Blogroll

Nov. 15 – Just plowed through a backlog of invitations to connect with people via LinkedIn.

It was a fairly lengthy list, and I did not scrutinize the individual profiles. I just clicked on “Accept” over and over.

After finishing, a far-fetched thought occurred to me.

Gee, I hope none of those people is that horrible woman in Tampa.

Nov. 16 – The first snowy owls of the season are being reported in Washington as their annual winter migration from the Arctic is under way. The mostly white owls have been spotted from Seattle to Asotin County this week, bringing back memories of last year’s “irruption” of birds that saw snowy owl sightings soar across the northern tier of the United States.

Birder David Woodall found a snowy owl in Asotin County on Thursday morning off Halsey Road near a stubble field perched on a “Hunting by Permission” sign. When he posted the sighting, Keith Carlson pointed out that’s a hot spot for the birds each year.

“There is something magic about this location,” he said.

Nov. 17 – Many of us ate them in our school lunches: Twinkies, Hostess Cupcakes … the list goes on. But soon those confections made of, well, some real food and a lot of junk may live only in our memories. And perhaps on our hips, too.

RIP (retire in plastic?).

May we eagerly enjoy fresh food that will prolong our longevity, instead of gobbling up the well-preserved confections of yesteryear.

Nov. 16 – U.S. Attorney Mike Ormsby, whose office handled the excessive force prosecution of former Spokane police Officer Karl Thompson, took deliberate steps Thursday to praise the trustworthiness of the local police force overall.

“That’s not an indictment of our entire police department,” Ormsby said just moments after Thompson was ordered to serve more than four years in prison for the fatal 2006 confrontation with Otto Zehm. “We have a good police department.”

Although Ormsby still supports calls for an in-depth Justice Department probe of the Spokane Police Department, he noted that several steps have been taken since Thompson’s conviction last year to improve the department’s accountability.