Making Christmas tamales together is a tradition spanning generations for some families. Except this year gathering to make those tamales becomes so much more complicated with pandemic concerns. That’s likely why Palmira Mendoza Martinez has seen an uptick in tamales orders this year at Los Tamales Mexican Restaurant, my favorite restaurant in Tacoma for tamales […]
Film Review: A Christmas Tale (2008)
If you’re like me, and you love to watch Christmas movies around December but are tired of the repeated viewings of chipper films like White Christmas or It’s a Wonderful Life, then the French film A Christmas Tale is the perfect cure to your holiday movie burnout. It’s an upper, too! It’s about a woman […]
Christmas cocktails to-go – Tacoma & Pierce County bars shake up holiday booze
Jason Alexander stood at the bar last week at newly opened Gilman House. He hovered over a giant plastic bucket surrounded by smaller buckets half filled with house-made elixirs for which Gilman House and its sister bar Devil’s Reef are known. Alexander’s brand of cocktail mixing is some kind of crazy alchemy. He’s known for […]
Excellent meals for up to six people – No Charge – Now 15 Restaurants
Tracy Peacock, Executive Director of St. Vinnie’s here in Pierce County introduced me to HelpKitchen. St. Vinnie’s helps with individuals with food and gas cards as well as rental assistance and more. They have partnered with the Help Kitchen and one of the food truck’s serving 98409 zip code is located at St Vincent de […]
Vet Clinic, Dec ’20
New resources for military veterans… •AARP’s Free Job Board Lists Employers Hiring Veteranshttps://www.blogs.va.gov/VAntage/80487/looking-work-aarps-free-job-board-lists-employers-hiring-veterans/ •VA, Labor Department team up to support Veteran employmenthttps://www.blogs.va.gov/VAntage/81154/va-labor-department-team-support-veteran-employment/ •VA adds tens of thousands of jobs, increases remote optionshttps://www.blogs.va.gov/VAntage/81030/va-adds-tens-thousands-jobs-increases-remote-options/ •Remote work could be silver lining of pandemic for some veterans, including those with PTSDhttps://www.militarytimes.com/news/your-army/2020/11/27/remote-work-could-be-silver-lining-of-pandemic-for-some-veterans-including-those-with-ptsd/ •Collections debt relief and statement information updateshttps://www.blogs.va.gov/VAntage/79663/essential-list-fall-virtual-events-va-job-seekers-attend/ •Holiday […]
Letter: The Snow Forts And Comforts Of Childhood
It was brutally cold. With my face pressed to one small pane of cold glass and my brother next to me doing the same, we stared spellbound as the howling wind drove the snow against our upstairs bedroom window. Our vision clouded by the ferocity of the flakes in the growing darkness, we took refuge […]
Looking Back in Anguish and Forward to Possibilities
I enjoy reading, but not has much as my wife does. As a teenager I used to love staying over with my grandmother on the weekends to help her around a motel my parents owned near Parkland. I loved staying with her because she let me sleep in late. I would stay up until sunrise […]
Excellent meals for up to six people – No Charge
I received an email from Tracy Peacock, Executive Director of St. Vinnie’s here in Pierce County. I’ve known Tracy for about twenty years. We met in Rotary. Her father was a Rotarian also, so she grew up believing in helping the community. Tracy said, “For those of you helping those in need with food requests, […]
Just what Tacoma needed – a wiener and a cake window on 6th Ave
Shortly before 11 a.m. on a Sunday in November, the line started to assemble on Sixth Avenue. A woman who clearly had become a regular at The Cat & Rabbitt Cakeshop, which opened Nov. 15 on Sixth, explained to newbie pastry seekers that they were lining up in the wrong direction. The line bent south, […]