I first saw the insignia of the 101st Airborne Division as a child. My mother worked at the Mount Rainier Ordinance Depot as a secretary. “The Mount Rainier Ordnance Depot served the United States Army between 1942 and 1963 as a primary vehicle-, arms-, and missile-repair facility. This depot provided ordnance equipment to the Pacific […]
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Across the Fence: The Wild Hunt
Today, I am starting this new column, and I will chat to you in a neighborly fashion across the fence. But I also would like to invite you to hop across your fence to discover and explore all kinds of things and places. Let’s start with something that is as current as it gets. You […]
Dying is Easy… Comedy is Hard
New Year’s Day. I was up early and reading the Newspapers. I noted in The News Tribune that actor Frank Langella turned eighty-one. You may not recognize the name, but Peg and I have loved his acting since seeing him in one of our favorite Mel Brooks’ movies, The Twelve Chairs (1970). We discovered the […]
Westside Story – New Year’s Resolutions
Here we are. If you are reading this, we all made it to New Years Day, 2019. Had early 1900s societal expectations not pressured my father into becoming a cancer stick smoker, he could have become age 100 this year. It is a good day to reflect on the past, and then once accomplished to […]
Posers, Problems, and Pickles
I’ve long used the technique of visualizing an internet marketing problem and turning it all around in my mind like a holographic image. This lets me find solutions that are unique and unusual. I like visualizing ideas revolved, rotated, spun, turned inside-out and flipped on their heads. I constantly ask myself, “What if?” My favorite, […]
Westside Story – Don Doman, Don Doman
On December 27, 2018, my friend and prolific writer, Don Doman, published a story in The Suburban Times titled, Robin Hood and the Plight of the Arrow. It was an exciting story describing Don’s youth as he related to his TV and movie hero, Robin Hood. If you missed Don’s story, click my custom link Don Doman’s Quiver. Of […]
Aplets & Cotlets Imported from Turkey?
Did you know that Washington State’s Aplets and Cotlets were created in ancient Turkey? These sweet little confections weren’t called Aplets and Cotlets then, of course. There were called “lokum.” “Lokum was first referred to as ‘rahat ul-hulküm’ in Arabic which means ‘comforting the throat’, but over time it became ‘comfortable delight’.”* Turkish people recognize […]
Letter: Goofy and the Girl
Our daughter and her husband, recently returned from Disneyland, had a special-request Christmas gift for my wife who had seen it in a gift shop when we all visited last year – a Holland figurine from “It’s a Small World After All.” After all – speaking of ‘after all’ – she’s Dutch. One-hundred percent. Which […]
Rag Muffins, Grandchildren, and Family
“Donnnnnnnn, Donnnnnnn, I know you love me . . . I know you want me . . .” OMG, the siren call of rag muffins. I tried to resist. Cousins were coming over for mid-morning breakfast before they flew back to their homes in Detroit and Los Angeles. “Donnnnnnn, Donnnnnn . . .” What’s a […]