Readers Respond to the July/August 2024 Issue

Shoring Up the Shore

Once again, man is focused on attempting to hold Mother Nature at bay (no pun intended) by spending billions of dollars to protect barrier islands from hurricanes and storm surge along the Texas Gulf Coast. How ironic that the article (“The Next Big Wave,” July/August 2024) just happened to coincide with the arrival of Hurricane Beryl. Perhaps a wake-up call? It remains to be seen if the expensive exercise by the state of Texas and the Army Corps of Engineers was worth it or whether Mother Nature has the last laugh. I know who I’m betting on. —Mark B. Atwood | Nazareth, Pennsylvania

A Wild Legacy

I read with interest Joshua Hammer’s account (“The Strange Afterlife of Pablo Escobar’s Hippos,” July/August 2024) of Colombia’s attempts to better manage the legacy of Pablo Escobar’s free-range wildlife collection decades after his death—not only for the descriptions of the various methods employed to curtail their spread, but also for the additional context the article provided for an unlikely cultural callout via Graham Parker and the Goldtops’ 2023 song “Pablo’s Hippos.” It seems that Escobar’s undying influence has even made its way into 21st-century music. —Trip Stallings | Raleigh, North Carolina

The Roots of Trade 

Your fascinating article (“Trading Places,” July/August 2024) supports my long-held belief that globalization has been with us since humans started moving out of Africa. There were many advanced civilizations in Asia, India, Southeast Asia and China, so traders would have been exploring other opportunities. We now know of advanced civilizations beyond Egypt, elsewhere in Africa. It is natural that as people traveled and traded, beliefs and culture would have been shared. —Shari Villarosa | Washington, D.C.

Smithsonian is one of my favorite magazines for its writing and photographs, and this issue has so many fascinating articles that I couldn’t put it down until I finished every one. In particular “Trading Places” is mind-blowing! “What kind of place boasts Buddhists who worship at the temple of an Egyptian goddess?” Archaeologists are slowly uncovering the fascinating secrets that our planet holds. This article really opened my eyes on how ancient cultures blended into one another through time, and it created a better understanding for me about ancient life. —Lynda Richardson | Richmond, Virginia

Which Way Is Up?

In “Mapping the Mississippi” (July/August 2024), writer Boyce Upholt seems to have the description of poling a flatboat exactly backward. Walking the pole from stern to bow would propel the boat downstream, if the bow were pointed upstream. I think it is more likely the boatmen walked the plank from bow to stern, thus propelling upstream. At least that is the way I would do it. —William Bradley | Overland Park, Kansas