Over the years it has occurred to me that language can be both unclear as well as clear and also funny. For example when we say: “I’m having an old friend for dinner” does that mean that the friend needs to cancel the dinner appointment for fear of being eaten?

For those of you following my Facebook page, each day you can see additional progress being made to the house we are building just down the street from our current home. What has been of tremendous interest to me (as an actual engineer) are all the little tricks gained through the school of hard knocks.

If one is born in the United States, or emigrates here as a fairly young person, those of us fortunate enough to be an American citizen are truly blessed.

As I look back over my life and career, being here as opposed to being somewhere else has genuinely provided me tremendous opportunities. I am eternally grateful for having had this privilege.

Socialists have come up with an idea called the Green New Deal. This is an attempt (certainly a worthwhile goal) to reduce carbon emissions and wealth inequality in order to save the earth. However, the suggested steps to achieve this simply, in my opinion, cannot work.

We’ve had over five inches of snow (down on the Sound in Edmonds, where we now live) and very cold temperatures for the past few days. Mill Creek got over seven inches. Everett got just over a foot of it. And more snow is on the way.

The alternate name of the football game next weekend comes from my wife. In many people’s viewpoint there is nothing so special about a bunch of 250 lb or more men running around trying to hit their opponent into submission and/or unconsciousness?

A recent story about the Kroger supermarket group (Fred Meyer, QFC, Ralphs - California mostly, many others) testing high tech shopping is quite interesting. About 94% of Kroger revenue comes from food stores, so this announcement is a really big deal.

For some reason, professional football seems to have taken the place of professional baseball in defining part of who a city is. For me, growing up in New York City, it was the Brooklyn Dodgers, or the New York Yankees who defined the essence of being from New York.