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

Articles written by Kirk Ericson

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 By Kirk Ericson    Opinion    March 23, 2023 

Two teenagers meet 'Blazing Saddles'

“Ya know, Nietzsche says, ‘Out of chaos comes order.’ ” — Howard Johnson “Oh, blow it out your alpaca, Howard.” —Olson Johnson This is a newspaper. It should remain free of profanity...

 
 By Kirk Ericson    Opinion    March 16, 2023

You can help our Washington bees be

Here’s how your existence will unfold if you’re born a female mason bee in the state of Washington: You’ll grow from an egg into a larva, sealed inside a tubular chamber between two thin plugs o...

 
 By Kirk Ericson    Opinion    March 9, 2023

Ruminations after skipping daily nutrition

“I was a willow last night in a dream I bent down over a clear running stream.” — “Crazy on You,” Heart The first time I climbed Mount Ellinor was around the turn of the millennium, and it...

 
 By Kirk Ericson    Opinion    March 2, 2023

Random thoughts for a day in March

What if it turns out, despite all evidence to the contrary, that life is fair? If the president of the United States and the pope were figures in the board game Stratego, which one would have the...

 

Keeping an eye on skater girl and child

It’s hard to watch humans without judging, but it can be a liberating activity. Be the observer. Drop your ego, shut up, turn off the sensors that require you to criticize. Let a scene play out in...

 

The many manifestations of water

“The sea refuses no river And the river is where I am.” — Pete Townshend, “All the Best Cowboys Have Chinese Eyes” When water molecules gather, their identities are surrendered to the...

 

I'm sorry mistakes were made (and I got caught)

The scene: A member of Congress caught in a scandal appears on a television outlet that he hopes will treat him with sympathy. Congressman: I’d like to take this opportunity at this time to express...

 

Random thoughts for a February day

A good message for a reader board in front of an Episcopalian church: Jesus is woke. Our given name is the second gift we receive in this world, after being given the gift of life … or maybe our...

 

Holy smokes! Look what we can do!

Some of you former school kids might remember when the most reliable place to find the information required to write a book report was the World Book Encyclopedia. Those volumes, whose spines in the...

 

Johny Baltimore, the Hawks and Nirvana

I watched Saturday’s Seahawks’ playoff game with a friend, Johny Baltimore. “Baltimore” isn’t his birth surname, but it’s what people call him, mostly because he rarely appears without a...

 

Democracy in the House, east and west

This is a tale of two Houses: One in Washington, D.C., the other in Olympia. Let’s start with the frat House. On the evening of Jan. 6, I sat with Mary Young, my 95-year-old mother-in-law, watching...

 

Women and men and all of us

Sixty-three years of age — my age — is a careless time to make proclamations about human behavior: One has enough wisdom to recognize patterns and enough foolishness to believe one can make...

 

Random thoughts for a rainy winter day

Chickens could make a compelling argument that the War on Chickens is real. Last week’s ice storm made it clear that for civilization to function, traction is essential. The carrot-and-stick style o...

 

The ins and outs of navel-gazing

“The man without a navel still lives in me.” — Thomas Browne, English author From the Cambridge Dictionary: Navel-gazing — the activity of spending too much time considering your own...

 

Jobs that require a working nose

Have you ever thought about which senses are necessary to do your job? Sound? Sight? Smell? Touch? Taste? Those are the Big Five, the big receptors. They are our connections to the material world....

 

A question in a long marriage

I recently learned a newspaperman, who I knew while he worked for The Associated Press in Olympia, died several years ago. He was 38, had a wife and two kids, ages 3 and 6, so Jonathan Kaminsky’s...

 

Random thoughts for a December day

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...

 

Holding the door, against better judgment

I opened the entrance door to a restaurant for a woman the other day, which sparked a frayed memory of a time that’s no more. From the early 1970s, when the women’s liberation movement took root,...

 

Jokes for the coming holidays

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,...

 

On the California coast: What's that thing?

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,...

 

Random thoughts for a day in November

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...

 

Yes. You can walk from Olympia to Shelton*

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...

 

Five years, 261 columns, 1,300 messages

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...

 

Maybe now's the time to pay attention

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...

 

Random thoughts for an October day

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...

 

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