News you can use
News you can use
Sorted by date Results 1394 - 1418 of 3210
Times Were Simpler We like to imagine Times were simpler then. We brag to grandchildren, Honey, when I was your age I walked a mile To school every day, Barefoot, through the snow, Uphill both ways. They laugh. We romanticize the past, Ignore ugly parts, piece a mosaic Of what we wish to keep. If only we could turn back The clock a hundred years … Times were no different. Wars, inequity, cruelty, Hatred, disease … The same. We were simpler then. Poetry? Ewww. Not that awful incomprehensible stuff we were forced to read in hig...
She wore it for one day in 1919 and it looked as if it was sewn with this in mind. My grandma’s wedding dress was more than a little worse for wear. It had been folded up in a small box and kept safe by my cousin, Jill. (How Jill ended up with it, I do not know.) I’m guessing the dress was sewn by a relative of my grandma’s, maybe a sister or one of her many cousins. There was no lining, no reinforcement of any seam. There were raw edges inside. Much of the dress was held toge...
Professional skateboarder Mitchell “Mitchie” Brusco, 22, competing Saturday in Skateboard Big Air at the X Games Minneapolis 2019, became the first skateboarder in history of the world to land a 1260 in the competition. That’s a spin of 3.5 rotations. Did anyone imagine such a thing could be done in the beginning? Skateboarding is relatively new in the history of sports. Sure the wheel has been around literally for ages, but it wasn’t until the 1940s that someone yanked...
There’s a simple principle savvy citizens use when evaluating politicians: to understand their priorities, don’t pay attention to what they say or how they vote during the re-election cycle. Focus on the voting record from earlier in their term. That’s an important thing for Montanans to remember about Sen. Steve Daines in all areas, but especially in relation to public lands, wildlife habitat and public access. His recent, re-election rhetoric doesn’t match his record. He’s currently crowing about his support for the Land...
Do you ever wonder if the big ol’ sun up there looks down and thinks, “Those are some mighty strange beings down on that little ball of mud, especially that one there, standing by the mango tree, looking up in the sky and trying to puzzle out the unfigurable”? (Not only can I anthropomorphize with the best, I’m good at making up words.) I can smell the moisture in the air. Morning is heavy with fog. The afternoon hot and sticky. The clouds split and gallop along the mountai...
The surprises just kept coming. When I moved in with Peter a few years back, I brought my clothes, a few books, and some artwork. I rented out my house, gave away my furniture, and everything else was consigned to “things I’ll deal with later,” a pile which — mysteriously — did not shrink with time. These stacked plastic boxes were still in my barn, still waiting for me, long after I’d forgotten what was in them or cared. But I am going to put the property up for sale and it...
His sensational investigation of the Teapot Dome scandal made Montana U.S. Sen. Thomas Walsh a national figure, known for his ironclad honesty, and his earnestly disciplined approach to his senatorial duties. There is no known picture of him smiling. With my interest in Montana history, I’ve made a practice of meeting and interviewing Montana historical figures. I met Walsh’s granddaughter Elin Gudger Parks through my acquaintance with the family of Walsh’s contemporary U.S. Sen. Burton K. Wheeler. The Walshes and Wheel...
The summer months are often filled with car events for Judy and me, and this summer holds true. We attended the June Geraldine Fun Days and car show in Geraldine. A friend of ours, Bob Farmer, who was promoting the event, invited us to bring our 1969 AMX. He had worked on the car for us quite a few years back in Havre. We ran into him in town and he asked if I knew where the car had ended up. As luck has it, we still own the unit, bought by my brother new and had the wherewithal to keep it all these years. Bob told us to...
Many ancient and traditional medicinal recipes call for animal parts, but modern medicine has its share of animal ingredients, too, and I ain’t just talking about how grandma told you chicken soup would cure your cold. From bear gallbladders to tiger testicles, bird beaks to fish bladders and deer eyes to alligator skin, animal body parts in traditional medicines are believed to cure everything from acne to cancer, malaria to erectile dysfunction and phlegmy lungs to organ f...
Yesterday my computer went strange on me, would not let me make any of my usual connections. So after trying everything I knew (not much) I phoned my son for help. Ben was at work, so he said he’d call me to fix it when he got home. A few hours later, I thought to give it one more futile try. Obviously, the dang bugger heard me make the call to Ben, quaked in its reboots and fixed itself. My errant computer was a small glitch in my day. Even with the importance my computer h...
Nobody was using the old wren house. My grandfather built it. Grandpa started building birdhouses when he retired from milking cows and his second oldest son took over. That son, my mother’s brother, is now 87 and retired 20 years ago. It’s a pretty old birdhouse. “My dad never built fancy birdhouses,” my mother explained. Grandpa put on a tarpaper roof and, if you needed to clean it out, you had to unscrew the back. But they were sweet little birdhouses, painted bright...
When I was about 15 years old a friend of my family rode his 10-speed bicycle on a 330-mile road trip from Salmon, Idaho, to our home in northwest Montana and then home again — a 660-miles that took about a week each way, averaging something under 50 miles per day. He was 16 years old, and this was in the dark ages before cellphones and internet. He had to use quarters in pay phones and know how to fold paper maps. I remember admiring that he even conceived of doing such a t...
