Letter to Readers: Line dancing class of one just fine
Sometimes a line of dancers starts with a solo. On a recent Saturday afternoon, line dancing teachers Patsy and Mark Johnson, from McMinnville, welcomed a new adherent to moves such as the Electric ...
Guest Commentary: He's not what he seems; it's time to turn the page
By PHIL FORVE Retired agribusiness executive My mother used to say, “Fool me once, the shame is on you. Fool me twice, the shame is on me!” She meant that I should trust people ...
Whatchamacolumn: Nostalgia can generate restorative power
Merriam-Webster defines “nostalgia” as “a wistful or excessively sentimental yearning for return to or of some past period or irrecoverable condition.” One thesaurus compares ...
Investigating the Bible: What about civil disobedience?
By DAVID CARSON PASTOR America has a history of disobedience. At the 1773 Boston Tea Party, rebels tossed a shipment of British tea into the ocean to protest government taxation without representation. ...
Bladine: A tale of two readers and new N-R e-editions
Some will embrace our “big change”; others will cancel their subscriptions. Some will accept one weekly printed issue and shun e-editions; others will begrudgingly join the world of digital ...
Sal Peralta and Tanya Tomkins: Newspaper plays key role in connecting our communities
A big part of what makes McMinnville such a wonderful place to live is the remarkable degree to which people here — and, indeed, in its neighboring Yamhill Valley communities — are connected in community to one another.
The Conversation: Kissinger's Chilean obsession enabled enduring dictatorship
By JORGE HEINE Of Boston University Noticing my nonappearance at the start of a black-tie dinner at the Johannesburg home of mining magnate Harry Oppenheimer, Africa’s richest man, the host ...
Back, and Forth: New 'Calendar of Quirk' coming in the new year
Consider the Quirk around us: The Bigfoot of Whiteson, “Fred’s Old Fashioned Garage” and City Park’s mixed-up historical signs. Starting with our e-edition of Jan. 3, we’ll ...
Investigating The Bible: The meaning behind the words
Cultures give vastly different meanings to common words. The Shilluk people in Sudan say a stingy person has a big heart and a generous person has a small heart. This seems illogical until we understand their reasoning: A selfish person never shares with others and has a heart that grows big with possessions, whereas a person who always gives to others has little left and therefore has a tiny heart.
Whatchamacolumn: For Linfield, a time of transformation
It’s transformation time at Linfield University, where prolonged years of turmoil are evolving into a series of institutional and operational changes. But turbulence continues to bubble beneath the ...
Guest Commentary: Missed communication could be the death of us
By BARRETT RAINEY Retired broadcast journalist Many, many years ago, the only uncle I ever had told me to get into mass communication when I grew up. He said this was the “coming field” ...
Leland Thoburn: The first freedom
Across the world we’re hearing calls for a marriage between government and religion. In many countries, this is neither new nor surprising. To hear these calls in the United States is another matter. We ...
Eric Schuck: Review of resume prompts mid-career reflection
Was it restlessness? Curiosity? Whether the choice flowed from one, both or neither is immaterial now. I updated my resume. Admittedly, that’s not a terribly radical action for most people. But ...
Whatchamacolumn: Finding the best holiday message
“Merry Christmas and a happy New Year.” We often join those sentiments into one greeting about two very different celebrations: One observes the birth of Christ augmented by the human warmth ...
Back, and Forth: A bright season, guided by 8s
In 1978, as a cynical college sophomore, I wrote something dour about Christmas decorations. As Bob Dylan once mused, “I was so much older then, I’m younger than that now.” It had something ...