Whatchamacolumn: Caution urged with using Social Security chainsaw
Get ready for some numbers about Social Security and aging Americans — if you don’t care for statistics, you might consider skipping this article. First, let’s warm up with some figures ...
Quirk: ‘Visible spectrums,’ be they fleeting or ageless rainbows, add vivid local color
Talk of rainbows and pots of gold made the rounds this week. While no such discoveries were reported, some reliable rainbow sightings can be documented. It turns out that around McMinnville, a trove of ...
Barrett Rainey: Memories of icy Greenland belie the renewed interest
For me, the mention of that name brings back mixed memories. That’s because I spent 11 months and 14 days there some 65 years ago.
Investigating the Bible: Does each child have an angel?
Children surprise us. A young child had a school assignment. She asked her mother where she came from. Her mother said, “A stork brought you.”
She then asked, “Where did you come from, Mommy?” Her mother said, “I was found in a cabbage patch.”
The Conversation: Foundational scientific theory under attack in statehouses
Scientific theory has had a rough time in America’s public schools.
Almost 100 years ago, John Scopes was convicted of violating a Tennessee law prohibiting teaching the theory of evolution. Although his conviction was overturned on a technicality in 1927, laws banning classes on Darwin’s theory stuck around for another 40 years — until being ruled unconstitutional by the Supreme Court in 1968.
Whatchamacolumn: Commentary comes easily in a turbulent world
When it comes to commentary, we are living in a target-rich environment. Let’s start local: If people contact authorities about a hybrid wolf pack prowling school playground areas and killing neighborhood ...
PeaceVoice: Good governance is a vital American value
By STEPHANIE GASIOR Growing up, my dad told me the best job I could ever have would be working for the government. He identified three clear reasons: stability, benefits and impact. Perhaps unsurprisingly, ...
Starla Pointer: Best of intentions need to be built into daily routine
I’ve had a few sunburns in my life, including while playing as a child and while covering afternoon graduations from seats on the track, rather than in the grandstand. But as a lifelong Oregonian, ...
Investigating the Bible: Recognize anger, don’t bury it
Anger is usually easy to recognize. Sociologists found that anger’s facial expression is universal. They traveled to a remote tribe in New Guinea and their photograph of an angry native man showed a furrowed brow and clenched jaw. When seen in others or felt ourselves, the Bible offers guidance on anger.
Quirk of the Week: Running the table of element-inspired names
It’s a case of widespread Quirk this week — the large number of local businesses named for earth, wood, water and other elements. We mean from the soil to the sky: literally, from The Ground ...
Whatchamacolumn: Trump creating needed jobs in national media
As a news reporter, Donald Trump would be warned and monitored, then fired; as a newspaper editorial writer, he simply would be terminated for cause. But as president of the United States, he is creating ...
Anna Marrant Barsotti: Lamenting loss of rangers to unlock nature's wonders
I was recently at the beach, just approaching the Yaquina Head visitor booth, when a “hydrologic event” hit. The ranger apologized that the normal hours had been shortened, as half of the frontline ...
Investigating the Bible: A child became the teacher
Draymond Green is a six-foot-six-inch powerhouse player on the Golden State Warriors. For his many fights, fouls, and floppings (pretending to be fouled), he was indefinitely suspended by the NBA.
Quirk of the Week: Yoda, Barbie, Buzz and Mickey charm kids, and staff, at local Bottle Drop
Rows of familiar faces — dinosaurs, monkeys, princesses, trolls, ponies, dogs, hedgehogs, and more — are found in an unlikely place in McMinnville. But it’s not a toy store, collectibles ...
Barrett Rainey: Echoes sound from detention of young Japanese classmates
A long time ago — 1942 to be exact — I was in the second grade at East Wenatchee Grade School in Washington. Remember your second-grade classroom? A wall of windows, a wall of blackboards. ...
