“How to deal with difficult people seminar” was one of the takeaways from the National School Board Association (NSBA) annual conference held last year in New Orleans, Louisiana, attended by four of the five members of the Clover Park School District Board of Directors (CPSD). Count me among the difficult-people group as I have a […]
To Ponder
Letter: No cause for alarm
On an overnighter at Gran and Pappy’s house, she pushed the alarm panic button because she thought it was the light switch hanging as the button was from the lamp cord, made convenient for Pappy who has health issues.
Lakewood Police arrived to what turned out to be a false alarm.
Westside Story – DuPont Bus Service?
A recent article in The Suburban Times informed us of the City of Dupont’s desire to explore the possibility of providing the city with bus service.
Decades ago I voted to increase my tax bill in order to bring Pierce Transit buses to Lakewood. I did not personally plan to use bus service and all these years later, I still do not personally benefit from local bus service. It is doubtful I will ever ride the bus.
Letter: A mallard and Flamin’ Hot Cheetos
The faster the boat went, the faster the mallard duck flew.
I later learned we’d never have outrun this crazed-winged beast. Not so much because mallard ducks have been clocked at 50-60 mph and there was no way our aged six-horse outboard was going to come anywhere remotely close to that threshold, but because this creature was addicted to Flamin’ Hot Cheetos.
Letter: Pinching pennies for education
We learn them from our parents (hopefully) even before pre-school: ‘a penny saved is a penny earned;’ and ‘penny wise but pound-foolish;’ and other such penny-pinching proverbs. ‘If we drive to six different grocery stores to get the best bargains on everything we buy, with gasoline so expensive, that’s penny-wise and pound-foolish.’
Letter: Continuing to spin their shopping cart wheels
Lakewood’s Public Safety Advisory Committee (PSAC) – whose deliberations are found on the Lakewood Police Department’s website – may soon survey folks as to where – on the scale presumably of safety since that’s their middle name – shopping carts rank.
Letter: Has somebody seen my lost slot machine?
Description of missing item: Slant Top (attached stool) or maybe (with over 2,000 of ‘em it’s hard to remember) it was an Upright (no stool – player must stand while losing money). Credit meter (LED display) – the thing that keeps track of the payouts – only works intermittently. And the drop bucket – where excess coins are diverted from the hopper to the customer – had been disconnected (it was always a lark to see the payee scrambling about on the floor to retrieve his winnings before everybody else did).
Westside Story – 811 Call Before You Dig
Our Federally mandated 811 – Call Before You Dig program is an excellent idea with one major flaw. Call Before You Dig employees lack good judgement and common sense. While this may seem like a bold, opinionated and condemnatory statement, all you have to do is look around at their graffiti handiwork to see evidence confirming my point. It is like Call Before You Dig employees have to earn low scores on a common sense / intelligence test before being selected for the job.
Letter: Gambling with Lakewood’s future
Within sight of Lakewood City Hall there’s a bank with a sign on the door – both entering and exiting – that indicates you are “entering a no-surprise zone.” Given a number of factors, not the least of which is our struggling economy, imagine then the surprise to read that Lakewood’s number-crunchers are counting on residents gambling significantly more in the foreseeable future.