News you can use
News you can use
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This week’s recurring theme in my life is the thought experiment called Schrodinger’s cat. I’m going to do my best to explain the background of Schrodinger’s cat, but right off the bat, I want to make it clear that it’s called a thought experiment because no one actually did anything to an actual cat. So here’s the deal, Austrian physicist Erwin Schrodinger was trying to illustrate the difference between classical physics and some new-age level, mind-blowing physics that said...
A research laboratory in Hamilton, Rocky Mountain Laboratories, is a key part of the National Institutes of Health’s team of facilities that are studying the coronavirus that causes COVID-19. Described by the National Institutes of Health as a state-of-the-art biomedical facility, Rocky Mountain Laboratories was established in 1928 and has been instrumental in studying many diseases, including Rocky Mountain spotted fever, Q fever and Lyme disease, which the laboratories’ web...
The second winter after my husband, John, and I were married, we took in a stray cat that showed up on our place. She was a beautiful blue-eyed, sealpoint, Siamese-cross with lots of white markings, and at her heaviest she weighed 7 pounds, but she was all sinew, claws and attitude. Mostly attitude. Except that first month or so. We were in the middle of a subzero January cold spell when this emaciated thing came hobbling by me trying very unsuccessfully to catch an...
The Centers for Disease Control recommends disinfecting surfaces, but it helps to know a little more about products to get that done effectively and safely. Cleaning and disinfecting are two different things, the “Clean & Disinfect” guidance for households from the CDC says. Cleaning is the “removal of germs, dirt, and impurities from surfaces,” and it isn’t done to remove germs. It does lower germ numbers and lowers the risk of spreading infection. Disinfecting, on the other...
Signup deadline for Easter baskets distributed by the Havre Salvation Army and Havre Copmmunity Food Bank is March 31, and organizers are asking people who want to participate in the program to contact them by phone this year. “This year we’re doing it a little differently because of the social distancing (requirement),” Trina Crawford, Salvation Army director of emergency services, said. “We are going to do it all by phone calls, and if we are needing to see documen...
My hours spent actually in the office were moved around so I now come to work late at night or early in the morning, like, late-late or early-early when no one is there so that I can do my part to help us practice social distancing. I really don’t need much practice in social distancing — like practice-practice because I’m not good at it. No. It’s my natural state. I was born for this. I am joined by all the other socially awkward kids and adults in finally feeling a little...
If you want to know who to blame about this toilet paper hoarding craze in the midst of a pandemic that does not affect your gastrointestinal tract, blame a gang of knife-wielding men in Hong Kong. The Agence France-Presse reported the theft Feb. 17. Hong Kong, at the time, was experiencing shortages of many household staples, including hand sanitizers and some foods, due to panic-buying in Hong Kong early in February. I don’t know what fueled the theft of 600 rolls of t...
I have been working to better understand politics and — with Super Tuesday behind us and the Montana primary election still so far in the distance that we can’t see our relevance beyond our in-state races — I’ve stumbled across a New York Times article delving into voting processes in the animal kingdom. The article, “Sneezing dogs, dancing bees: How animals vote” by Elizabeth Preston, was cute, a lot cuter than you would expect out of the Times, which is known to publish nov...
Do you ever wonder if your priorities should be in the toilet? In a piece written for National Public Radio, Greg Rosalsky extolled the virtues of Japanese toilets, which are, apparently, miracles of modern technology. First, and foremost, the toilets have an integrated bidet that, if you don’t already know, gently hoses down your privates after you’re done with your business. They also come with a blow dryer, in case you were puzzling over the same issue I was. For extra ame...
I don’t want to make anyone uncomfortable by bragging about what went on in my bedroom earlier this week, or jealous of my under-the-covers escapades, but I feel the strong need to overshare: Tuesday night, I slept for six whole hours. That’s right, count ’em, six (6!) — six continuous, glorious, uninterrupted, peaceful, solid, sound hours of sleep. No getting up for the 3 a.m. potty break or just to move around, no waking up to roll over, no feline in my face request...
Several news sources have reported in the past two weeks that Tennessee state Rep. Micah Van Huss, R-Jonesborough, has taken his stance against “fake news” all the way to his state’s Legislature, in the form of a resolution that’s kind of like an official motion to make his disgust the official state sentiment about two major news sources. Van Huss’ House Joint Resolution 779 officially is “a resolution to recognize CNN and The Washington Post as fake news and condemn the...
When I was a wee small human, among my prized family possessions were an impressive 6-inch thick Webster’s dictionary and the full, multi-volume faux-leather bound Encyclopedia Britannica. One day, after a second-grade class lesson on home safety, I pulled all these books out and stacked them into manageable piles, so that I could determine how many trips it would take me to save all that information from a fire. Six. It would’ve taken six trips. Still, rescuing those boo...
I don’t mean to sound paranoid, but the United Nations has set out to ruin my entire year, and they’re pretending that they’re doing it for my well-being. Their website says that the United Nations General Assembly declared 2020 to be the International Year of Plant Health. I’m not making this up. They are. They said they’re doing this “to raise global awareness on how protecting plant health can help end hunger, reduce poverty, protect the environment and boost economic de...
