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Spokane, Washington  Est. May 19, 1883

EndNotes

SUNDAY, OCT. 27, 2013

Saying goodbye to journalism

So this, my farewell story, ran in today's Spokesman-Review. After 28 years here, I'm trading journalism for an encore career in health care. And this blog officially now belongs to my co-writer Catherine Johnston. Thanks for reading EndNotes. Please continue reading. And thanks for reading…

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TUESDAY, OCT. 15, 2013

In this undated image released by Fox, cast members, from left, Amber Riley, Cory Monteith and Lea Michele perform during a scene from "Glee."  Fox says Cory Monteith�s addiction-related death will be addressed in the �Glee� episode bidding farewell to his character, Finn Hudson. Fox Entertainment Chairman Kevin Reilly declined Thursday to specify how the character of Finn would exit, saying he couldn�t confirm Finn would be felled by drugs. The 31-year-old Monteith was found dead in a hotel room in Canada last month. Tests showed his death was caused by a mixture of heroin and alcohol. (Adam Rose / Fox)

The true tears of Glee

Finally got around to watching the Glee episode in which they addressed the death of Finn Hudson, played by Cory Monteith, a talented young actor who sadly overdosed in July. The episode was excellent. And you could tell the tears were quite real. My weird…

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WEDNESDAY, OCT. 9, 2013

The empty chairs

My mother's 92-year-old friend, Magaret, showed me her lovely, covered patio the other day. There are four chairs among flower pots and other garden decorations. She said she used to sit in the chairs with her husband, sister-in-law and brother-in-law and they'd talk and laugh…

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TUESDAY, OCT. 8, 2013

Paul Merkel for Endnotes (Courtesy Walline / The Spokesman-Review)

Writing your parents' lives

In Monday's Boomer U, we ran an excerpt of the book Rain Delayed by Linda Merkel Walline. Her father Paul Merkel led a Whitworth College baseball team to a national championship in 1960, against great odds and on a shoestring budget. Walline researched and wrote…

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WEDNESDAY, OCT. 2, 2013

Gandhi T-shirt photo for Becky Nappi blog

Happy Birthday, Mahatma Gandhi

Mahatma Gandhi was born on this day in 1869. The peacemaker at the forefront of India's freedom from colonialism would be sainted, if we Catholics could claim him. Yesterday, a friend I hadn't seen in a long while, VJ Pavani, stopped in the newsroom with…

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MONDAY, SEPT. 30, 2013

Beware the white vans 

There's a guy who drives a white van -- he's white, in his 40s, skinny, short hair and black beard -- who has been approaching Spokane County children and trying to lure them into his van. (Read second story in this briefs column.) It's terrible…

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TUESDAY, SEPT. 24, 2013

Pam Horn administers the flu vaccine to employee Michael Karolitzky at Philly Flu Shots on Thursday, Jan. 10, 2013, in Philadelphia. The flu season arrived early in the U.S. this year, but health officials and experts say it's too early to say this will be a bad one. Experts say evidence so far is pointing to a moderate flu season - it just looks worse because last year's season was so mild. Flu usually doesn't blanket the country until late January or February. Now, it's already widespread in more than 40 states. That could change when the next government report comes out Friday. (Matt Rourke / Associated Press)

Health report card for seniors

The State of Aging and Health in America 2013 just released its annual report today. The collaborative report by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services lists a report card in one section that measures how…

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MONDAY, SEPT. 23, 2013

SATURDAY, SEPT. 21, 2013

FRIDAY, SEPT. 20, 2013

Old Faithful for Becky Nappi blog
Photo by Tony Wadden
Feel free to use.

Geezer geyser gazers

I keep a list in my head of all the things I'll do in my older years, if I feel lonely, sad, neglected. After a recent -- and first -- trip to Yellowstone Park, I've added a new one. I will become a "geezer geyser…

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TUESDAY, SEPT. 10, 2013

Cancer survivor Susie Leonard Weller rides a camel in the shadow of Uluru (Ayers Rock), the red rock monolith in central Australia.

Changing yourself rather than others

In my Monday Boomer U story, I profiled two women who faced serious situations they could not change and decided instead to change themselves. Now they're helping others do the same. Susie Leonard Weller survived stage 3 colon cancer but uses a permanent colostomy; Peggy…

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FRIDAY, SEPT. 6, 2013

Isamu "Som" Jordan in 2004. (Amanda Smith)

The faces of Som 

Facebook has its downsides, for sure, but one thing it does well is connect communities that grieve. Som Jordan, freelance music critic with a long history at The Spokesman-Review, died yesterday. See story. On Facebook, people who knew Som from all the worlds he traveled…

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THURSDAY, SEPT. 5, 2013

NEW BIG BOARD: Dewitt E. Wallace, president of the Old National bank, and Mrs. Margaret Jones, chief switchboard operator, look over the new switchboard which, starting tomorrow, will serve all of the more than 200 telephones in the bank's eight Spokane branches. Said to be the largest semiautomatic dial system of its type in Spokane, the board makes it possible to reach any individual in any of the bank's Spokane offices by dialing the main office number. Until now, each branch has had its own telephone number. The board was installed by Pacific Telephone company. Photo Archive/ The Spokesman-Review. (The Spokesman-Review)

Landlines: On life support? 

