Most would agree I’m a night owl. I don’t much like going to bed and I like getting out of bed before 11 a.m. even less.
What do Washington, D.C., and Washington state have in common?
See the picture of the goofy-looking guy that accompanies this column? Well, that’s nothing. You should have seen his first Costco card. Now, that photo was a masterpiece of doltishness. Unfortunately, I lost that card a couple of days ago – and that really bums me out. I will never be able to duplicate that spectacularly grizzled look again without the help of a Hollywood makeup artist...and a bottle of Scotch.
Most would agree I’m a night owl. I don’t much like going to bed and I like getting out of bed before 11 a.m. even less.
There’s enough inherent drama in next week’s presidential inauguration that you might think it wouldn’t be necessary for the TV news networks to hype it. But you’d be wrong. That’s just what they do.
The start of a new year is like a clean slate. And now that last year is behind us, it seems our 2008 accomplishments set the bar for 2009. Whether it’s fundraising, new event development, downtown preservation efforts, or increasing membership, we are always looking to improve in each successive year. With all the new volunteers we have, I don’t anticipate that will be a problem this year.
Fans of newspapers – and there are still plenty of dedicated readers out there, despite warnings to the contrary – realize this is an industry in the midst of great upheaval.
With the legislature now meeting in Olympia and Barack Obama preparing his inaugural address, now might be a good time to recall two epic misadventures that vividly illustrate how not to close deficits.
There’s enough inherent drama in next week’s presidential inauguration that you might think it wouldn’t be necessary for the TV news networks to hype it. But you’d be wrong. That’s just what they do.
Fans of newspapers – and there are still plenty of dedicated readers out there, despite warnings to the contrary – realize this is an industry in the midst of great upheaval.
Far back in the woebegone days of my childhood, small-town Enumclaw had a great deal of covert bigotry toward black people. It wasn’t out in the open because there weren’t any blacks around here but, make no mistake about it, the racist attitudes were surely there – as confirmed by the none-too-subtle, negative remarks made behind the back of my Hispanic classmate, Jim Morris.
With the Legislature now meeting in Olympia and Barack Obama preparing his inaugural address, now might be a good time to recall two epic misadventures that vividly illustrate how not to close deficits.
It is hard for my pen to create for you, the reader, what I get to see in person. A wisp of smoke, the frost on the ground and covering the lawns. Frozen droplets of morning dew, clinging to the leaves of the tall alder trees. Bushes with their heads bowed low from the heavy frost. Leaves of yellow, orange and rust lying in heaps under the great maple and oak trees, standing in and among the evergreen trees such as fir, cedar and others.
“Rich Like Them” by Ryan D’Agostino, c.2008, Little, Brown, $25.99, 256 pages.
The start of a new year is like a clean slate. And now that last year is behind us, it seems our 2008 accomplishments set the bar for 2009. Whether it’s fundraising, new event development, downtown preservation efforts, or increasing membership, we are always looking to improve in each successive year. With all the new volunteers we have, I don’t anticipate that will be a problem this year.
Fans of newspapers – and there are still plenty of dedicated readers out there, despite warnings to the contrary – realize this is an industry in the midst of great upheaval.
With the legislature now meeting in Olympia and Barack Obama preparing his inaugural address, now might be a good time to recall two epic misadventures that vividly illustrate how not to close deficits.
The dawn of a new year is filled with bright, shiny promise, bouyed by the potential for prosperity and world peace.
I was at a convenience store the other day buying the usual – beef jerky and Mountain Dew – when I noticed the pen at the checkout counter. The storeowner had Scotch-taped a white plastic spoon to the pen, figuring that customers will be less likely to forgetfully leave with the pen after signing a check or credit card slip. (Unfortunately, the practice doesn’t always work. I know a guy whose glove box is filled with pens and white plastic spoons.)
Would anyone have predicted last January that the stock market would plunge from 13,000 to 8,500 by year’s end? That the Huskies would be the only major college football team to not win a game? That John McCain would be the Republican nominee for president, that his running mate would be the almost unknown governor of Alaska and that Barack Obama would be president? That more Americans would die violently in Chicago than in all of Iraq in 2008? That Washington Mutual, once as mighty a local institution as Safeco and Weyerhaeuser, would crash and burn and be picked up for pennies on the dollar by Chase?