The Suburban Times
A community bulletin board for Western Pierce County.
David Anderson · · ·
We called him Frosty the Fairytale Facsimile, our token snowman.
No corncob pipe, just a stick. There were no carrots in the vegetable bin, so a stick served for the nose too. No rolling snowballs around in the yard. No snowman bigger and better than the neighbor’s. A scraped and mounded pile of snow served just as well in which to stick the obligatory twigs. No boots, no buttons, no broom.
David Anderson · · ·
Of all days for our annual family outing in search for the perfect Christmas tree, it was during a blinding snowstorm.
Ok, half-an-inch of snowfall doesn’t qualify as a storm but the sun shining on the snow was indeed blinding. Though not enough to make a snowman, the snow in the winter wonderland almost-foothills of the Cascades had flocked all the U-cut Grand Firs, Douglas Firs, and Charlie Brown trees too.
Joseph Boyle · · ·
From time to time I attend programs sponsored by an amazing organization called National Speakers Association or NSA. Dorothy Wilhelm, my favorite post-retirement mentor, introduced me to NSA. For those of you who know Dorothy Wilhelm, if she says NSA is the place to be, you know, NSA is the place to be.
David Anderson · · ·
A thief posing as fisherman? That’s an insult.
“Police seek South Hill pharmacy robber wearing fisherman’s hat,” blazed the banner this past Thanksgiving-eve.
Not ‘cowboy hat,’ or ‘stocking hat,’ or ‘baseball hat.’
Fisherman’s hat.
David Anderson · · ·
What the heck is sage for?
Other than the second of four herbs in “Parsley, Sage, Rosemary and Thyme” – Simon and Garfunkel’s “first masterpiece” – why was sage included in our Thanksgiving dinner grocery shopping list?
David Anderson · · ·
Part of Lakewood’s $55,503 grant to treat problem gamblers was used to buy one or more Sea-Doo’s to patrol Lake Steilacoom. Public Disclosure Request (PDR) documents [(2012-2013) and (2013-2014)] recently obtained from the City of Lakewood reveal this and other less-than-admirable outcomes of a unanimous vote by the Lakewood City Council on August 6, 2012 […]
Joseph Boyle · · ·
November 4, 2014, Election Day, has come and gone.
I remember middle school elections of the 1950s. Candidates made posters. Candidates made “Vote for me” paper badges for their supporters. Little effort was expended determining which candidates were most qualified. It was a silly juvenile popularity contest based on superficial issues such as who had the best posters.
As I reflect on elections in my adult life, it appears to me that not much has changed. Today’s elections are still much like middle school; silly and juvenile.
David Anderson · · ·
Good news: “Many app-makers are experimenting with software that can analyze someone’s emotions or honesty just by a few facial cues.”
Bad news: The app wasn’t available for elections just completed.
David Anderson · · ·
The City of Lakewood has responded to our long-standing complaint about traffic in Tillicum. I’ll get back to that in a minute.
The genius of government – even genie of government – is that the “guiding spirit” (genius) and the genie (the one exiting the lamp) both serve the one calling it forth.