Shelton-Mason County Journal - Dedicated to the citizens of Mason County, Washington since 1886

Here’s how we get people to stop using guns to kill people: We work on making people not want to kill people. An example of lazy object naming: The orange. People should use their baby photos in...

Seems we’ll have at least one more season of holiday gatherings where talk of politics and social behavior will be discouraged, so here are some jokes from three publications — Good Housekeeping,...

OCEANSIDE, Calif. — It is good to know there are more of us than there are of them, but enough with this election. Other matters are worth considering in this muddled-up world, including godwits,...

Isn’t it odd to tell people who feel achy after getting a COVID vaccination that it shows that the vaccine is working? If that’s true, wouldn’t the contrary be true — if you don’t feel achy...

Here's how you do it: Get up at 5:45 a.m., preferably on a Sunday because traffic is lighter, and start 1 mile south of the state Capitol with your friend, who in my case is John. The two of you...

Let’s take a moment for me. This column started on the Journal’s Opinion Page on Oct. 19, 2017 — the column you’re reading is episode No. 261. I’ve gone five years and one week without...

Perhaps you’re like me. Stories about well-intentioned people striving to create permanent places for people without adequate shelter have become background noise. These stories of good intentions a...

I often feel guilty when I stroll past someone who’s in a wheelchair, maybe because it seems like bragging. Here’s a new, less judgmental phrase for suicide: Self-checkout. The gut gets too much...

I was at an Alcoholics Anonymous meeting many years ago when a fellow shared a story about baseball and beer. The guy said that before watching a ballgame, he would buy a case of beer (24 containers)...

Steve Duenkel must be a happy man today. Duenkel has been running hard for the job of Mason County auditor since filing his candidacy last winter. He's been doing his homework and traveling the...

The Greek scientist and mathematician Archimedes discovered that the volume of displaced water is equal to the volume of the object that’s submerged in the water. He realized that upon easing into...

Someone should introduce a brand of cigarettes called Moderate. That way, people could call themselves Moderate smokers. People without shelter are called homeless, so people with shelter should be...

My paternal grandfather, Eric Ericson, came to this country from Sweden with his parents in the early 1900s, maybe to escape a herring famine or something. We’re not sure why they came, but we do...

I was walking alone on a sidewalk in downtown Olympia one evening a couple of weeks ago when a man who looked to be in his 20s approached me. He asked whether I had any “white.” “Huh?” I...

Hey, parents of young ones: Would you like your journey through a grocery store with your children to be more harmonious? Would you like a dependable way to short-circuit the circuit in your...

I was busy catching up on infection news the other day at infectioncontroltoday.com when I came across this tidbit: “More than half of all Americans are symptomatic of highly contagious, unsightly...

Salesman on train: “How far you going, friend?” Harold Hill: “Wherever the people are as green as the money, friend.” — “The Music Man” Writing a newspaper column sometimes requires fish...

I have an idea for a pledge of allegiance that’s exclusively for Washingtonians: “I pledge fidelity to the flag of the mostly united state of Washington, And to the heavily democratic republic...

After the man asked his question, some folks snickered. The snickers came from many of the nearly 40 people assembled in the Mason County Commission Chambers last Wednesday for a county-sponsored...

“Pro-life conservatives are obsessed with the fetus from conception to 9 months. After that, they don’t wanna know about you. They don’t wanna hear from you. No nothing! No neonatal care, no day...

I don’t own a gun. It would just be one more thing I’d have to clean. The rhododendrons and dogwood trees are in their fullest bloom and the sun is high and bright. What a wonderful day it must...

“Socks!” I couldn’t remember the woman’s name who was walking toward me last week in the hall of the gym I go to. She worked in a drive-through coffee shop I frequented before the plague...

I’m not a violent person. I’m a flighter, not a fighter. I don’t like to be intimately involved in the slaying of anything, even vermin in our home. I’ll escort spiders and moths to the door....

"Summer, summer, summer, It's like a merry-go-round - Magic." -The Cars Summer is the season we residents west of the Cascades have earned. Winter is the slog. Summer is the song. The sun shines and...

I spent the summer of my 19th year working outside the northern Washington town of Republic on a cattle and alfalfa ranch along the Sanpoil River, a river that drains into the Columbia. It was there...