Anne, who has become one of my faithful national Westside Story readers from New York got me to thinking after she sent a piece published in the London Times dealing with common sense or the lack thereof. When I was growing up, my parents drilled the concept of common sense into my developing personality. Common […]
Lakewood
choose Chas, choose change
Charles Ames has announced his candidacy for Lakewood City Council for ONE term. Who is Charles Ames? Commandant of the local Marine Corps League before I earned my 5-year pin 2-term Chair of the City of Lakewood’s Public Safety Advisory Committee Single dad and was a member of Harrison Prep’s PTO for 6 years and […]
Across the Fence: Snowshoeing the Trail of the Shadows
Have you ever been snowshoeing? I haven’t before I came to Western Washington, and I don’t know how much of a pastime it is in Germany, if so at all. We still don’t have snowshoes of our own, but as we go only once or twice a year, we find it good enough to rent […]
Westside Story – Look For New Meanings
New meanings can be found anywhere. All kidding aside, these are real homes designed by Architect Michael Jantzen.
Bacon’s “Home from Home” published as a book
Over the past years, many of you have been reading my column “Home from Home” in the Suburban Times. It sprang from all the questions an immigrant gets asked as a newcomer by citizens over here as well as an expat by people they left behind. And, of course, I couldn’t help comparing my mother […]
Letter: Drag Queen Story Hour – not what you may think
We were crossing Death Valley and you just simply cannot do that without stopping somewhere along the road, enticing all your little family to exit the air-conditioned van leaving their water bottles behind, and belly-up a sand dune, bare feet dragging uselessly behind in a desperate search for water. It was all fun-and-games for a […]
Westside Story – Boyle Forced Out Of Lakewood City Council Race
Today’s news brings sad news. A loyal 50-year resident of the City of Lakewood, Joe Boyle, who had been recruited by a popular landslide proportion of Lakewood’s citizenry to run for the upcoming seat being vacated by the Honorable and dedicated Lakewood City Councilwoman, Marie Barth, has announced this afternoon he is dropping out of […]
Westside Story – Life Can Be A Grind
NOTE TO READERS: All names printed in this story have been changed to protect the innocent and the guilty. I say innocent and guilty because, well based on the news; you never know. I am confident my kids, who are woven into my story, are in the innocent group because neither of them has done […]
Across the Fence: Jeudi Gras
Everybody knows about Mardi Gras, Fat Tuesday, as it is celebrated here in the US. So, what is Jeudi Gras? Okay, I have to admit it, I just made up the term, but “Fat Thursday” is what a number of European countries celebrate as an equivalent. The origin is the same, though the weekday in […]