PAT NEAL: The feast of fools

IT’S ALMOST TIME once again for that favorite holiday of the year, April Fools’ Day. It’s a holiday where we share the ridiculous nature of… Continue reading

DIANE URBANI DE LA PAZ: Joyous agitation: Moore’s prescription

WE WILL RECLAIM our laughter and joy, she told me, for the work ahead. Kathleen Dean Moore, philosopher, nature writer and novelist, is about to… Continue reading

PAT NEAL: Setting salmon seasons

WHO SAYS THERE is no good news anymore? A March 14 article in the Peninsula Daily News sports section reported that the coho salmon quota… Continue reading

WEST END NEIGHBOR: Proud weekend in Forks

WEST END NEIGHBOR: Proud weekend in Forks

How much would you pay to have four big high school senior boys work for you for 12 hours? For the Quillayute Valley Scholarship Auction,… Continue reading

WEST END NEIGHBOR: Proud weekend in Forks

PAT NEAL: The skunk cabbage; the real state flower

IT’S SPRINGTIME IN the lowlands. You can tell because folks are back to cussing the rain instead of the snow. It’s been said the Eskimos… Continue reading

DIANE URBANI DE LA PAZ: The shapes of water surround us

I’VE BEEN ALERTED to an evocative statement; one that makes perfect sense. “From salt-laden tears and singing streams … water has been called the first… Continue reading

PAT NEAL: Looking on the bright side of snow

MAYBE THE BIRDS know something we don’t: that spring is just around the corner. The unseasonably cold weather has not stopped them from enjoying their… Continue reading

WEST END NEIGHBOR: Even animals get cabin fever

WEST END NEIGHBOR: Even animals get cabin fever

THE GUNFIRE DIDN’T seem exceptionally loud as it carried across the street and snow on the night of Feb. 24. The barrage was full of… Continue reading

WEST END NEIGHBOR: Even animals get cabin fever

PAT NEAL: The bug season forecast

THANK YOU FOR reading this. It is our fondest hope that you will continue to rely on this column to keep you informed and up… Continue reading

PAT NEAL: Snowstorm strategies and the bonds of vexation

BY NOW I think we’ve all had it up to here with living on the North Pole. OK, maybe the North Pole didn’t shift to… Continue reading

WEST END NEIGHBOR: Making decisions for kids’ safety in Forks

WEST END NEIGHBOR: Making decisions for kids’ safety in Forks

SIX YEARS AGO, a school bus for the Quillayute Valley School District slid off the slick road south of Forks during a bit of inclement… Continue reading

WEST END NEIGHBOR: Making decisions for kids’ safety in Forks

OUR VIEW: Our neighbors need help

THE PAST WEEK has been difficult for all of us on the North Olympic Peninsula. Snow accumulation measured in feet, with ice in some places… Continue reading

PAT NEAL: That winter was a hard one

IF I’VE HEARD this once, I’ve heard it a million times from the local old-timers, “That winter was a hard one. We don’t have winters… Continue reading

PAT NEAL: A humble apology

THANK YOU FOR reading this. Sometimes I think if you didn’t read this no one would. But you do. You send me the most wonderful… Continue reading

DIANE URBANI DE LA PAZ: ‘Oceans’ to Toto, movies open us up

THE WOMAN BEHIND me wasn’t ready to talk. We’d come to Port Townsend’s Rose Theatre for “Meet Me at the Movies,” a free program of… Continue reading

PAT NEAL: Remember your river etiquette

EDITOR’S NOTE: This column has been corrected to reflect that the river etiquette guidelines mentioned here are from the Olympic Peninsula Guides’ Association. IN AN… Continue reading

PAT NEAL: Finding the Pacific Trail

SOMETIMES, WHEN READING the accounts of the first people who came to the Olympic Peninsula, it’s hard to imagine how any of us from the… Continue reading

WEST END NEIGHBOR: Arrrgh: Teachers pack pirate production into a week

WEST END NEIGHBOR: Arrrgh: Teachers pack pirate production into a week

HOW ENTHUSIASTICALLY CAN a child say just a single number? Guaranteed, Lindsey Wayne and Sarah Price of Missoula Children’s Theatre know a thing or two… Continue reading

WEST END NEIGHBOR: Arrrgh: Teachers pack pirate production into a week