Have you met Emma Wilde, née Schwarz already? Emma is a German journalist who works for a small daily paper in a fictional suburb of the Southern German city of Stuttgart. Though she is supposed to work on cultural and social topics only, she happens to stumble across incidents that involve criminal activity. Emma’s curiosity […]
To Ponder
Letter: An Ordinary Wall
Our daughter is an artist. At Christmas, gifts to me are encased in brown wrapping paper upon which are her free-hand sketches of life as she sees me living it. It is the Dutch girl (my wife), that married Goofy (that’s me), that resulted in a granddaughter (one of 10 grandchildren) who hangs out with […]
Across the Fence: Weltpolitik
What a term! Weltpolitik … I have to be honest – until this day, as I’m writing this article, I have only known this word in its modern usage, not in its original one. I didn’t even know that it was another Germanism in the English language. I was taught history in school from grade […]
November’s Obscure Red Letter Days
(Still in Pierce County.) I’ve had a lot of fun sharing Dr. Patt Schwab’s Red Letter Days and I’ve usually added a few days to celebrate here in Pierce County. But just now I’m waiting for that person who needs to downsize to a very special home – say, my condo here in DuPont. I’ve […]
Our Town at UPS – A Review of a Classic
By Don and Peggy Doman and Lavinia Hart. In the Director’s Notes (Wind D. Woods) we are told “Our production takes a turn with Wilder’s minimalist trimming away, the bareness he employs to lay bare essential elements of what it means to gather together and share in the long tradition of storytelling. Our production seeks […]
Success at TACID – Tacoma Area Coalition for Individuals with Disabilities
Years ago, a friend of mine from The Rotary Club of Lakewood, repeatedly asked me to join the board at TACID. At the time, we were both members of The Rotary Club of Tacoma #8. TACID stands for “Tacoma Area Coalition of Individuals with Disabilities.” I knew exactly what TACID did and how much help […]
In the Book Nook with … Blye Donovan
Author Blye Donovan is a full-time writer and lives in coastal South Carolina with her husband and their dog. She has been writing since she was a child, but didn’t pursue it as a career until the pandemic shut the world down. She started writing children’s books thinking that would be easier—it was not! Then […]
Letter: To Be Again What One Once Was
What can burst the iron bands affixed around the heart, the bands constricting, suffocating, keeping the heart from breaking due to the sadness of grief? According to “Tale no.1” – the first story in the folktale collection of the Brothers Grimm published in 1812 – also known as “The Frog Prince”, the heart is set free […]
Across the Fence: Leberwurst and Braunschweiger
It was a staple at my home, and as a child, I simply hated it – leberwurst (prounounce ‘labor-woorst) or, as you might also know it, liverwurst. I didn’t care for the flavor, for the texture, nor – and that was probably the biggest problem, the smell, and the grayish color. It didn’t help that […]