- Spokane is the largest city in Eastern Washington and the commercial hub for an interstate area known formerly as the “Inland Empire” and now as the “Inland Northwest.” After settlement in the 1870s, it quickly became the county seat of Spokane County and the regional center for mining, agriculture, timber, transportation, education, and medical services. Urban development has spread far beyond the 2005 population of 200,000 residing within the present city limits in a county of almost 430,000. Spokane, like many cities, has undergone periods of boom, bust, stagnation, and recovery. For well over 100 years, it has provided a welcome urban oasis in the less populated stretch of plains and mountains between the Mississippi River and Seattle.
- Stranger in a Strange Land (Wikipedia)
Stranger in a Strange Land is a 1961 science fiction novel by American author Robert A. Heinlein. It tells the story of Valentine Michael Smith, a human who comes to Earth in early adulthood after being born on the planet Mars and raised by Martians, and explores his interaction with an eventual transformation of Terran culture.