The early years of college can be overwhelming for new students. Many don’t yet know what their major will be so they focus on general education courses like first year writing, college algebra and introduction to biology, which for some can feel like barriers to progress. “Instead, we like …
One of my favorite holiday movies is “It’s a Wonderful Life” staring James Stewart. If you don’t remember this powerful film you need to find a copy and watch it.
One of the joys of adulthood is our ability to control our environment. We can go to bed when we want and awaken the next day pretty much at our leisure. Certainly jobs and other responsibilities dictate some of our actions, but even those things are flexible. We find when we go camping we a…
Navigating life has never been something that is easy to do but it is certainly more attainable when you have a friend to go through it with you.
I haven’t a clue where the phrase “Sour Grapes” came from but it does portray something that isn’t very pleasant. It’s kind of unfortunate to malign grapes this way because nothing is as pleasant as a nice crisp and juicy seedless grape. Added to a chicken sandwich (my grandson Bentley’s fav…
Well here we are, starting a new cycle of days, weeks and months where we get to start over. Regardless of whether you are the kind of person who engages in New Year’s resolutions only to see the resolve slowly retard as the days and weeks pass, it is a nice place to re-launch your life.
Christmas is a season built for memories. Its traditions of gift giving, family meals and reaching out to others we don’t normally include in our day-to-day circles creates lots of memory potential. Whether we use the Christmas holiday to its potential has everything to do with how you plan …
What’s good about winter? First off, without a winter there could not be a spring and without spring there could be no summer and especially there could be no fall. Which season of the year is your favorite? For me, I think it would be a tossup between spring and fall but under the right cir…
Thanksgiving, like all other holidays, comes at the same time every year. Though the date may change, it is always held on the fourth Thursday of November.
You would need to live under a rock not to know that the Powerball prize is one and a half billion dollars.
In my lifetime I have had the occasion to experience close contact with the fire department or other emergency services many times. In each of these situations, having the fire department or other emergency services show up was a Godsend.
A recent Wall Street Journal article, “New Rules Temper Stars’ Medicare Pitches,” addressed the practice of using celebrities in Medicare plan marketing ads. The piece also shared steps the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) are taking to reduce confusion.
What would a perfect day look like to you? For me, a perfect day would be one where I am surrounded by my friends and loved ones. A perfect day wouldn’t be too hot or too cold, there would be lots of sunlight but there would also need to be a passing shower to cleanse the air of any dust or …
One of the flaws of the internet is that people feel more at ease saying something snotty or rude on a computer or by texting on a cell phone screen than they would ever say in person.
One of my early memories was waking up to the sound of a rock crusher reducing pit run (sand and rocks in all sizes) to a standard size so it could be used to make concrete or sold as fill. Though the gravel pit was half a mile from my home it was elevated on the bench where the sound could …
I watched a television program recently about the actor George Clooney and there was one part of the program that simply blew me away.
We have had a lousy two weeks here in America but there is much more good happening out there than bad, if we just condition ourselves to look for it.
Technology offers us so many advantages in living full and rewarding lives, but technology does have a dark side and can result in extreme problems for people that might not fully understand technology and how it can be used against them.
Every year we set aside a day dedicated to our fathers. Moms have always trumped dads over the years, perhaps rightly so, but still there is a need to celebrate our fathers.
One week from today, Tuesday May 17th, is election day where you get the opportunity to pick your Republican Candidates for local and state offices in the various branches of government.
Just over 32-years-ago I experienced a once in a lifetime event.
Among the many primary elections that are taking place this May is the race to be the next Cassia County Assessor. Let me explain why I am the right person for the job. The simplest description of the Assessor’s job is determining how much each parcel of land is worth. The property taxes fun…
The news out of Ukraine isn’t good. Russia’s president, Vladimir Putin, has his sights set on annexing Ukraine back into the new USSR. Sadly, I don’t feel that the nations of the world are doing enough to help the citizens of Ukraine continue as an independent nation.
We recently helped our daughter, Cheri, move from one apartment to another, something her brother had previously helped her with when he lived in the same college town. Now in flight school in Alabama, he was quite unavailable this time so it fell on us to help because “you have a pickup tru…
If you look closely at life in these modern times I wonder if we are really better off as a civilization than humankind was back in the Dark Ages.
Perhaps one of the most prized gifts we have been given by our Creator is the gift of making memories.
I am writing this column the morning after Burley resident, Tyson Cole, unexpectedly passed away in a tragic accident. If you don’t know Tyson or his family you have really missed out on knowing an awesome family. Tyson wasn’t one to see an injustice and let it go without doing something abo…
Over the many years we have been running newspapers, often halfway across the country from our families, we have always been aware of but not always able to attend our family Christmas parties.
