We’ve all heard the phrase, “one bad apple ruins the whole bunch.” It’s an old school idiom. (Like, really old school … Shakespearean, maybe even earlier.) Benjamin Franklin’s “Poor Richard’s Almanack” (circa 1736) put it this way: “The rotten apple spoils his companion.” In these days when we buy a[Read More…]
Tag: Editor’s Column
Editor’s Column: Changing our minds
The man who never alters his opinion is like standing water, and breeds reptiles of the mind. ~ William blake Change is hard, and perhaps no kind of change is more difficult than that of changing our own minds. Our opinions are rooted in what we believe, and we are[Read More…]
Editor’s Column: Don’t get ‘free speech’ and ‘free press’ confused
While everyone is up in arms about decisions made by Twitter, Facebook and other tech giants to delete accounts or remove apps, let’s take a peek back in time. The Bill of Rights was ratified in 1791. Within just a few years legal cases surrounding the interpretation of the amendments[Read More…]
Editor’s Column: Maybe politics shouldn’t be a profit game
Anyone who thought politics was a slow-moving game, or dreadfully dull, has had that idea challenged this year. Now almost every political race is a neck-and-neck battle to the finish line (if a finish line can ever be agreed upon… how I miss those simpler times). It’s exciting when a[Read More…]
Editor’s Column: Good Riddance, 2020
When the pandemic kicked off last spring I said I thought this event was going to leave a mark. Little did I know at that point how deep that mark would go. I’m chalking 2020 up as the second worst year of my life (second only because no one in[Read More…]
Editor’s Column: One Good Thing
This has been a year of unusual events. The conjunction of Saturn and Jupiter in the night sky for the first time since 1226 A.D., is just one of those events. From our perspective on Earth, the two visible planets look very much like an unusually large star, much like[Read More…]
Editor’s Column: It’s a pressure cooker.
A quote from the Dec. 10, 1970, Rangely Times stands out: “Fifty years ago today this country was known as a melting pot. Today it resembles a pressure cooker.” Another 50 years down the road, we might be more of a melting pot, but we’re definitely still a pressure cooker.[Read More…]
Editor’s Column: Stigma, snowflakes, and sensationalizing
Last week when I wrote about finding gratitude, I wasn’t expecting to be quite so tested by that notion. I’ll begin with this: I am profoundly grateful for and proud of our local law enforcement and EMS crew and dispatch. We had an upsetting Thanksgiving eve that ended with my[Read More…]
Editors Column: Minor and major keys
I’ve never been very good at completing those “30 days of gratitude” lists people do in November, but if there’s ever been a year when we need to purposefully find the good around us and be grateful for it, this is the time. Many of the things we look forward[Read More…]
Editor’s Column: Denial has an ugly side
Denial isn’t a river in Egypt. (The Nile is a river in Egypt for those of you, like me, who don’t like puns.) I have no idea what living conditions are currently like in Egypt along the Nile, but I do know what living in denial is like. At first,[Read More…]
Editor’s Column: The election that made everyone unhappy
Regardless of how you filled out your ballot this year, there’s likely to be some election outcome that makes you unhappy, whether it’s who gets to go to (or stay in) D.C. or Denver, or one of the umpteen ballot measures. While Rio Blanco County voted as expected on most[Read More…]
Editor’s Column: Oct. 22, 2020
The only thing we can control Have you been “cutting yourself some slack” and “giving yourself a break” when it comes to your personal goals and commitments because of pandemic stress? Eating a little too much, or eating the wrong things? Drinking to excess (I mean, does day drinking really[Read More…]


