News you can use
News you can use
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The fruit lady has my number. One of the things I like in Mexico — and other countries we have visited in the past — is buying fruits and vegetables from a stand, run by a family. I love wandering through the market, looking at all the unfamiliar things and asking questions. “Is this for today or for tomorrow?” I ask in Spanish, wondering if it is ripe enough to eat immediately. The fruit vendors know when something is ripe. I load up my bags with papaya and little sweet b...
The rollout of a proposal by one of North America’s biggest ski developers to triple the size of Holland Lake Lodge and bring industrial tourism and commercial recreation to the rural, wildlife-rich Swan Valley in western Montana was a complete and utter disaster. After two months of vehement public opposition, the expansion proposal by POWDR, the Utah-based ski developer that promotes “soulful” experiences through high-impact recreation, fell to earth in flames — like the 1937 Hindenburg dirigible disaster in New Jersey....
Now that I have a backsplash behind my stove and I’m not spending my time obsessively wiping grease splatters from my freshly painted wall as if I like to clean, I can think about things other than my own chaos, like bees. Yes, bees. Honeybees, in fact. I know. It’s exactly zero degrees out as I write this and who thinks of bees at this time of year in the northern tier of the U.S.? Beekeepers, that’s who, and a few cops in Massachusetts, but I’ve gotten ahead of myself...
The other day I said, “I was worried that Jane (nearly 95 and frail) might not hold up during your special dinner at the restaurant.” Immediately I was scolded, “No, no, no. Don’t say that. That is a negative thought. We don’t need negative thoughts. That is bad.” Whoa on me. I was taken aback. And I felt uncomfortable. I hadn’t meant that I was immersed in worry, sending sure death pulsing into the Universe. I’d had a fleeting thought, perhaps improperly expressed, that my fr...
It’s an odd experience watching someone fold your underwear. I was thinking this yesterday as I was waiting for my laundry. When my husband, Peter, and I packed to go to Mexico, we knew there would be a wide range of temperatures. San Miguel de Allende is in the mountains, so the days can be quite hot, and the nights can be cold, and the weather changes a lot in November everywhere, so we had to be prepared for anything. We do not have a washing machine in the little place we...
I didn’t even know that cat pheromone diffusers existed. Really, who thinks of making an electricity driven device that dispenses feline happy-pheromones, so how was I supposed to know that I should have one for my cat, Tony-O. I mean, it sounds like something Hollywood made up to solve a problem in a movie or TV series. Like, they really like the stressed-cat backstory, but in the scene before the pivotal scene for the main character they need the cat bit to fade from focus s...
I remember the Thanksgiving when Ben first brought his girlfriend, Shea, to dinner. We had the traditional meal, turkey nicely browned, all the side dishes. I asked everyone to share some one thing they felt especially thankful for that day. Years later my daughter-in-law, Shea, told me how my request had terrified her. None of her family talked about gratitude. Poor Shea. On top of being scared to share something personal, she had been scared to meet me. My children! Both of...
My husband, Peter, and I feel like social butterflies. We certainly are not. But it feels as if we are because we are staying in a new city and finding it is easier to make new friends than any time since we were children. When Peter and I moved back to Minnesota to be closer to our family, we missed our old routines and the friends we used to spend time with. Moving to a new city did not bring with it a lot of new friends. Everyone already had friends. Peter and I saw a lot...
As our district and our community pay tribute to Craig Mueller Saturday, I would like to take this opportunity to say thank you, something I wish I could have said more often. Craig was an incredible ambassador for Havre Public Schools, and as someone who has coached in the district for 20-plus years now, I couldn’t be more appreciative for the way he worked diligently to help make HPS and everything within our system what it is today. I got to know Craig first as a principal...
Turns out, change can be like fertilizer for the brain. I was in a rut. Then I moved into a home that’s very much under construction, and now life is a struggle to achieve an average, everyday level of existence. The drama from last week continues, but we’re better fed. The biggest update on our move into the home construction zone is that we now have a stove. I know it’s rude to brag, but I just have to gush about the fact that the stove has an oven, too. We’re trying to stay grounded, cook simple foods that the common...
Michelle, knowing me to be, shall we say, frugal, loaned me a copy of a reprinted book entitled “The American Frugal Housewife.” The book, written by Lydia Child, was first published in 1833. Dedicated to Those Who Are Not Ashamed of Economy. In caps. Mrs. Child wrote the lyrics, but was not well known, but wrote a song for children, “Over the river and through the woods, to Grandmother’s house we go.” Anyone my generation knows that song. I’m sure you youngsters can find it o...
Dear editor, Last month, at a constituent town hall, Sen. Jon Tester stood up for patients not just in Montana, but across the country. He said pharmacy benefit managers — PBMs — have been preying on our pharmacies and Medicare patients for years, and he cannot identify any real value that they bring to the health care space. I appreciate that our senator is being so vocal about this issue because I couldn’t agree more. For the last serval years, PBMs and their sneaky practices have gone under the radar. For far too long...