Nobody wants to hear bad news. For me there is nothing worse than getting bad news from a source other than from the person closest to the situation.
In May I turned 60 and as his gift to me, my son John gave me TILE tags for my phone, my car keys, and my wallet. The subtleness of the gift wasn’t overlooked, especially since in the previous few months I had several instances where one of those three things went missing.
If you are like me you are richly blessed to have at least one brother. I have done somewhat better than just having one brother – I’ve got five.
One of the things I do as the editor of the Weekly Mailer is to go through the daily police reports. Most days the entries are boring and mundane but on occasion there are some really nutty things that get written up.
Winston Churchill declared this about war, “Never give in. Never give in. Never, never, never, never—in nothing, great or small, large or petty—never give in, except to convictions of honor and good sense. Never yield to force. Never yield to the apparently overwhelming might of the enemy.”
Just like that – you blink, and the summer is over.
I saw a Facebook posting this past week from one of my Canadian cousins that put a smile on my face that lasts even as I scribe this column. The photograph shows Heidi, a two-year-old platinum blonde toddler, playing with her four-month-old brother. A closer inspection of the picture shows s…
What a year we’ve had in south central Idaho. As if the COVID-19 virus wasn’t enough for us to be depressed about, now we are in the throngs of a heat wave and a severe drought. These are interesting times to be sure.
Working in the newspaper industry gave us an opportunity to live in a number of cities across half the country. Each job transfer opened up opportunities for us to learn new cultures, meet many people that didn’t share our specific backgrounds and to generally make new friends.
Our society is built around our school systems in large part because that’s when our children are freed up from a daily school schedule. For working parents this time can be a nightmare because it means kids are unsupervised at home. If your family situation allows one parent to be home with…
The past year has been an eye opening one for me and I would suspect the rest of our community. The COVID-19 virus has changed us whether we want to believe it or not. Within my own family there are believers and non-believers – in COVID as well as other topics. I wish I could say that thing…
Many of you reading this column might be surprised to know that there was a vote in both Cassia and Minidoka Counties last Tuesday. The Highway Districts in both Cassia and Minidoka Counties had elections to determine who would be sitting on the boards of these organizations. In large part, …
None of us would consider leaving the house without being fully dressed, it’s just something burned into our brains from an early age. We usually dress for the weather as well, not wanting to freeze while doing errands or burn up with long sleeves on a hot summer day. Clothes just make sense…
Are you a nostalgic person who looks to the past with a reverence for the way it used to be? Do you long for a time machine that would transport you to a time in the past when life seemed to be simpler, less stressful, maybe even fun?
Our existence on this planet began at birth and ends when we are laid to rest. You might believe, as I do, that while our spirit may be separated from our body for a time, the message of Easter - that both our body and spirit will one day be reunited in the resurrection and we will live on i…
Some years ago, while returning from visiting our girlfriends in Ogden, Utah, one of my friends and I had an experience we would not soon forget. It was sometime after 1 a.m. and we were weary from travel and wanting to get some sleep. I was driving my 1970 Dodge Challenger and was only ten …
I have never loved reading the Dr. Seuss books for myself or to my children and grandchildren. Maybe I’m just too simple or perhaps the odd illustrations and weird word combinations are too complicated for my simple mind. Whatever the cause, I feel the need to come to the rescue of Dr. Seuss…
The weather is always a good topic for discussion, especially when it is active and out of the ordinary. We have found one of the benefits of having lived in different parts of the country over our newspaper career is that we always leave behind friends. Regardless of the time of year, it is…
We live in a consumer world where we are constantly bombarded by offers to buy products and services. The internet hasn’t made things any easier because it puts things in front of us even when we aren’t looking for anything. Get on just about any internet web site and you will soon see that …
The Forrest Gump movie is littered with great one liners that offer snippets of wisdom. One of my favorites is “Stupid is as stupid does”. The simple message is one that I interpret this way – you’re only stupid if you act stupid.
As teenagers my brother Alan and I decided to make caramel popcorn in the family kitchen. During our first attempt at making this confection I was delegated to mix the popcorn while Alan poured the hot caramel out of the pan we had cooked it in. Things were going excellent until I got my han…
Across this great nation, in towns large and small, there is a tradition so important and worthwhile that without it, communities would lose their soul.
Until recently, our daughter, Michelle, and her family lived in Roswell, New Mexico. To get to Roswell we could take any number of roads, highways, and interstate freeways. To break up the monotony of driving 1005 miles each way we would use a couple of different routes that ultimately got u…
