“Do you have any Twains?” As a child in the 1950s I played cards. My neighbors David and Kathleen Biddison taught me poker. My grandmother, Mary Cummins taught me Pitch and Canasta. Poker speaks for itself, but Pitch, Canasta, and Authors are relatively unheard of in American families these days. Pitch uses a standard 52-card […]
Groceries from Dollar Tree?
I just read an interesting article that suggests that dollar stores feed more people than Whole Foods. Here in Pierce County my favorite “go to” dollar store is Dollar Tree. I tell everyone that Dollar Tree can help build affordable emergency and earthquake survival kits – communitydonations.org/Affordable-Survival-Kit.html There are Dollar Tree stores in almost every […]
Saki Sushi & Grill Review
Peg and I have picked up teriyaki for take out several times from Bonsai Teriyaki in Tacoma’s Westgate area of North Pearl. My buddy Jim stopped over to pick me up for our monthly lunch and chat. Jim drives and I choose the restaurant. I had just read Sue Kidd’s review of Saki Sushi & […]
Advocates for Immigrants in Detention (AIDNW)
Did you know that Tacoma is home to the 5th largest Immigration Detention Center in the U.S.? Though the U.S. shares the longest international border in the world with Canada, just a few miles from us, it is the border to the south with Mexico that is one of today’s major issues. How is it […]
A Small Weight Lifted
At the end of November a secret Santa paid off dozens of Walmart layaway tabs in New York. In May someone paid off $10,000 in school lunch debts in Maine. In 2014 an anonymous benefactor paid off everyone’s layaway accounts ($24,000) at a Toys R Us outlet. These benefactors aren’t Bill or Melinda Gates. You […]
Family Evidence
My wife and I have a closet stacked from floor to ceiling with boxes of old photographs. Okay, so they’re not all photographs . . . there are piles of albums and boxes of slides, as well. Some albums have never been opened and some have only a few pages of photos and then blank […]
Money for Nothing and Just a Small Fee
Ellen and Jerry have been retired for some time. Jerry can still do some odd jobs for other seniors for cash. They get by. Near the end of the month they count on Pierce County Meal Sites where they can get a meal for $2.50 to $3.00. Sometimes they have to count their change to […]
The Upside and Down of Bedding
Apparently I missed the conversion from traditional bedding to millennial bedding. It seems that millennials prefer a bottom sheet and a duvet. A duvet is a cotton cover over a comforter filled with down, feathers, or synthetic fibers. Laundry is still recommended on a weekly basis, but it is quicker, faster, and cheaper with just […]
Maple Nut Goodies – Hard Candy
Not every time, but quite often when I visit the Dollar Tree on Sixth Avenue in Tacoma, I purchase a bag of Brach’s Maple Nut Goodies. Memories fade, but I seem to recall them available by the pound at Woolworth’s in downtown Tacoma in the early 1950s. They always looked interesting. Here is how Brach’s […]