Firstly, I want to take a moment to recognize our veterans. Many Montanans, including myself, have served in a branch of our military. I am proud to be a veteran and thankful to every single one of you who have kept our country safe through your sacrifice, combat duty, and dedication to protecting our country and our freedom. Well, the 2022 election is over. I want to thank everyone for the great support in this past general election, with a special thanks to folks who allowed a campaign sign on their property. The wind did...
After 33 years of threatening to leave our ancient, cheap trailer house, it finally took charge and kicked us out — which seems like an appropriately blunt-edged end to an often-contentious era and an appropriately chaotic beginning to the next. My husband, John, started the whole thing. I don’t mean that as an accusation, I’m just saying that after five years of plugging away at converting part of our big shop into a house and three years of him telling everyone that we’re...
Sunday, here in Mexico, we pushed time back an hour. Whew. Hard work, pushing. Guess what? It’s the Last Time. I don’t mean the End of Times. Or the end of time, as relative a concept as time happens to be. The Mexican governing body voted to hang out in Standard Time, forever and ever, amen. I’m happy with that decision. I have no reason to complain. I don’t live by the clock. I don’t need to get up at zero-dark-thirty to go to work. Nevertheless, I’m happy to stay on one...
I am delighted to report that my mother has come around. I have been lobbying my mother for months to take pity on a little red squirrel who had acquired a great fondness for her, demonstrating his devotion by digging up all her flowerpots and gazing at her for minutes at a time through the window. My mother spent the summer shooing him off the deck and telling him to “scram” when she saw him through the window. “He loves you, Mom.” “I don’t love him!” The little squirr...
Me on Wednesday: I should never, ever, ever listen to myself when I have an idea. Ever. I know this, and yet, I fall for it over and over, again. Repeatedly. Fair enough, I really do know better than to listen to myself. Or I should know that. After all the injuries — physical, mental and emotional. All the wrong roads followed, both actual and metaphorical. All the pride swallowed, the dignity lost, the ego trammeled. After all these years, I still get pulled in by myself s...
As medical students wanting to practice medicine in Montana, it is chilling to see LR-131 on our ballot. This initiative would put medical workers at risk when they provide compassionate care for infants who are born too early to survive or have life-limiting birth defects. We are likely to second-guess our intention to practice medicine in Montana if we can be criminalized and prosecuted for providing medical care that is within the scope of our practice, and the best possible care for our patients’ needs. Parents e...
I have loved the state of Montana since I moved here in the fall of 1990. Nothing has ever made me wonder if I should move until now. I have had three children born in Havre and raised them all here. I am the only useful parent my children have. I’m still very active in their lives. There is a referendum proposed in the upcoming Montana election that would threaten my freedom to provide health care to Havre and the surrounding communities. And it threatens my freedom to be an important part of my children’s lives. You may won...
As the campaign season winds down and we cast our ballots, I want to thank the residents of House District 28 for the kindness they have shown me over the past several months as I have listened to their hopes and ideas for a better Montana. It’s energizing and hopeful discussing the future of our state as I’ve taken my campaign to the porches, driveways, garages and lawns of folks in and around Havre. If there’s one resounding, consistent message I’ve heard over and over again from people of every political persuas...
America, and Montanans in particular, are blessed to stand on the shoulders of giants. Fortunately for us, wise and brave leaders have shown us the way forward to fulfill the idea and ideals of America. While our country has fallen short of those lofty goals from time to time, those aims are true and worthy of pursuit. And America soldiers on. As a young girl, I thrilled to the courage and wisdom of American leaders, long dead, whose thoughts and actions provided a road map to America, the beacon of hope to our world. I...
My husband, Peter, says they are rushing the season. I’m not sure who “they” are. The Christmas Cartel, perhaps. The vast conspiracy of premature holiday merrymakers. Whoever they are, Peter does not approve. And he does have a point. There are still life-size skeletons scaling the walls of a huge brick house I walk by every day. The remains of jack-o’-lanterns are still sitting on the stoops — although the squirrels have eaten off most of their faces, making them much scarier...
Nov. 8, my fellow Montana voters and I will decide on a ballot measure that will have devastating implications for pregnant patients and their families. LR-131, or the “Born-Alive Infant Protection Act,” would introduce extreme consequences for clinicians who provide compassionate care for dying infants Proponents of LR-131 will tell you this measure will save babies. And they will tell you that the devastating pregnancy complications that lead to infant loss are “mythical situations.” As a high risk obstetrician who has bee...
Montana health care providers shouldn’t face extreme felony penalties when providing compassionate medical care. That’s why our state’s health care leaders ask you to vote no on ballot initiative LR-131. Montanans will find the initiative LR-131, known as the Born-Alive Infant Protection Act, on the back of their ballots, placed there by the 2021 Montana Legislature. As medical experts concerned about misleading information surrounding LR-131, we’d like to make the message clear — the measure poses harm to both families...
Just be yourself. You are who you were born to be. You are unique and wonderful, don’t ever change. You’re never going to change, are you. Are you? A popular, widely supported theory about personality is that five traits pretty much account for our entire personality: neuroticism, extraversion, openness to experience, agreeableness and conscientiousness. Don’t worry, each trait is measured on a scale, not as an either/or situation. Yes, the science world agrees that we are a...
