Columns

I do the Wordle each morning. For those of you living in a bubble, Wordle is a puzzle that gives you six guesses to find a five-letter word.  Before we go any further, I have to get two things off my chest. Wordle is a game about five-letter words, yet the name of the game - Wordle - has six letters. This bothers me to no end. Couldn’t the game about five-letter-words be titled with a five-letter word, perhaps maybe “Wordl?”  Complaint number two: they give you six guesses for a five-letter word. Why not five? I know that would make it tougher, but a word puzzle with a five-letter title that gives you five guesses to find a five-letter word would be so eleg...

The “One Big Beautiful Bill” Act recently signed into law by President Trump contains important reforms to Obamacare’s Medicaid Expansion program. It helps control taxpayer costs and incentivizes able-bodied adults to work, go to school, or otherwise meaningfully engage as productive commun...

Take charge and lower your utility bills by using energy and water more wisely and at the same time make Montana healthier. What’s the connection? Most of the energy used in Montana is from fossil fuels (natural gas, coal, and oil) resulting in the release of pollution and greenhouse gases when the ...

This column deals with a subject steeped in controversy, and we all know sometimes that can surround the most simplest of tasks, habits or preferences. Which way to hang the toilet paper – over or under? Ketchup as a dipping sauce for pickles and potato chips  - yes or no? Wearing pajamas to th...

Emotions are powerful forces within each of us. They can impact our day, our year - perhaps even our life. How we feel about something influences our reactions to it. How we feel dictates our response to the world, the environment. And by and large all of this is beyond our control, correct? Maybe so, may...

I grew up poor, that is, American poor. I fantasized about food at night–mashed potatoes, buttery dinner rolls, raspberry cheesecake. I would wake up and imagine a breakfast–strawberry waffles with whipped cream, cold orange juice–then, talk myself toward accepting what I knew was there&nda...

Over the last four-plus years  I’ve given a lot of time thinking about emotions - joy, bliss, sorrow, anger and everything in-between. I’ve struggled. I’ve failed. I’ve crawled out of the rubble. I’ve found glimmers of sunlight. I’ve had moments of success, amidst the...

The Sun is approximately 93 million miles from the Earth, yet we receive its warmth from the photons it sends across the void of space. We depend on Sun’s energy to survive, but currently our planet is warming too much. Sunlight is a form of electromagnetic radiation. The Sun releases photons carryi...

I just finished a two week visit with the three grands. (And two with the three ‘aint bad.) Their house is undergoing a refinement and they needed a place to stay. (Me, the effervescent grammy, with hand in the air) “Oh, pick me, pick me!!” They needed a place to stay. I needed the...

“I did it!” Six letters total to form three very small, very simple words, to create one of the shortest sentences in history, but when is the last time you uttered them together in a sentence? “I did it.” I’m spending a couple weeks with my two-year-old grandson and I&...