My husband, John, and I do not have a stereotypical marriage. I hate to brag, but we are so much odder than that. A friend sent me a message a few weeks ago to say that she would try to let me know when her husband was coming to my house to pick up something — “Hopefully he lets me know what he’s thinking ... LOL!” she wrote. I replied with the obligatory laughing emojis, as if I totally understood where she was coming from. Chick solidarity and all. But, really, I wanted...
I once read advice from a well-respected author who said writers of fiction should pull details from their memories, not from current experiences. Specifically, she gave the example that winter scenes should be written during the summer months. Her thought process was something about how over time our brains will remember only the most vivid and impactful details, and then writers can tap into those memories to create richer stories. My trouble with the advice, and perhaps...
I made bread pudding yesterday — I know it’s not the rocket-science of baking and it’s not fancy, but I wanted to treat myself to one of my favorite foods. It was made extra-special because I used real-vanilla extract, and the bread pudding smelled divine. And when I say divine, I mean irresistible. While it was cooling on the counter I would actually pause in whatever I was doing, close my eyes, tilt my nose to the air a bit and inhale deeply, letting my breath out with...
A Maryland woman has proven that, when it comes to Christmas gifts, it’s not the giving that counts — it’s the giving, then taking it back and then cashing it in for $50,000 that really counts. Unified Payments International reported Dec. 27 that Deirdre Stokes of Maryland bought some scratch-off lottery tickets as Christmas presents and the one that she bought her husband was a $50,000 winner. She said she only buys tickets around Christmastime to give as little gifts for f...
As you take stock of the past year and look forward to the new one along with the renewed hope for the future that it brings, I urge you to consider the traits you wish to develop in the future — traits that will help you become a better human. I have already begun this process by compiling a list of the top three animal traits I would like to have to make me not just a better human, but a super human. Play along with your own list if you wish. I warn you, though, to c...
Havre Beneath the Streets will be holding its Holiday Special through Dec. 31. With the museum decorated for the holidays, Beneath the Streets is offering lower prices to bring people in to share the holiday spirit, staff said. Prices during the special are $10 for 12-year-olds and older, $9 for 4- to 11-year-olds, and free for children 3 and younger. Beneath the Streets is open 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. Monday through Saturday with tours at 10:30 a.m., 1 p.m., and 2:30 p.m. With the...
I grew up in the “Bewitched” era, and that after-school TV fantasy sitcom probably ruined me forever. I have believed in magic ever since. I’ve looked for it, longed for it. I was absolutely sure that if I could get my nose to wiggle side to side I could do magic. Not card trick and sawing women in half magic, I’m talking real magic — disappearing, doing all my chores done in a blink of an eye and conjuring a flying horse. I wasn’t messing around with this goal. I worked at i...
Winter might seem to be an unlikely time to think about gardening, but Montana State University Hill County Extension Office is hosting free gardening workshops this winter to help prepare people to care for soils, lawns, flowers, vegetables, trees and fruits in the coming growing season. The first workshop is Wednesday at 6 p.m. in the Timmons Room on the bottom floor of the Hill County Courthouse. Hill County Extension Agent Tom Allen, who is teaching the four workshops on...
It occurred to me this week that, as I have been watching my dog, Cooper, negotiate his way through his elder years, if Cooper were a human I would recognize him immediately. As a dog, he looks exactly like his breeding, a gray Schnauzer and something-black-and-tan-ish cross, with a full beard, perky ears, wiry-haired legs and a pair of wild old-man eyebrows. At 45 pounds, the “something” in his lineage was obviously bigger than his 15-pound miniature Schnauzer mother. An olde...
I shamefully have to admit that my husband, John, and I have been participating in a long-standing act of profiling. It started innocently enough, as these acts often do. It is a game, a kind of new-age slug-bug game when we’re driving together. Instead of trying to spot the Volkswagon Bug first, we compete to be the first person to point out white vans, and some of the sketchy looking other-colored ones, and say “Un-sub!” because 1) It’s hard to find a VW Bug anymore...
I don’t ice fish. I don’t enjoy winter enough to stand on ice watching a bobber do nothing, and I’m not a good enough drinker to sit in an ice house trying to drink that bobber under the water table. Dad used to take us ice fishing when we were kids. I don’t know how he and Mom thought it was worth it. I guess they didn’t know any better. The day started well before dawn, especially the times we were taking the snowmobile into a snowed-in lake. Dad, Mom, Brother and I would b...
Traditionally, I shy away from anything that reeks of studied analysis of my psyche, but I was recently tricked into taking a three-question quiz because I thought it was just a funny thing. I mean, three little questions delivered by a comedian, how serious can that be? Then the person said noted father of psychoanalysis Sigmund Freud came up with this quiz. That’s unconfirmed. Either way, it’s simple. It’s three questions. How painful can that be? You have been forew...
