Continuing the Crook County News Since 1884
Continuing the Crook County News Since 1884
Sorted by date Results 326 - 350 of 538
Dear NP, During my recent hospital admission, the nurse asked if I have an advance directive or a living will. I am only 55 years old. What are these documents, and are they necessary at my age? S. S. Dear S. S., Aging is something that will happen to all of us, eventually. It’s scary to think about, but this is why it’s so important to plan ahead, whether it’s for you or a loved one. Unfortunately, according to the CDC, many people don’t plan ahead – according to the CDC, up to 70% of Americans do not have an advance care plan. Fifty-fiv...
Wales has attracted my attention again this week with a story that sounds like a picture book for children – something along the lines of the woman who lived in a shoe or the spider that ate the fly. The town in which this tale begins is a lot bigger than the one I told you about in my last column and, as far as I’m aware, its residents have had no trouble logging on to the internet. But what makes Tredegar similar to last week’s featured village is that a single event managed to bring a whole c...
We’ve heard endless talk over the last few years about improving access to broadband for people who live in the more far-flung corners of Wyoming. Right now, for instance, there’s a push at the state level to dip into the pandemic purse for just that goal, and I’m here to bring you proof that this is an excellent idea. Bad internet, as it turns out, can make it difficult to watch your favorite television shows – but not for the reason you might be thinking. This was a lesson recently learned...
You shall love your neighbor as yourself – Matthew 22:39 We are connected to the world and the world to us. As part of it we have responsibility for it. There exist unseen absolutes we are accountable for and when these fundamental items are not attended to, people and society suffer. The primary element to a properly functioning civilization is the treatment of one another with dignity and value. The implication of connecting with the world starts and never ends with treating one another as a worthwhile part of the whole. Individual connection...
So let’s say you’re kicking back bored on the sofa, somewhere in the south of England, wishing you could have a vacation to clear the cobwebs. You’re dubious of planes and bored to tears of caravan parks, and you certainly can’t spend a couple of weeks on an all-expenses-paid cruise. But there’s still a way you can enjoy the glitz and glamor of those giant ships, thanks to an entrepreneur from my home county. Paul Derham lives in Mudeford, a modest coastal village in Dorset where not a lot usual...
The pandemic has always seemed comfortingly far away here in Crook County. Halfway up a mountain, safe in our small towns, few of us know anyone who’s been diagnosed with the dreaded virus – right? Well, if you’re reading these words, now you do. I am the sixteenth identified case of COVID-19 in this county. I caught the virus despite not having left Sundance since March. Despite having avoided almost every gathering and large event. Despite staying away from public meetings and doing every...
Dear NP, I am in my late 60s. I am worried about the immunizations that my primary care provider is offering me. With flu season just around the corner, I am considering the influenza vaccine. Then, there is the possibility of the COVID-19 vaccine becoming available. Can you talk about vaccines, how they are made and the potential side effects of vaccines in general? M. S. Dear M. S., Vaccines have certainly been a hot topic of debate over the last several decades, and I understand why people...
Someone has hit the rewind button on my television, all the way back to the 1990s. The infamous home renovation show that birthed an entire genre is set to return to British screens – and I honestly cannot wait. The name of this game is Changing Rooms, and it was an accidental masterpiece. I believe it was adapted here after it became wildly popular back home (and was the inspiration for Trading Spaces), but I don’t know if the American crew was quite as oblivious to its own insanity. This was...
I feel the need to defend my people, for the entire planet is currently mocking our relationship with the humblest of pantry ingredients: rice. I knew I’d stepped into a parallel world when I moved to Wyoming – a place where everything is just different enough to be confusing – but every so often something still stops me in my tracks. There’s a video doing the rounds of the internet by a Malaysian comedian called Nigel Ng, who lives in London and goes by the persona of “Uncle Roger”. I...
And now abide faith, hope, love, these three; but the greatest of these is love. 1 Cor. 13:13 Extending love is an adventure that all who walk this earth participate. Willing or unwilling this trip is either hesitant or reckless, as the initiator is compelled to things or others by a curiosity that is inherent. To love and be loved is something we were created to do and to ignore, hide or deny this absolute of living is an excursion into loneliness. To possess or be the object of love is both rewarding and dangerous. It can leave a big hurt,...
