It was a couple of days before Valentine’s Day. I had my present ready for Peggy, but had done no planning for dinner. We decided, since we hadn’t dined at The Harmon (multiply locations in Tacoma and Gig Harbor) for some time, perhaps we should give them a try. I checked online for both The […]
To Ponder
Letter: The trains – and their representatives – are coming
The board of the Tillicum Woodbrook Neighborhood Association (TWNA) has received a request from the design-build contractor for the Washington State Department of Transportation (WSDOT) to update this community concerning I-5 construction as it relates to the two interchanges for Tillicum. There are two parts to this presentation scheduled for May 2, 6:30 P.M. at […]
Across the Fence: A Stuttgart Hunting Lodge
Very recently, on Facebook, I came across photos of a German friend of mine, who had walked one of my favorite hikes in my former hometown of Stuttgart, Germany. During weekends it’s usually overcrowded. But choose a weekday morning, especially when it’s cold, and you will find it to be a magic place to refresh […]
Fighting Fake News and Outright Lies – David Mikkelson – Snopes.com
CLAIMS sent to Snopes.com for verification: Congresswoman Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez has experienced two “sheriff evictions,” two closed checking accounts, and a credit score of 430. Some 18 million illegal immigrants received benefit checks during a government shutdown in January 2019. The FBI raided a retirement home to break up an elderly fight club. Nathan Phillips falsely […]
Letter: Democrats ‘washing their hands’ of sports wagering
Eight Washington state legislators, only one of whom is Republican, are sponsoring House Bill 1975 that would authorize tribes to conduct sports wagering “on a very limited basis.” ‘Very limited.’ For now. Under the category of “other sports”, as opposed to say the Seahawks, the Huskies, or even the Cougars, fantasy sports – where participants […]
Good Food and Low Noise
Why do you go out to a restaurant? To eat? I don’t think so. Not me, anyway. I go to a restaurant not to eat, but to enjoy eating. This means eating with someone . . . and generally having a conversation. You can’t have a decent conversation if you can’t hear. It’s tough to […]
Westside Story – A Sign of the Times – Free Beer
Sure, America is a great country, but if you take the trouble to leave your neighborhood and travel to far off places, you will discover there are other great countries, too. If I rewrote my sentence above using a creative phrase from prominent and published Lakewood author, Susanne Bacon, my sentence might read: “If you […]
Letter: Chimps better served than casino chumps
Washington’s legislators are feeling benevolent. Or maybe embarrassed. Fourteen years ago, was the last time lawmakers looked into the state’s problem gambling policies. Since then “the gambling industry has nearly doubled to more than a three-billion-dollar industry.” ‘Industry’, used twice in ten words or less by the lawmakers, is often meant to describe “economic […]
Feeding Deer in the Winter and Beyond
My wife usually has a bag of apples on the kitchen counter. For me I like the larger apples, but for deer I like the smaller apples, although I sometimes worry they will choke on them. I don’t give deer CPR. I don’t know what kind they really enjoy, but if they have visited our […]