How far that little candle throws his beams! So shines a good deed in a weary world. ~ William Shakespeare The best thing about this time of year isn’t the gifts or the decorations or the obligatory holiday parties (definitely not the best part). It’s certainly not the media hyperbole[Read More…]
Opinion
Guest Column: Thank you, voters
To the voters of Colorado’s 8th State Senate District: thank you. Last month, tens of thousands of voters across Central and Northwest Colorado filled out their ballots with our state’s future in mind, and I am honored to have earned your trust to serve as your next State Senator. Whether[Read More…]
Guest Column: TSA
This holiday season, you may be crisscrossing the country by air. Rules change constantly, so my wife Tracy checked the latest and greatest TSA rules for what we could pack. She was reading some of the more bizarre items to me. I thought they would make a good laugh at[Read More…]
LOOSE ENDS: Hurried holidays
Time feels as if it is speeding up. It is common knowledge that this general feeling, of being behind before one has even started, takes over as one ages. Unfortunately after the lengthy siege of various forms of the pandemic, the off-balance feeling that one gets that time is snapping[Read More…]
EDITOR’S COLUMN: The words of 2022
The word “gaslighting” had a 1,740% increase in lookups in 2022, prompting the folks at Merriam-Webster Dictionary to officially deem it the “word of the year.” Gaslighting is defined as “the act or practice of grossly misleading someone especially for one’s own advantage.” It stems from a 1938 movie called[Read More…]
Remembering Mike
Family man, loyal friend, and active community member are only a few of the words describing our community’s most recent loss of a good man. Mike Cook has always been a man behind the scenes in the community, offering his help to family, friends, and many strangers in his longtime[Read More…]
Christmas movies
As you have gathered from some of my other stories, much of my life has been influenced by movies. Seen on either TV repeats, VHS tapes, or now the almost extinct DVD. Tracy and I have most of the Star Wars character lines memorized. An off-hand comment often triggers a[Read More…]
LETTER TO THE EDITOR: Thanks from Michigan hunter
Dear Editor: On Wednesday, Nov. 2, 2022, I strayed northeast of my intended elk hunt drive instead of northwest as discussed in camp. My estimated time of arrival with my other hunters should have been 11:30 a.m. Instead, I continued to walk and hunt into the middle of the afternoon.[Read More…]
LOOSE ENDS: Zoom, Zoom
Traveling to see family during the holidays continues to be a number one priority for so many folks. This results in quite a few unexpected glitches — before, after, and in between travel of any sort. The gradual reopening of popular public destinations for both tourists and locals alike made[Read More…]
LETTERS TO THE EDITOR: Dec 1, 2022
Conservancy District’s lack of transparency troubling Dear Editor: The issues of water security for our community are too important to be decided behind closed doors. As a fiscally conservative citizen and owner of a local business and of water rights, I wonder what other Rio Blanco county citizens think about[Read More…]
EDITOR’S COLUMN: Comfortable history
History never repeats itself, but the Kaleidoscopic combinations of the pictured present often seem to be constructed out of the broken fragments of antique legends. ~ from the novel “The Gilded Age: A Tale of To-Day” by Mark Twain and Charles Dudley Warner, 1874 There’s something comforting about history, despite[Read More…]
My ancestor invented the Christmas card in England!
OK, I am stretching the truth a bit. Joseph Cundall was my first cousin five times removed and he didn’t design the first card. But he did print the first commercial Christmas postcard for Sir Henry Cole in London in 1843. So, I am almost famous! Old Joe recognized the[Read More…]
