Columns

What is more ubiquitous at parties than balloons? For generations, balloons have been a fun and colorful pop added to all kinds of festive celebrations, particularly birthdays. While balloons have been around since the 1800s, the last decade has seen a fascinating shift in the age-old tradition: enter foil balloons. Most likely you have recognized this trend and purchased foil balloons yourself. Ever wonder what initiated this trend? A culmination of scientific chemical research, a controversial music video, and Instagram influencers. So, let’s discover where those foil number balloons came from and why so many people are obsessed with them. Balloons have a long history stretching ...

Timber is at the top of the natural resource world for Northwest Montana’s lifestyle and economic health. I learned that many decades ago.  Late in the day, Dad would unload his crosscut saw from the work panel. I got to carry his lunch bucket to the house. My younger sister and I shared the ha...

How often do we consider how differently we all view the world? Our views aren’t only formed by our own life experiences, but by the way our brains work at a fundamental level. They work so differently, and yet we tend to assume they all work the same. A good friend recently asked me if I think in v...

I went to many birthday parties when I was a kid. I don’t remember most of them. One I do remember, vividly, however, is the party to which I didn’t receive an invitation. It was in celebration of one of my good friend’s tenth birthdays. I was unaware of the occurrence of such a mega event,...

What do hunting, huckleberries, honoring our veterans, and accountability for taxpayer money have in common? Two things. The first is that they’re all strongly supported by Montanans. The second is that we’re already well on our way to putting big wins on the board this legislative session that i...

Affordable housing shortages. Rising food and childcare costs. Protecting our state constitution. There are a number of pressing issues facing Montanans that our representatives could (and should) be addressing during the 68th Legislative Session, issues that we elected them to handle. Instead, we’re l...

For this New Year, I splurged during a sale and bought myself a countertop ice maker.  I’ve never lived in an apartment with an ice maker built into the freezer. Ever since I left home, I’ve just used those little freezer ice trays, and mostly gone without ice at all because they never fe...

Happy New Year!  We are all so excited for 2023 and the wonderful updates and changes it will bring to our building with our renovation project. We hope you are excited as well. We will continue our music in the library series after our renovation is complete. We have several programs scheduled for J...

Who am I supposed to hate, again? For years I taught a graduate class, Identity Conflict, and I would begin the term by noting that trying to list the composite identity elements of any one individual would show that, indeed, we are unique. No two humans share an exact measure of identities. Even twins bi...

I’ve always loved gardening. No, I’m going to take that a step further: I’ve always loved growing things.  Growing things - as in flowers, vegetables, friendships, babies and kids, this column, faith, my marriage, knowledge, compassion, kindness and most importantly love. And more, ...