Do something about the culvert
I’ve walked and driven by the Periwinkle Creek culvert countless times over the past 30 years, and never paid attention any attention to it. That changed last Wednesday night after Chris Wilgus’ 1992 Buick LeSabre was swept into the creek and the culvert, resulting in the deaths of Cathy Sue and Aiden McLaughlin and Maliki...
Flood coverage: Big changes since 1996
In the big flood of February 1996 when I was working as managing editor at the Democrat-Herald, we didn’t have a website. We launched one about two months later. We took lots of photos and had great daily news coverage, but it was hardly up-to-the-minute news. My how things have changed in 16 years. All...
A lucky day for Oregon Outdoors
Editor Hasso Hering stopped by my desk when he got in this morning and said, “Good timing.” He was referring to the January edition of Oregon Outdoors that came out this morning. The section wrapped around the main part of Monday’s paper. Hasso’s “good timing” comment refers to the snow sports and recreation photos submitted...
The goodbye, Candlestick, countdown
One of the greatest moments in the history of Candlestick Park happened 30 years ago today. I was the sports editor of the Democrat-Herald at the time, and I remember getting nothing done that Sunday afternoon. I was glued to the TV in the newsroom. With just a few minutes left in the NFC championship...
Christmas at Talking Water Gardens
It happens every Christmas. We wake up, open the presents, have a late breakfast, snooze a bit, grow weary of listening to the same Christmas albums we’ve played for the past month, and then get the itch to get out of the house. Today, instead of going to movie, we decided to take a hike...
Santa’s quiz
For 25 years, I’ve enjoyed playing the role of Santa Claus. This year, I donned my Santa suit for the annual Linn County Mental Health Christmas dinner Dec. 5 at First Christian Church, for a gathering of Gazette-Times staffers Dec. 17 at Woodstock’s Pizza in Corvallis and for the Democrat-Herald news department Dec. 21 at...
For the birds
The December issue of Oregon Outdoors comes out Monday. The cover story is on the Second Saturday field trip offered each Monday by the Audubon Society of Corvallis. I spent part of the morning of Nov. 12 with the 13 people who joined leader Bill Proebsting of Corvallis for the outing at the Luckiamute Landing...
At South Albany, a wonderful ‘Wizard of Oz’
As I listened to Jillian Alden play the role of Dorothy in ‘The Wizard of Oz’ on Saturday night, it struck me that she sounded amazingly like Judy Garland, who portrayed Dorothy in the classic 1939 movie. The talented South Albany senior has had plenty of exposure to Garland over the past year. Last December,...
‘Twas the stink before Christmas
I remember blogging last December about the night that my wife Nancy and I rode around looking at holiday lights. I stopped frequently, taking photos of various displays for the Mid-valley Holiday Lights feature that appeared online on our websites. It was a nice evening until I ran over a dead skunk on Palestine Drive...
Taking issue with the RS top 100 greatest guitarists issue
I’ve always argued that Carlos Santana is the greatest guitarist of all time. Jimi Hendrix would be second on my list. So when I opened the Dec. 8 issue of Rolling Stone, it ticked me off to see Santana listed as No. 20 in the magazine’s “100 Greatest Guitarists of All Time.” He deserves much...
Predictably out on a platypus limb once again: Beavers by 3
For years, I’ve identified with the animal that looks like a duck and a beaver. I don’t know if the Platypus Club exists, but I consider myself a member of it. I like the Ducks and the Beavers, about equally so. I graduated from the University of Oregon in 1975 and love my alma mater,...
Giving thanks for Paul Pritchard
It was a late Sunday night in March 2007 and we were hungry. The youth group and adult leaders from Albany First Christian Church had just spent six hours touring around New Orleans. We were driving back to McComb, Miss., where we would spend the next five days doing post-Hurricane Katrina fix-up projects. All we...
