Michael Shay's Hummingbirdminds

Some have died. Too many. A High School Friend, knocked back by alcohol, claimed by Covid, I hadn’t seen in decades. No funeral due to the p...

“Rocky Mountain High” reminds us of how we sat around a campfire everybody getting high on Colorado in the summer of ’72. John Denver’s melo...

Ten years ago on these pages, I regaled my readers with stories of my heart attack. It was an exciting misadventure. Nobody in my family had...

Happy 420 Day.  Stoners in Boulder, Colo., used to treat this day as a smoke-filled holiday, known for one of the biggest 420 fests in the...

Last weekend, I had radish seeds in my ears. It had nothing to do with hygiene or gardening. Instead, it's an extension of my acupunct...

We called her Mom. She insisted. Never found out her real name. Her husband Tally called her "dear" or "hon" in the Sout...

Always on the lookout for mentions of Wyoming on the Internet. This one is a chapter in Wyoming counterculture history. An Oct. 31 Westwor...

Symbol for the opioid formerly known as Oxycodone. News of Prince's death rocked music fans. I'm not a big Prince fan, but do ad...

Read the cover story at the Psychedelic Library . Tomorrow, 04/20/14, is 420 day in Colorado. I only recently became aware that 420 was ...

A few days ago, I mourned the loss of poet and poetry promoter Kurt Brown. His latest book was a look back at Aspen in its heyday, “Lost She...

I said farewell yesterday to my pals at Cardiac Rehab. This is my third and final stage of rehab.  R has had multiple stents and an open h...

The film that accompanies Nicholas D. Kristof's New York Times story makes me incredibly sad -- and pisses me off. Why isn't more...

Ol' Doc Pemberton offers up a serving of CoCola (Southern pronunciation) at the World of Coca Cola in Atlanta. I was taking a walk in t...

Wyoming teens still engage in risky behavior. That’s not really news for teens living anywhere or at any time. I must admit that I engaged...

On my way to lunch today, I walked into a smackdown between local Tea Party protesters and activists from the Marijuana Party. Wasn't mu...

To commemorate ADD/ADHD Awareness Week (Sept. 14-18), I offer this essay, "We Are Distracted," which in a slightly different form ...

I missed Woodstock. I had to work. Some surfer friends invited me to drive the 900-some miles with them to a field in upstate New York. They...

I like this photo for the angles and edges and shadows -- and I'm not talking about those tiny people looking at us. The human subjects ...

Here's the text of a letter I e-mailed to Rep. Keith Gingery, R-Jackson, supporting his stance on increased funding for mental health ca...

Rep. Keith Gingery, R-Jackson, urges his fellow legislators to "continue to fund changes in its mental health and substance abuse treat...