Have you ever tried to remember the contents of a grocery list you scribbled minutes ago but neglected to bring to the store? The details of a document you just put down? The Christmas wish-list your spouse/child/favorite other rattled off? Your best friend’s address? Consider, then, what it takes to memorize a lengthy, complicated work […]
No Bad Days
No Bad Days – A meaningful life
Dave Chantler was one of the first people who introduced himself to me 11-plus years ago in the days after it was announced that I was purchasing this newspaper. He recognized me in the old Wesola Polana restaurant on Highway 20, and started up a dialog that continued off and on over the following decade, […]
No Bad Days – The greatest 8
If you’ve been around here for a while, you recall that it wasn’t so long ago that Liberty Bell High School’s switch to 8-man football was a matter of contention. After a 2014 season during which the 11-man program was wracked with injuries that depleted the roster and led to some forfeits, the players themselves […]
No Bad Days – Time well spent
Saturday was a good day to be out and about in the Methow — places to go, things to do, cold but sunny, a cheery prelude to the Thanksgiving week coming up. People were skiing, skating, fat biking and otherwise taking advantage of the early snow compilation. I started the day at the Methow Valley […]
No Bad Days – Silenced voices
The newspaper I went to work for as a very green rookie reporter in 1973 was a community fixture, focused on local news and interests, sports (it was in a university town), as well as state and regional issues. The Eugene, Oregon, Register-Guard had a circulation of 75,000-plus, a news staff of more than 50, […]
No Bad Days – The inside story
I got a sneak preview of the new Twisp Civic Building earlier this week — I suppose you could call it a privilege of the press, except that the building was technically open to the public as of Monday so it wasn’t really an exclusive. That said, I did enjoy special treatment. My escort and […]
No Bad Days: Newspaper 101, revisited
If it seems like we’re sometimes a little late with news coverage or with photo collages of special events, well, it seems like that to us too. If it seems like there are some things missing you’d like to see restored, we would not disagree. If it seems like we are not getting to as […]
No Bad Days: For our next act …
Most valley residents and fans who have been following the succession of major community projects in the past decade would likely agree that the next big undertaking will be construction of a new aquatic center to replace the Wagner Memorial Pool in Twisp. I say aquatic center because local sentiment supports a year-round indoor pool […]
No Bad Days: Final thoughts
The call came at 3 a.m., and I was instantly awake. I knew what it was, and wasn’t surprised. But I also wasn’t ready. My sister had called to tell me that our mother had died in her apartment at the assisted living center where she lived since early 2020. Mom — Jean Ellen Wilson […]
No Bad Days: 50 X 2
Two Methow Valley-defining 50th anniversaries are being celebrated this month: the long-awaited 1972 opening of the North Cascades Scenic Highway, and the simultaneous “Westernization” of downtown Winthrop. In the half-century since, those two events have made a monumental difference in how the valley is perceived, enjoyed and lived in. Some people think that’s not necessarily […]