Fresh from the U.S. Census today: The percentage of households with a microwave climbed from 82 percent in 1992 to 97 percent in 2011. Similarly, the percentage with a computer jumped from 21 percent to 78 percent over the period. Landline phones followed the opposite…

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TUESDAY, SEPT. 3, 2013

Mitchell Raymond, 14, was happiest when drawing and “building things” according to his grandmother, Ann Davey. In November 2012, he drew this portrait of all the places he wished to see someday. Copies of this drawing were handed out at his memorial service in July.

The world by Mitchell Raymond

At my desk, taped to a wall I glance at between writing and reporting tasks, I now have hanging this drawing by Mitchell Raymond. In my Monday Boomer U story about the drawing, I explained: In November, Mitchell showed his “Wampa” – Mike Davey –…

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MONDAY, SEPT. 2, 2013

Retiree Doug Floyd now has more time to spend with his Pennsylvania grandkids, Lindsay, 6, Ryan, 10 months, and Annie, 3. (Dan Pelle)

A retiree's labor day

Thanks to my former colleague, Doug Floyd, for taking up his pen again and writing our main Labor Day story today in the Boomer U section. One of my favorite lines: "I loved my job, and I miss the friends and the engagement with events…

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TUESDAY, AUG. 27, 2013

Lilac parade 1963 with Gail Caldwell, Spokane's first black Lilac Princess. (Photo Archive/spokesman-review)

Telling the true story 50 years later

Kudos to Karen Erickson of Spokane who was a reporter for the Spokane Chronicle in 1963 when Gail Caldwell of Marycliff High School was named the city's first black Lilac Princess. See my story about the historic event. Erickson filled in a bit of disturbing…

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MONDAY, AUG. 26, 2013

SATURDAY, AUG. 24, 2013

MONDAY, AUG. 19, 2013

Gail Caldwell Bonner was Spokane’s first black Lilac Princess, elected by her fellow students at Marycliff High School. She is pictured here in 1963 with the Lilac Festival court. (File)

Thank you to the "prophetic" Marycliffers 

My Sunday story was about Gail Caldwell Bonner, Spokane's first black Lilac Princess, elected in 1963 from Marycliff High School in Spokane. I interviewed Gail and three of the friends who rallied around her to get her nominated 50 years ago in a history making…

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THURSDAY, AUG. 15, 2013


The crane throws a shadow on the new control tower at Spokane International Airport. 
 (The Spokesman-Review)

Return of the cranes 

In September 2006, more than a year before the housing boom busted and the Great Recession descended upon the land, the Inland Northwest was dotted with construction cranes, the outward sign of the good times. The new tower at The Spokane International Airport was being…

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WEDNESDAY, AUG. 14, 2013

Muhammad Ali – then known as Cassius Clay – stands with trainer Angelo Dundee in this 1962 photo. (Associated Press)

Extroverts may age better 

If socialization is essential to healthy aging, it makes sense that extroverts -- who tend to thrive in crowds and at parties - would do better in their older years. A study in the Journal of Research in Personality, as reported at HealthDayNews, "found that…

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TUESDAY, AUG. 13, 2013

Godspeed Dr. VanderWilde

A good doctor of the kind depcited in Norman Rockwell paintings died last week. Alex VanderWilde, our family physician, passed on. Read his obituary. He was born in 1926 and lived through a unique experience during World War II. I wrote about him in 2003.…

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THURSDAY, AUG. 8, 2013

« Clover also offers a selection of small desserts, including a chocolate cheesecake with sweet whipped cream. Each dessert is $3.

The chocolate fountain of youth

My mother, 92, has been pretty disciplined all her life about eating and exercising, one reason she likely outlived all her siblings, a husband and an older-age boyfriend. But she always had one secret passion -- chocolate. She eats several pieces of chocolate most days…

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MONDAY, AUG. 5, 2013

Serving as pallbearer for firefighter John Knighten last month, Capt. Mike Rose fainted during the public memorial service. Paramedics and emergency medical technicians who were attending the service quickly came to the aid of the veteran firefighter, including Brian Schaeffer, assistant fire chief, bending over Rose to the right. (Colin Mulvany)

A photo is worth 1,000 Facebook shares

My Sunday story, on Spokane firefighter Mike Rose, is sweeping its way on Facebook. Wish I could claim my writing. But I think Spokesman-Review photo journalist and videographer Colin Mulvany's spectacular photo is the reason. He took this at the funeral of firefighter John Knighten…

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MONDAY, JULY 29, 2013

Theresa Phillips, 68, and Joe Phillips, 81, cut the cake after their wedding ceremony in Spokane on July 20.

The second time around

My Boomer U story today was about newlyweds Theresa and Joe Phillips who married July 20. She was 68. He was 81. Neither expected to marry again. But they fell madly in love a few years ago and tied the knot. No one knows how…

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Spokesman-Review features writer Rebecca Nappi, along with writer Catherine Johnston of Olympia, Wash., discuss here issues facing aging boomers, seniors and those experiencing serious illness, dying, death and other forms of loss.