The Best Christmas Gift Ever
By now you’ve probably watched “A Christmas Story” on television, and not for the first time. Or the second, or third … It’s a Christmas classic most of us have watched more times than we remember. The movie, for whose who have been living in a cave or for some other reason haven’t seen…
‘Investing in Humanity is Never Futile’
Father Rick Frechette has devoted his life to helping the poor in Haiti. He’s been there for 37 years, witnessed suffering most of us can barely comprehend and says things have never been as bad during his time in the island nation as they are now. Haiti doesn’t get a lot of attention…
What’s Missing from Halloweens Nowadays? All Treats, No Tricks
Halloween isn’t what it used to be. This year’s Halloween was, once again, a quiet one where I live. Traditional trick or treating, with kids going door to door, has largely been replaced in our neighborhood by a Halloween parade. Kids in costumes, many accompanied by their parents, line up at around…
‘Maintenance Manor’ Revisited
In my early years as a journalist, a recurring subject of my columns was an old North Boise house that came to be known as Maintenance Manor. In buying the house, my wife and I placed our faith in the time-honored real estate maxim, “location, location, location.” Buy the worst house in a nice…
Remembering Robert Redford: ‘The Last Movie Star’
“Robert Redford died? That’s impossible! He should have lived forever!” That was a neighbor’s reaction to the news that film legend Robert Redford passed away earlier this month. A lot of people felt that way. He’d been around so long, and was such an enduring and popular figure in our collective life,…
‘All the Vacation I Can Stand’
Readers long ago came to look forward to my vacation columns. Not because they were tales of idyllic holidays or travel to exotic places, but because my vacations were so bad they made readers’ look good by comparison. Our kids got sick, our car broke down on mountain passes, we pitched our tent…
Memories: Bronco Billy, Clint Eastwood and Candy Loving
Quick, do you remember Bronco Billy? If you didn’t live in the Boise area 45 years ago, chances are you don’t. Bronco Billy was a Clint Eastwood movie, sort of a Western comedy/drama. It was filmed mostly in Boise and Garden City, in 1979. Hundreds of Idahoans watched the filming. Some…
Good People: the Value of Small Acts of Kindness
We hear so often about bad people doing bad things – examples abound in the news – that it sometimes seems as if bad people are ubiquitous. Then something happens that makes you realize how far from the truth that is. It happened to me recently in a grocery store. A small act…
Wakeup Call – Dodging the Stroke Bullet
There are wakeup calls and there are Wakeup Calls. The former might be things like getting on the scales and realizing it’s time to lay off the fast food and desserts. Or checking your credit card balance and realizing it’s been way too long since you made a payment. The latter, more…
Once a Tree, Now a Conversation Piece
My wife and I now have one of the most peculiar looking trees in Idaho. It is, or was, a sweetgum tree. My son and I planted it when he was a kindergartener. He’s now in his early 40s, which gives you an idea of how big it was. It was one…
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Tim Woodward 