Service Worker Centers ( Learn more about this community type ) RSS 
Lincoln City, OR blog ( Learn about this community )
Oregon Matters
Posted by Kip Ward | 05.10.2008 / 1:16 AM EDT
Well I guess this is it; finally Oregon matters. Who would of thought? According to Obama this is where Hillary’s candidacy will be finally laid to rest and he is probably correct. I remember about a year ago, we all thought that Hillary had the nomination in the bag. But that bag had a hole […]
Read entire blog entry | Comments ( no comments )
The kids are not all right
Posted by Barton Howe | 05.08.2008 / 9:17 AM EDT
Not to sound too heady – OK, arrogant – but as a blogger for 1/11th of the Patchwork Nation, I see myself as the voice for Service Worker Center employees all over America. As a high school teacher, however, I’m not really part of that center, and I often wonder if I’m representing them fairly.
[…]
Read entire blog entry | Comments ( 9 comments )
Oregon’s Quiet Primary
Posted by Kip Ward | 05.05.2008 / 6:52 PM EDT
Everywhere you turn the big talk is Indiana and North Carolina. I guess we will see how it turns out tomorrow night. Then it’s off to Nebraska and Virginia right? Well, maybe. Don’t forget in Oregon we vote by mail. That’s right, most of us got our ballots in the mail yesterday, and by the […]
Read entire blog entry | Comments ( no comments )
The company we keep
Posted by Barton Howe | 05.05.2008 / 9:38 AM EDT
It’s been a while since I posted and even longer since I stuck my nose out into the greater Lincoln City community. (The fact that I can call a region of 10,000 people spread out over 20 miles, “greater,” gives you some idea of where my head is.) Between nine days in California and producing […]
Read entire blog entry | Comments ( no comments )
Running on Empty
Posted by Kip Ward | 04.30.2008 / 8:37 PM EDT
I stopped by one of our three local pawnshops today. We didn’t used to have pawnshops in Lincoln City but then we didn’t used to have a casino either. The casino wrote in a newspaper article that business was down. The reason they wrote the editorial was because the city wants to raise the Transient […]
Read entire blog entry | Comments ( 3 comments )
Just Dreaming
Posted by Kip Ward | 04.27.2008 / 3:16 PM EDT
We all do it. We judge people. We are always evaluating and then reevaluating when we get more information. We tend to judge people by what they say and do. I think that’s why spin was invented. It is kind of a “get out of jail free card” for misbehavior. When I grew up my […]
Read entire blog entry | Comments ( 1 comment )
As The World Burns
Posted by Kip Ward | 04.23.2008 / 4:27 PM EDT
OK. I admit it. I have some conservative roots. I voted for Reagan, and Bush number one; twice. I didn’t go Democratic until they went after Clinton. Clearly the nation did not want him impeached, but the Republicans went after him anyway, hell bent. So I switched. Bush number two proved that I had made […]
Read entire blog entry | Comments ( 2 comments )
Sometimes a great evolution
Posted by Barton Howe | 04.22.2008 / 9:08 AM EDT
Spending nine days on a field trip with 10 students in California gives me all new appreciation for a lot of things: parenting skills, well-placed rest stops, silence.
But in between the moments of student-related chaos, I saw a California I’d forgotten I’d fallen in love with and found myself wondering once again about the future […]
Read entire blog entry | Comments ( 1 comment )
Highway to Hellth
Posted by Kip Ward | 04.14.2008 / 4:48 PM EDT
Last week I wrote a column titled “Last Girl at the Bar.” I thought it was innocent enough subject matter. I wrote about how I thought voters were looking for “the real deal,” That they were looking for someone with whom they could connect, someone who would follow through after all of the election hype. […]
Read entire blog entry | Comments ( 3 comments )
Isolation Nation
Posted by Barton Howe | 04.10.2008 / 8:31 AM EDT
Having travelled a lot, I’ve been to some places that were so far off the beaten path the path itself has faded into the jungle. Rural Cambodia, northwest Mexico, a random corner of the Caribbean: isolated from the rest of the world much of their appeal lies in the fact that everyone else isn’t there.
Maybe […]
Read entire blog entry | Comments ( 1 comment )
The last girl at the bar
Posted by Kip Ward | 04.07.2008 / 12:10 PM EDT
I usually write my blogs on Saturday night, in my office, after the dinner rush. Tonight was busy for our small restaurant and bar. We did over a hundred dinners, and at fifty-five years old I feel every one of them. Even though the restaurant and bar are inside of this hotel, it is mostly […]
Read entire blog entry | Comments ( 6 comments )
Inspiration: Hysterics and History
Posted by Barton Howe | 04.04.2008 / 4:17 PM EDT
In a city that skews slightly Democratic in a year when the most exciting political race in the country involves two Democrats it’s probably not surprising that when political conversations arise they involve said Democrats. (One presumes we’ll be talking about McCain again when he’s addressing more than just his bio-tour.)
An Obama bumpersticker elicits a knowing smile. […]
Read entire blog entry | Comments ( no comments )
Certainty Principles
Posted by Barton Howe | 04.01.2008 / 9:13 AM EDT
It’s been Spring Break here in teacherland, giving me an opportunity to break away from my students and get a chance to actually talk to adult humans about the Patchwork Nation. Not that I don’t hear their opinions often; I just don’t usually go hunting for them.
From the beginning of this blog, I’ve made an […]
Read entire blog entry | Comments ( 3 comments )
War of the Whales
Posted by Kip Ward | 03.30.2008 / 3:32 PM EDT
There is trouble today in Lincoln City. And that is trouble with a capital “T.”
While Houston may have Mission Control, and in Idaho it’s potatoes, in Lincoln City we have Gandalf the California Grey Whale. As reported by the latest issue of Oregon Coast Today magazine (www.oregoncoasttoday.com), Gandalf obtained local notoriety when he swam […]
Read entire blog entry | Comments ( no comments )
Wild Hogs 2
Posted by Kip Ward | 03.24.2008 / 12:31 PM EDT
Friday Night is lining up to be slow at the Hotel and I’m not certain why. It’s Spring Break. I called around to a few of the other hotels and they weren’t doing much either. The big talk around here is recession. No one now debates whether or not we are in one. We are […]
Read entire blog entry | Comments ( 3 comments )
