It was an April morning when Tommy spoke with Roberta. Her husband had been killed in Iraq in October of the previous year. He wanted to find out why the Sergeant didn’t have plaque at the Fernley Veterans Cemetery near the couples home. “The veteran’s administration is refusing to allow the Wiccan symbol to be placed…

As I was watching a TV piece about the English language, I realized that being lazy is not an excuse to act ignorant . That’s because this ‘educational’, show attempted to point out that Ebonics and other forms of slang-uage are just another form of the English language. By the time the hour was up,…

It started in the early fall of the previous year, the television ads for the mini-series, “Roots,” written by Alex Haley. As the TV event neared, my dad announced that he wanted to get a color TV. Excited, we kids couldn’t have agreed more with the idea of a color TV set. We had an…

The small arms fire was the first warning the fire-base was going to be hit. Doc looked at his watch, “Cripes, zero-thirty dark still.” He tried to blink the sleep out of his eyes. He had only been down for a couple hours. The infirmary phone rang and he picked it up. It was the…

Looking at points of time and history and how they fit together to form patterns or cycles within the human context has been something I have been interested in since childhood. It appears that what we believe are random events often are not when studying patterns. Within some cycles, there are smaller ones, and long…

For the last few months I have found myself in an awful pit due to the fact that I took local politician and Sparks attorney to the wood shed for his having called me a ‘puppet.’ He was referring to the fact that I had written a number of articles about his opponent former Sparks…

Fortuna resident Donald Chism passed away October 15th, 2006. A life-long resident of Humboldt County, he was born December 1st, 1922. He retired from Louisiana Pacific after many years of service. Donald loved spending time with his family, his animals and gardening. He is survived by his children and their spouses, Dennis and Eileen Chism,…

During one assignment, Tommy had arranged an opportunity to sit down and interview with General Norman Schwarzkopf. He was the United States Army general who served as Commander of U.S Forces during the Gulf War. The event was the Safari Club International’s gathering the at the Reno/Sparks Convention Center. Tommy had asked Congressman Jim Gibbons’ office if it…

It was hot and muggy even before the sun had risen over the greenness of the jungle canopy. The sounds of the base mingled awkwardly with the natural sounds that grew and rapidly died away in the tropical forest that surrounded them The sentries on the perimeter were on edge. Twice during the night the…

1997 When our cat goes outdoors Then manages to catch a bird, It’ll play with that so called food And such a ruckus can be heard. My wife would be pretty upset With her purrin’ little cat, If she thought for a minute Her kitten acted such as that. I trailed some feathers once Into…