I love fried fish. My mother fried smelt to perfection. The little daggers of crunch were fantastic. My wife Peggy grew up on fried smelt from the Pacific Northwest, too. Her dad Ike and the whole family enjoyed smelt. The Toutle is a tributary of the Cowlitz River, which used to be the mainstay of […]
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Fire and Ice – Film Review
I am a HUGE fan of Ralph Bakshi. If you’re not familiar with him, Bakshi is the innovative director and animator of various independent adult-oriented animated films such Coonskin (1975), American Pop (1981) and Fritz the Cat, which was the first animated film to receive an X rating. While most animated films up until that […]
Westside Story – 1-2-5-3
Official Coffee Drinking Partner & Editor – Jimmy Howe at TCC. Having read only this much of my column, you might already be asking, “What does Joe’s title, Westside Story – 1-2-5-3, mean?” Let me try to explain. My sister, Peg, (Note: Not to be confused with Peg, who is the wife of The Suburban […]
Letter: “You can thank my parents for that”
He was standing in front of the cash register at our place of business from which I’m often gone that being because we just have a lot going on and, despite the beautiful weather, I’ve got things to do elsewhere. “This is for yesterday since you weren’t here, and today.” Fishermen, which this fellow is, […]
2019-2020 Theatre Season is Coming
“Calendar Girls” is coming to Tacoma Little Theatre? Well, why not? Last season Tacoma Musical Playhouse bared it all with “The Full Monty.” Here are a couple of review headlines: “Calendar Girls’ delivers the goods . . .” The Duluth News Tribune on the movie. “Unashamedly sentimental and full of heart and bare-faced cheek . […]
Letter: Gig Harbor is going to the Olympics
Got a call this morning from my brother Alan. His voice broke. He was emotional. Been up all night. On the other side of the world, Szeged, Hungary, at 2:30 A.M. our time, this August 24, Nevin Harrison, who trained at Gig Harbor the last seven or eight months or so, who is from Seattle […]
Susanne Bacon Reads at the Topside Coffee Cabin
Why does somebody in Wycliff deposit vintage jewelry in the museum curator’s front yard? How can that very same small museum accept a huge inheritance of exhibits without going bust either in space or debt? And what does the Topside Coffee Cabin in Steilacoom have to do with all of this? Why don’t you come […]
Across the Fence: Riding the Rails
This year began with a promise my husband and I gave each other: to explore new things and to leave off revisiting those we know fairly well already. The other day we were looking into some special things to do with a young adult, an activity that would mean experiencing something new together. We did […]
Letter: The Best and the Brightest
Recently we added a beautiful little, older but carefully maintained, boat and motor to our rental fishing fleet. Already we’ve rented it out twice and only to the best and the brightest – true fishing aficionados – as evidenced just this morning. Out of all the boats (row, or boat and motor with 3.3 Merc, […]