It’s 5 p.m., in other words it’s 75 minutes before first pitch of the Daily Record softball team’s game against the Tav. It’s our first game, and we basically have our debut against the Yankees of Ellensburg men’s slow-pitch. Oh well, it’s just the first game of many. My column this week will go deeper [...]

I was at the checkout in the grocery store, juggling the multiple cards I need to slide and trying to rapidly click through the requests for donations, so I wasn’t paying much attention to the clerk. I thought she asked me how the corn was and I told her it’s been pretty good this season. [...]

People like to complain about traveling — whether air travel or trains, but having taken Amtrak to Chicago, then traveled around Chicago on pretty much every form of transit, from trains to boats, and ending with a plane trip back to Seattle, I’d like to testify on the incredible efficiency of the American travel systems. [...]

Each week I spend probably a day or two or three, never more than five, trying to think up an idea for a column. If I’m really stumped some times I find it useful to look at the calendar. Often I’m inspired by discovering something like, “Hey, Christmas is next week.” Anyway, this week I [...]

It’s been a tough week for my sports heros. First came the death of the Thoroughbred Chinook Pass. I spent many a glorious afternoon as a teen watching the ninth and 10th races at Longacres. Entry to the track was free after the eighth race, so I’d either go with one of my uncles or [...]

I was listening to an interview with the lead singer of Green Day on NPR last week and it got me to thinking about music groups that do and don’t remain relevant. Green Day seems like a good band to me, they just came around slightly past the time I was listening to that type [...]

There will be a letter from Kurt Sharar in Thursday’s Daily Record, touching on this topic, but I thought I’d chip in a little early. Sharar’s letter addresses the notion that society is in the toilet because religion has been exorcised from the schools and that in the glory days of the 1940s and 1950s [...]

Those of you who read the Daily Record now know that those helicopters I’ve heard the past couple weeks and assumed to be the dreaded “black helicopters” employed by the U.N. for nefarious but never explained reasons were actually state Department of Natural Resources helicopters taking part in training for the upcoming fire season. Oh [...]

We live a few blocks from Kittitas Valley Community Hospital and can hear when the helicopters arrive and leave for medical transports. I haven’t heard that many lately, which is why I really noticed the heavy helicopter traffic at night these past few days. Although I haven’t checked the hospital calls that closely, I don’t [...]

I’m a little behind the curve on this one, but this past year I’ve become hooked on Pandora.com. Pandora is a website that allows you to build your own radio station. You select an artist and the website plays that group’s music plus music from similar artists. You can also add featured artist to expand [...]