NIBlogs: Happy Birthday, Patty Duke

Kerri Thoreson, of KVNI/Coeur d’Alene Press fame, is kicking herself today for missing an important birthday. Kerri, as most of you know, does a swell job keeping track of most of our birthdays out there. But she forgot Anna Pierce’s 65th birthday today. Anna, of course, is better known as Coeur d’Alene actress Patty Duke, who has appeared in all those Social Security PSAs over the past year. Writes Kerri on her Facebook page : “She’s now eligible for the benefits herself!”

I’ve always shied away from cards and gifts that say “Jesus is the reason for the season.” Not that there’s anything wrong with that saying. I guess I just feel like everybody knows it already. It’s the celebration of his birthday after all. I don’t need my Christmas cards to remind anyone of that. But over the last few weeks, I’ve needed reminding myself. I had lost sight of the reason for the season. I was preoccupied with what my kids would like to find under the tree and the fact that I wouldn’t be able to buy every single thing on their lists. But the sad thing is, their lists were in my head/ A Butterfly Moment . More here.

• Stop me if you’ve heard this one before /A Family Runs Through It
• Sometimes we forget /From A Simple Mind
• A poem for the reason in this season /Slight Detour
• Setting up a space for writing memoirs /Jennifer Rova, Writing North Idaho

HucksOnline numbers (for Tuesday, Dec. 13): 8391/5001

Question: Are you held captive by Christmas gift lists?