's recurring growls and woofs.
It was man and dog against bird—and at the center of the dispute swam a small school of golden Japanese koi….
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