A friend told me that Harry Truman went to bed the night of his 1948 election with his usual glass of buttermilk. I checked and found this true. I am hoping to do the same or something similar next Tuesday, November 3rd. Though I am not running for any office whatsoever, I am nervous… Read more
culture
I am deep in a new writing project so won’t be writing much of my own today. I just have few thoughts to share from others. A lot is happening in the world, as always. Things are happening in my country that anger and sadden me. Like the practice of standing up for myself and… Read more
I didn’t want to write about this because I am afraid. I am afraid that people I know and care about will think less of me because I went to the Women’s March last Saturday. I’m afraid they’ll be angry or disapprove. But every time I started to think about what to write this week… Read more
Do you remember Flat Stanley? The cut out that kids sent to their friends and family around the world? My son’s kindergarten teacher gave his class a gingerbread man to send instead of Stanley. Quinton’s cut out is making his way around Tokyo with my friend from high school who came to visit us this… Read more
Last night, the director kept stopping us in that annoying way that band leaders have. “We’ve got to get those triplets sharp. Some of you are thinking you can just slip through them at a relaxed pace and it’s throwing us off,” he said. “I am not in a parade up here waving at you… Read more
I once cut in line. It wasn’t that long ago. I was following my six-year-old and eager to see the clouded leopard cubs at the Point Defiance Zoo. Not realizing that the ten-foot wide mass of moving children and parents actually signaled a place to wait patiently, I chased my own little boy up past the… Read more
Last Sunday, I went to the closing ceremony of the Whitney Memorial United Methodist Church, a congregation of Japanese Americans who voted to shut their doors this spring. I sat in the back of Puyallup United Methodist Church in a different pew from where I sit most Sundays. Here I saw Shirley DeLarme and Ann Berney… Read more
Recently, I looked up International Women’s Day while drafting my next column for The News Tribune. I had never heard of the holiday until my immigrant students brought me flowers, so I was quite surprised to learn that the celebration began in the United States. Perhaps we dropped it in the U.S. because it was started by socialists and the… Read more