Good Thoughts for a New Year By Marylyn Cork Autumn in northern Idaho this year was truly a joy. It made up for many of the excesses and deprivations of the rest of the year. The colors were
By a Budding Femme Fatale By Steve Carr I spent three days in band class. Before my first day as a bussed seventh-grade student at O.E. Bell Junior High in Idaho Falls, I guess I was supposed to
Summer Ablaze By Marylyn Cork We had a bit of excitement here in Priest River this summer. On a hot day, wildfire broke out in a timbered, well-settled area only three miles from town. Lots of people, homes
And Be a Winner By Steve Carr I was up early on a Saturday, a not wholly unpleasant phenomenon of middle age, and tiptoed outside to spy on a pairing of Jupiter with a crescent moon just before
A Parched Hunting Season By Marylyn Cork The other evening I glanced out my bedroom window just in time to see my coal-black cat running for his life from a mountain lion hot on his tail. The lion
Desperate to Hook a Keeper By Steve Carr My impassioned fisherman friend catches more fish than I. By making his art a science, he has found more joy in the hobby. He reads the river, the weather, and
The Vaccinated Gather By Marylyn Cork Mother’s Day on May 9 was almost, but not quite, just another day. Oh, we partied a lot, “we” meaning my family and friends. And we ate a lot, too. But we
Remember Who You Are By Steve Carr Thinking about Father’s Day, the third Sunday in June, reminds me that both my parents came from families with long histories of spotty churchgoing traditions. Although Dad preferred to ski or
Taken by Storm By Marylyn Cork My siblings and I grew up near Round Lake State Park, east of Priest River. Three or four of us—along with our mother and grandmother, who were chaperones, I assume, planted seedling
A Mission Impossible By Steve Carr Jennifer Aniston, Lady Gaga, and Ryan Reynolds all attend our neighborhood church. I point them out to my long-suffering daughter. She gives me that, “Oh, Dad,” look. Oddly enough, I seem to
