The other day I finished a book that my sweet friend Katerina in Athens had taken great pain to find for me. It was the English translation of a Greek author, in this case Ilias Venezis. A wonderful book to boot. But it made me thoughtful why, besides the great classics like Homer, Aristotle, Plato, […]
Lakewood
Letter: A Well-lived Life
He was king with numerous opportunities to rule well during his eight year reign. He had not. During that time he had not achieved anything for his country or people that qualified as a distinguishable accomplishment of merit. Nothing. The people he had ruled were glad when he departed. “He passed away, to no one’s […]
Thank you for your support
Thanks to all who attended the recent Lakewood First Lions Club drive though crab feed in Fort Steilacoom Park.
Across the Fence: National Days
Have you ever pondered what a national day is? By definition, it is a day that marks the nationhood of a nation or a state. The other day I looked it up on Wikipedia. Including a map that shows two nations that, to my utter surprise, don’t have any – the United Kingdom and Denmark. […]
Letter: Clover Park School District Board Rolls Out “Give Six” Initiative
Give Six. On a daily basis, six connections with each student will be made by school district staff which affirm, encourage, compliment, and otherwise single out individual students for special attention constitute this initiative. Introduced at the meeting of the Clover Park School District Board on the evening of February 22, Superintendent Ron Banner said […]
Letter: Not Going Down
Like the nearby pictured green leaf stubbornly standing in a swirl of dirty water, a man of courage and conviction changed the course of history at 4 am on February 24, 1807. On that early morning, the English House of Commons abolished the slave trade by an overwhelming majority of 283 to 16. This occurred […]
Letter: Fear, Dragons And Courage
Fear is a dragon. For many it takes shape as public speaking, snakes, spiders and mysterious sounds, and for others the imagined actions of gargoyles and dragons. Confronting that dragon takes courage. Dr. Calvin Rooney knew something about this. A fictional character in Clive Cussler’s 1986 best-selling novel, “Cyclops,” the good doctor is on a […]
Across the Fence: A Magic Number
Carnival is over, Lent arrived with Ash Wednesday this week. People are giving up on habits – to probably take them up again after 40 days –, or they take on specific tasks – to give them up again after 40 days. But what is it with these 40 days? Of course, it has to […]
Letter: Bowed, But Not Broken
As the victim read her impact statement in the final stage of a sentencing, a young man in the courtroom bowed his head. His pencil rolled off his notepad and dropped to the floor. As new and inexperienced news reporter, his beat had been to report on crime, cops and courts. But not today; this […]