By Michael Schindler Many of our veterans between the ages of 18 to 24 are unemployed due to their participation in the National Guard and Reserves. What was marketed as money for college, an opportunity to serve and great job experience is turning out to be a career killer. The unemployment rate for the 18-to-24-year-old…
By Wendy Kendall “From Baghdad, With Love” by Lieutenant Colonel Jay Kopelman with Melinda Roth The power of love in unlikely places will surprise you and touch your heart. Puppy love can melt men’s hearts, and move bureaucracies to action. This is the true story of how one lost puppy touched the hearts of an…
By Dr. David Gross Part 19: The Fruita Campground We traveled through yet another red rock canyon. This one the product of wind and the Fremont River, flowing gently in early March but still the color of the sand and silt it is transporting to help clog Lake Powell. The Fruita Campground is on the…
By Juliet Brewster How rude of me, I never introduced myself in last week’s column. My name is Juliet Brewster, and if you spend much time in downtown Edmonds, you’ve probably seen me behind the counter in the bookshop, The Cheesemonger’s Table, or at Twist Yoga Studio. I’ve been running around Edmonds since I was…
Editor’s note: My Edmonds News is pleased to introduce this new column, “Recommended Reads.” By Wendy Kendall “Wild” is a story of transformation. It’s a story of how one person finds the strength to bear the unbearable. And the setting is the Pacific Crest Trail. After the author’s mother dies from cancer, she feels her…
By Dr. David Gross Part 18: Zion, Bryce and Awesome Back Roads Growing up in Arizona and spending significant time camping at and in both the Grand Canyon and Oak Creek Canyon, along with a whole summer working on the Navajo Reservation, produced in me a serious flaw: I am less than overcome by emotion…
By Michael Schindler If you’ve ever had dealings with another human being, you know just how powerful your words can be – the old rhyme “sticks and stones may break my bones but your words will never hurt me” couldn’t be further from the truth. Our words have the power to uplift or deflate –…
By Juliet Brewster April is my favorite month. Not only does it mark my debut as a columnist for My Edmonds News (Hello, nice to meet you, it’s a pleasure to be here!), but it also brings the first sunny spring days and floods of poetry to Edmonds. All across the country, people are rediscovering…
By Elaine Mattson Spring has officially arrived, and there have even been moments that the sun actually feels warm! Aaaah… time for a well-deserved Spring Break, official or not! But what to read? What for the kids to read? Did you know that a lot of your favorite authors also write books for kids? It’s…
By Dr. David Gross Part 17: The Mohave Desert For two days, Charlize and I drove through the Mohave Desert. It’s different than the Sonoran Desert of my youth. I grew up in that desert, hiking and camping and loving the harsh environment that required skill and knowledge to survive. From Indio to Lake Havasu…
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By Dr. David Gross Part 16: More musings I’ve been re-reading John Steinbeck, returning to his books after a 30- to 40-year hiatus. I read differently now, not surprising with so many additional years to experience life and interpret and perhaps even understand what I am reading. Steinbeck points out that good human qualities include…
By Michael Schindler If you are a transitioning service member, the prospect of finding a new job in the civilian world can almost seem like “mission impossible.” Today’s headlines typically don’t highlight a company that is doing a massive job hiring, but rather quite the opposite: 200-300 layoffs at T-Mobile and 800 or so to…
By Dr. David Gross Part 15: First trip to San Diego On the way over from San Diego to Phoenix, I remembered the first time I made the journey from Phoenix to San Diego. I was 10 years old, the summer of 1946. The Second World War was over and my Uncle Sol, my Dad’s…
By Dr. David Gross Part 14: Changes, people and places The longer I live the more apparent it is to me that people change. Not their basic personalities so much, their attitudes or even their belief systems; little things that change them as individuals. Not the least change is they get older, live without shared…
By Janette Turner Let me get something off my chest: I adore Edmonds and can’t help but use this column to tout the excellent art offerings in town. As a member of the Chamber Arts Awards Committee, I’ve seen first-hand the dedication and hard work of our fellow citizens to make this an arts town….
By Michael Schindler Despite the Federal Department of Veterans Affairs avoiding the sequestration crisis and spending hundreds of millions of taxpayer dollars on developing a digital claims process (97 percent of claims are still on paper), many combat veterans will be waiting an average of 273 days before they will see any service-related benefits. If…
By Dr. David Gross Part 13: Yet another side of Charlize’s personality We arrived in Phoenix but left Frog in San Diego. I will to return to San Diego after my sojourn in Phoenix to visit with my brother, his family and some old friends who are still living here as well as some snowbird…
By Janette Turner Do you recognize the location of the photo at the top of this column? If you guessed “a teacher’s desk,” then you missed the wine bottles and pull tabs in the background that define this space as Engel’s Pub. As you can see from the blackboard, the tavern is bringing in bag…
By Dr. David Gross Part 12: Charlize is a Bully I would never have anticipated it. Charlize is probably the friendliest, most calm dog around strangers I have ever been responsible for. When we arrived at my son’s home in San Diego she met their Golden Retriever, Bentley, for the first time. I’ve known Bentley…
By Michael Schindler With all the political chatter from both parties, it can be a bit of a challenge navigating through the white noise of rhetoric to truly understand what sequestration means to our area. Do we need to be concerned or can we expect to go about our lives with a “business as usual”…
By Janette Turner Pardon me for daydreaming about St. Patty’s week, but the promise of live music at Jack Murphy’s Bar is irresistible, so it’s noted in this column, along with the bar’s promise to do penance for bringing in Pipers on a day of the Lord. Until then here’s this week’s finest offerings in…
By Dr. David Gross Part 11: Shake Down Cruise The true shake-down cruise for Frog started after leaving Oregon. We stopped at the Chamber of Commerce information office in Crescent City, Calif. Yet another helpful person at the desk insisted that we must see the Jedediah Smith Redwood State Park. Since I have an unquenchable…
By Michael Schindler I’m a closet romantic. Took me eight months to get a date with the woman who is now my wife and after almost 20 years together, I still love her…and more importantly, she still loves me – which she would tell you hasn’t always been easy. But let’s be honest, this “happily…
By Dr. David Gross Part 10: Frog is wounded The friends I visited with in Salinas have three dogs. Charlize had a grand time running and playing with them. She is a sociable dog, gets on well with strangers, so far with strangers of all species we have encountered. I had neglected to refuel Old…
By Elaine Mattson Apparently short stories are the new big thing! Either anthologies, a collection of stories by different authors, or books that are collections of the same author’s stories. This is not actually new thing. (One of my favorite books remains “Cowboys Are My Weakness” by Pam Houston from 2005.) But for some reason,…
