Last month a perfect snow fell. It wasn't dry as dust but neither was it slush. It had just enough togetherness to respond perfectly to an effort by three youngsters to roll it into a big ball, a ball so big that Dad had to help move the eventual globe, nearly three feet in diameter, into the place prepared for it, a level piece of ground, swept clear of snow and surrounded by evergreens.

What does the Port of Seattle have to with drilling for oil in the Arctic? And if it is tied to those extraction plans, are protestors on sound footing by painting the port as an accomplice in the war against the climate?

An unusual story is playing out on the other side of the continent and it bears watching...

Compiled by Tom Groening

In baseball, the hitter gets three strikes. But when it comes to a 136-foot fishing boat wandering off it's mooring, there is no third strike.

A class isn't about handing a student a thick binder, online or otherwise, of lessons and assessments; it requires the teacher delivering and teach the material. The main task of creating an online class involves substituting this time-tested and highly effective method of delivering content.

Bertha's spoon has sent me into my own kitchen to see what, if anything, someone could learn about my cooking habits from the tools I have used for the 45 years or so that I have cooked.

It's nearly impossible to disagree about anything of consequence when settled comfortably near a companionable wood fire.

Christmas Day in the Cranberry Isles arrived with winds high enough to cause ferry cancelations, though the air temperature was unseasonably mild. Fortunately for us, our family had arrived two days earlier.