DNA and ancestry search sites are the latest greatest. I’m not sure I want unknown relatives crawling out of the woodwork. The relatives I know are scary enough. Of my background, I know I am predominately British American (English, Welsh, Scotch, Irish) with added German from Dad’s side and French (Brittany) and a secret on Mom’s side. That is to say, mongrel. Cousin Nancie and I have spent the last two weeks talking about our shared maternal family. Nancie and I did not m...
I’ve been having my husband, Peter, cut my hair. I’m not sure I would recommend this to everyone, but I have almost no hair. Actually, I have the usual number of hairs, but they are so fine that a hair that falls from my head into the sink is invisible to the naked eye. Peter cuts his own hair and kept insisting he could cut mine. I was waiting weeks to get an appointment with a stylist and, when I finally got in, pay an extraordinary amount per milligram of hair cut. The hai...
“These are the times that try men’s souls,” as true today as in Thomas Paine’s time. Each day our president trashes something important to the continuation of the longest functioning Democracy in the world. An independent judiciary, designed by our founders, is an essential element of checks and balances. For Trump it is simply an irritant, to be overcome by appointing as many extremist judges into lifetime positions as he can, regardless of their qualifications. He only praises a court if it affirms his position. He condemns...
I’ve met Montana Sen. Steve Daines a few times. I’m a constituent. Although I don’t agree with him on a lot of issues, he always seemed nice, professional and respectful. He was good to my son Cory, who has Duchenne Muscular Dystrophy. Once, when Daines was still a congressman, my son and I visited his office in Washington D.C. to persuade him to support the renewal of the Muscular Dystrophy Care Act. He did, and even called Cory days later to personally tell him about it. He took Cory out onto the House floor, let him cast a...
The biggest problem with living a secluded lifestyle in the country is that you forget about the possibility of visitors, how to fit other living beings into the sum total of your day, or that you need to look in a mirror before opening the front door. At about 5 a.m. on July 5, I was awakened from a sound sleep by a sharp knock on the door. I’d stayed up late because fireworks and horses don’t really mix. I’d gotten the horses settled down soon after the first bangs, booms...
I was sitting on my front patio talking with my gardener, Leo, when a velvety brown bat fluttered between us and landed in a hollow metal rafter supporting the patio roof. Ah, I had wondered if bats might be moving in. This morning there were figs on the floor below the bat perch. (Figs in full, figs in processed form, but identifiable by seeds.) Several neighbors have false fig trees which drop a nasty fruit, not a true fig. Bats haul these fruits to their perches but drop...
It was my birthday this week. Those of you with summer birthdays know it’s a little different. In the middle of March, everyone says, “Wow! A birthday party!” You bring treats to school and everyone is happy for an excuse to celebrate. It’s different for the summer kids. Everyone is already busy with vacations and visitors and then, somewhere in the middle of all that, someone says, “Oh! It’s Carrie’s birthday, isn’t it?” My birthday was particularly unreliable becaus...
By nature and nurture, I like just enough drama to make a good story. That’s the hallmark of a life being lived correctly — whether it’s a win-event or a fail, it’s all OK as long as the story is worth telling. What I don’t like, and I think pretty much everyone will agree with me on this, is a story that is whiny. A story that, even in print, has the sound of a sleepy, petulant toddler explaining that she can’t eat her lunch and go take a nap because the noodles in her mac-n-...
Here in this high plateau valley surrounded by mountains, in the rainy season, roughly mid-June through mid-October, the sky bursts with pyrotechnic activity nearly every night. I like storms. I like the beauty of lightning skittering across night sky. I like the rumble of thunder. Storms do not scare me. I admit, there are times I’ve nearly jumped out of my skin at a sudden clap of thunder directly overhead but that is simply a startle reflex. Rain pounding on the roof c...
I’m having fun singing. I started singing lessons a few weeks ago. My teacher lives out of town, but every other week she teaches in her parents’ house — the house she grew up in — just a few minutes away. So, I drive to a little house in the suburbs, meet her parents’ two friendly little dogs, (“More people! So exciting!”) and take an hour-long voice lesson in my teacher’s childhood bedroom. I stand next to an auxiliary refrigerator, put my purse on a storage cabinet, and fa...
The summer is on and going quickly. Having all four kids home for our oldest grandson’s graduation was great. J.R., the graduate, had served as page at the Legislature this year. We shared some stories about that and had an opportunity to all float the Marias River. The float included 10 of the 11 grandkids, the four kids, some of the spouses, and lots of family friends. I have been going to some informational meetings, including MACo — Montana Association of Counties. Montana Gas, Oil, Coal Counties had their annual mee...
“Your dad and my dad were friends,” said long-time family friend Connie Cox. I’ve known Connie Cox all of my life. I remember the day he landed in the field just south of our house and treated my brother and me to our first airplane ride. Our family friendship was reunited a few years ago when I happened to run into him and asked, “So what have you been up to Connie?” “Oh, just looking for some pasture for some horses,” he answered. Well, I know a good deal when I see one so I answered, “We’ve got the pasture. Bring ou...
Jim picked me up at the airport in Guadalajara. Once we exited the labyrinth of parking and hit the straightaway, I requested, “Tell me all the news.” “There is no news,” Jim responded. “Everything is the same as when you left.” I’d been gone a month, so I treated his statement with skepticism. And over the course of the trip home learned much. Among several small rains, two devastating storms hit our town. Trees and branches down all around. We had driven a mere five kilometers down the road when the sky opened. At ti...
