Sometimes I get asked what it takes to be a writer. The answer is: Write! I also get asked when I decided to become a writer. I never did. It decided me. Before I could write, I told stories to my kid brother. As soon as I was able to spell, I borrowed my parents’ […]
Letter: ‘Compassion fatigue’ – homeless to earn their keep
“The City of Auburn is trying something new to fight the homeless problem,” reports Matt Markovich for KOMO News, September 30. It’s called work, “doing chores for a place to stay.”
FAB Fest spangled with highlights and stars
If you have still been wondering what to do on the very last weekend of September, you can stop contemplating now. For you definitely shouldn’t miss out on the opportunity of visiting the 6th Annual Lakewood Film, Arts, and Book Festival that is packed with highlights and even features a world-famous star! The numbers of […]
FAB Fest Features Tales about Times Past
Do you remember boring history lessons at school when you felt you were stuffed with terminology and numbers? And then reading your first historical novel, thinking: Why can’t history lessons be like this? Exciting, alive, more insightful, imaginative … Well, that’s probably why the genre of historical fiction has such a wide readership and is […]
AAA Buffet – Chinese Buffet Restaurant Review
Returning from a meeting at the Chehalis Rotary Club, my friend Dick Dorsett and I talked about food as we drove back to Tacoma. Dick mentioned the AAA Buffet, which I had never heard of or seen. No wonder, just off South Tacoma Way, it’s tucked in behind the Union 76 Gas station (10310 S […]
Letter: She got it at Goodwill for $5
It was marked down. And it needed help. A lot of help. And it didn’t help that in moving it into the house the unwieldy, top-heavy, glass cabinet got away from me and tipped off the porch and crashed to the rocks bordering the garden below where shattered glass told its future: firewood. Nope. My […]
Westside Story – A Leg Up
I have always had an interest in human behavior, which motivated me to study psychology and sociology in high school and college. My interest in human behavior is one of the reasons I became a police officer. The big question we often face is, what makes people behave the way they do? For instance; after […]
BBQ and the Art of Slathering
I was introduced to BBQ by my father in the 1950s. He took an old wood burning range and encased it in stone and concrete in our backyard. George Stephen, a welder at Weber Brothers Metal Works, created the iconic Weber grill in 1952. Soon my dad progressed to the new (at the time) BBQ […]
Westside Story – On The Wrong Track
Recently I have seen a ton of articles in our local papers including The Suburban Times talking about the advantages and disadvantages of trains racing through our Lakewood neighborhoods at close to 80 miles per hour. The last article I am aware of was published in The Suburban Times on Friday, September 21, 2018. The […]