I'll end the first day of my second year by reposting the first item to run in this blog last Feb. 16. It was titled: "Fasten Your Seatbelts."

For those who have developed a taste for Huckleberries, Hot Potatoes and other basic food groups in North Idaho, I'm taking it to the next level today ... by moving on up to blogging. If you don't know what that means, sound it out: blog, bah-log, Web log. In other words, a blog is a combination Web diary/column/train-of-consciousness thing.

Here's what I hope to accomplish with my blog:

1. Let folks in North Idaho know what's going on behind the scenes in political races and North Idaho governments.
2. Comment on the stories of the day.
3. Bring important Web stories to your attention.
4. Use the blog to test drive new words for my Hot Potatoes columns on Sundays and Wednesdays -- words such as ap-hollow-gize and institution-all-lies, which speak for themselves.

I view life through an offbeat conservative filter but that doesn't mean I'm conservative through and through. I may lean to the right on social issues but I voted for more Democrats than Republicans in Idaho's last legislative elections. In other words, I don't put much stock in either party's politics.

One of my favorite sayings comes from the old Chicago Times: "It's a newspaper's duty to print the news and raise hell." So, fasten your seatbelts. I hope you have as much fun reading this as I'm going to have writing it.

DFO

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