Bitcoin: Cash is a blast from the past

Bitcoin is not coin, nor bit of metal. You can't hold it, stuff it in a purse or hear it jingle in your pocket. It only exists in that murky virtual world of zeros and ones.

Our month-by-month 2013 weather reviews

A different path for all of Idaho

I love Idaho. Idaho has great people and incredible resources. I am a native of this state and have lived here my entire life. My family has been here since statehood. I grew up on a family farm and was educated in…

Words from Washington still ring true today

I am a descendant of George Washington's mother, Mary Ball Washington. Her father, Joseph Ball, was the son of Colonel William Ball, who came to America from England in about 1635. He settled in Lancaster, Virginia…

MLP returns recalcitrant

Your Mrs. Language Person is a bit cranky. Gone she was, free from the flustered failures and linguistic labors of this tiresome task. Lackadaisically lounging was she on sunny seaside sands sans tear or tortured t…

The new year

I shiver in bed this morning realizing my home is colder than expected. Searching for heat, I throw back my covers, put on my robe and slippers and search for warmth. I look at the thermostat which reads 59 degrees…

Dashing, plunging, ducks to start 2014

Some folks choose to start the new year by participating in a 5K such as TESH's Hangover Handicap or by pretending the water temperature of Lake Coeur d'Alene isn't 38 degrees when they take the Polar Bear Plunge. …

What the mentally strong avoid

With each new year comes the impetus to start fresh, to live better, to somehow improve. Any philosopher or therapist worth her salt will tell you: Life is more about how we see it than how it really is.

California's record drought hits produce prices

A looming water storage crisis in California following its driest year overall on record in 2013, has led more than 50 lawmakers in the Golden State to request the declaration of a "STATE DROUGHT EMERGENCY."

Where has the wisdom gone?

Where has the "wisdom" gone? Being smart, being educated, and being an intellect is just another cold attribute without the warm catalysis of "wisdom."

Bethine Church: first lady of Idaho

That's how I always referred to her over the years, whenever she was in the audience where I was speaking, including those occasions when it was my high privilege to deliver lectures, or moderate panels, at the ann…

Here's an option to Obamacare

It is obvious to me that the Affordable Care Act (Obamacare) is unsustainable and will eventually have to be scrapped. When this happens, there will be a short window of opportunity when Republicans and Democrats w…

Shawnee poem inspires life

Chief Tecumseh of the Shawnee Nation (1768-1813) was more than simply a tribal chief. He led the First Nations, a confederacy of Native American Tribes united against the new U.S. armies and settlers encroaching up…

We receive gifts at all times of the year

I remember waking up at five on Christmas morning as a 4-year-old excited to see if I made Santa's good list. Still wearing slipper-socks and pajamas unwrapped the night before, I quietly peek from my bedroom door …