Opinion / Columns
Sorted by date Results 1 - 25 of 107
Make better decisions
Buying a piece of custom furniture seems like one of those adult rites of passage. In the latter half of my 30s, I have decided to pursue my first custom piece — a couch. Throughout my... — Updated 3/12/2024 Full story
Sisters Country birds
The most colorful of all our ducks, the Wood Duck [Aix sponsa], lives and breeds in swampy forested areas. Acorns are a favorite food along with other seeds, salamanders, aquatic insects,... — Updated 3/12/2024 Full story
Page by Paige
Are you looking for a nonfiction book to read in 2024? "Mott Street: A Chinese American Family's Story of Exclusion and Homecoming" by Ava Chin might suit you. What does one single building i... — Updated 3/12/2024 Full story
Dear Property Guy: Help… Tenant's dog trashed the carpet
Dear Property Guy: I recently had a tenant move out and need to know how to handle their security deposit. We had brand new carpet when they moved in, and their dog absolutely trashed it. We tried to clean it, but the stink is impossible to... — Updated 3/5/2024 Full story
Stars over Sisters
Though currently on the wane, winter will hang around for another three weeks after March bursts on the scene before yielding to a brand-new season before month's end. To highlight this... — Updated 3/5/2024 Full story
Games are fun
In a previous article, I explained that games rely on both human and system factors, an observation I take from “Characteristics of Games,” an introduction to games by world-renowned designers Richard Garfield, Skaff Elias, and Robert... — Updated 3/5/2024 Full story
Dark Mornings
When I was a little girl, I watched my older brother trudge up our driveway in the black of night. My mom was making breakfast; my brother carried a flashlight. Peering up over the kitchen... — Updated 2/27/2024 Full story
Please excuse the messes
People often ask me if winter is a slow season for the Forest Service. The days are often less urgent, without wildfire response, but there is always much to be done. Winter is when the bulk... — Updated 2/27/2024 Full story
The best we can do
Thank God. I’m not too old to run for president. Even though yesterday I had trouble remembering which seven pills I needed to take. The day before, I couldn’t find my car keys. A week... — Updated 2/20/2024 Full story
Tracking across Sisters Country
Oh, wow - what's that print? I'm sure you've had that same reaction numerous times when encountering animal tracks. "What is it?" is the most obvious question to ask upon seeing tracks in... — Updated 2/20/2024 Full story
9 Ways to Gain Media Coverage
“How do I get featured in the media?” It’s a question I hear a lot. Business owners, nonprofits, event producers, entrepreneurs, artists: they all ask. The answers reflect my... — Updated 2/20/2024 Full story
An introduction to hobby games
My last couple of articles covered a bit of game theory and theory of knowledge. While I expect those will be recurrent topics, my main goal with the column is to report on the local scene, and so I’ll limit my technical forays to a fracti... — Updated 2/13/2024 Full story
On Monday, Wade throws rock
Just what is a game? Before I fully launch into my article series covering local games, maybe we should get that straight. For the past six years or so, Wade and I have played Rock, Paper, Scissors at Sisters Athletic Club to see who buys... — Updated 2/6/2024 Full story
Stars over Sisters
Ancient skywatchers learned to recognize the night sky by associating certain arrangements of stars with objects familiar to them. These became the constellations. Cygnus the Swan, Orion the... — Updated 2/6/2024 Full story
What next?
After concluding three months as managing editor of the The Leader newspaper in Port Townsend, Washington, I’m confronted with an uncomfortable realization: I did the best I could, but... — Updated 2/6/2024 Full story
Shedding some light on the heat of short-term rentals
This is part 2 of an ongoing series on the subject of short-term rentals. Part 1 ran in the January 17 edition of The Nugget.... — Updated 2/6/2024 Full story
Cold kindness
November and December of 2023 felt like April, warm, lots of sun, and all the plants were turning green. But January 2024 quickly blew in like a lion charging a mule deer buck. It could have... — Updated 2/6/2024 Full story
Sisters Country birds
The Red-winged Blackbird [Agelaius phoeniceus], is now arriving around Sisters and feeding until they head to mostly wetland areas to begin building nests. After two to six pale blue-green... — Updated 2/6/2024 Full story
Page by Paige - Favorite 2023 books
Do you have a favorite 2023 book? This year I curated my favorite books by themes, debut authors and favorite authors. My recommendations include creating a wife app, searching for a father, and books about books. I’ve been sharing piles... — Updated 2/6/2024 Full story
Illness provides time for introspection
The raindrops form tidy concentric circles in the puddles they are forming on the ice-crusted snow covering my back deck this morning. The branches above are coated with a thin layer of ice.... — Updated 1/23/2024 Full story
For the Birds: Hummingbirds in winter
Remarkably, hummingbirds overwinter in Central Oregon. These toughies are Anna's hummingbirds and are amazingly stout for their 4- to 4.5-gram size. They have expanded their range into... — Updated 1/23/2024 Full story
Paige by Paige - favorite 2023 books
Do you have a favorite 2023 book? This year I curated my favorite books by themes, debut authors and favorite authors. My recommendations include creating a wife app, searching for a father and books about books. I’ve been sharing piles... — Updated 1/16/2024 Full story
Sisters Country birds
Visiting the Cascade forests in late fall and winter, the fluted notes of the Varied Thrush [zoreus naevius] can often be heard echoing through the forests and canyons. The elegant orange of... — Updated 1/16/2024 Full story
Dear Property Guy
Sisters is a town that means different things to different people: the (slightly larger) small town they grew up in, an opportunity to live where one plays, maybe a place to spend California retirement bucks, for many it’s where they do... — Updated 1/16/2024 Full story
Introducing an 'old dork'
In 2015, when my nephew Eli was about 9 years old, I explained “Dungeons & Dragons” to him while my daughter Alyx was present. I left the room after delivering a long-winded monologue where I told him that I’d started playing D&D when... — Updated 1/16/2024 Full story