My high school has its fair share of famous alumni, from politicians and scientists to a professional tennis player who is still the only British woman to have won all four Grand Slams. In my own time there, I shared classroom space with two future actresses; a well known lyric soprano; and virtuoso cellist Natalie Clein. My school has particular success when it comes to music because of its strong all-round program, but it was never going to be the road to riches for me. While my talented...
To Editor Sundance Times: The 30 July 2020 edition had an article “Voters to decide on senior services levy”. I have some problems with your against argument. 1. The levy is not taking revenues from the individual and putting it into the hands of the government for distribution. I wish to state that the government has failed to ensure vital services for our seniors it has provided. That is why we at the local level have been forced to institute the levy. The need is vital and exceeds the abilities of families and churches. We, the seniors of Cr...
The crisis caused by the novel coronavirus has substantially impacted our state, nation and world. This has impacted most, if not all, facets of daily life in our state. Wyoming agriculture has not been spared from these dynamics. In fact, this crisis has been compounded for our ag producers by an extremely fragile and inflexible meat packing industry. The incompetence of large international meat processing monopolies in responding to this crisis has left ranchers scrambling to find a place to sell their livestock as consumers find themselves...
Dear NP, My 69-year-old mother is becoming more than just forgetful. She recently got lost in a town she has lived in her whole life. She has been diagnosed with Alzheimer’s and offered a lot of medications to help with the symptoms. Can you tell me about some of these medications? L. S. Dear L. S., First of all, so many of us know all too well what it is like to see a parent struggle with Alzheimer’s. I hope the advice in this column will make things easier for you and for her. Unf...
In the July 30 edition of your paper you ran an article about the Wyoming Gun Owners organization. In it you quoted negative statements about the group from sources such as NBC News, The Washington Post, and The Daily Beast. These are the worst of the worst regarding the values that most Wyoming residents hold dear. These are the exact groups who try to chisel away and eventually destroy our Second Amendment rights by labeling anyone who supports traditional values as “extremists.” Whether a group has an out of state presence is immaterial in...
I am alarmed at the free college rhetoric that hit the Wyoming news cycle over the past week. I know our post-secondary institutions are concerned about enrollment being down this fall and the financial hardship that will cause. But dangling the offer of free college with federal CARES money is not the right message or strategy for that money or our state. It is all too easy in contemporary politics for politicians to offer free everything, we can do better than that in Wyoming. A draft bill, proposed by Speaker Harshman, and supported by...
I don’t think I’m likely to go down in Wyoming history as a famous birdwatcher. Not that this was an ambition I felt was mine to achieve, but my failures over the last few days have certainly clarified that my talents lie elsewhere. I don’t know about you guys, but we’ve been noticing more variety in the winged visitors passing through this season. We have crossbills and robins, the odd bird of prey and, of course, the ever-present turkeys and their adorable offspring. Still waiting on the ret...
I am sad to report that I write this column while consuming the last of the soda bread my husband stuffed into the freezer during our time of self-isolation. Like thousands of men across the world, he discovered a new hobby in the form of bread products that don’t require yeast. There’s probably a deep meaning somewhere in the fact that so many men of different backgrounds, ages, vocations and cultures came to this same decision about their baking experiments, but I haven’t teased it out. I am...
For this cause I was born, and for this cause I have come into the world, that I should bear witness to the truth. Everyone who is of the truth hears My voice. (John 18:37) Relationship-Revelation-Responsibilities. That is what connects the dots and concepts in life. I see in Jesus Him moving purposefully, intentionally for truth to make an impact. Showing and linking the precious life we are all given to the Giver. Living a life with resolve and producing questions that need to be asked. Many attempt to teach primarily the reality of God...
This year it seems that voters in House District #1 have a choice between a candidate who is pro-gun and pro-life and another candidate who is pro-gun and pro-life. Whatever is a voter to do who feels that guns take lives, so it is impossible to be in favor of both. But, we know that pro-life is really a code word used mainly by middle-aged men who want both a small government (“Lower those taxes, reduce those regulations!”) and a government big enough to intrude itself into the personal decisions of young women. So, we would have a gov...
It’s not that I condone bad behavior, it’s just that some naughtiness is so majestic it’s hard to condemn the perpetrators. Such has been the case with some of my old neighbors across the pond who haven’t been following the rules of this pandemic properly. The story that has brought me the greatest joy from the “I shouldn’t laugh at this, but…” category takes place in a pub in the English city of Sheffield. Like every other pub in the nation, it was told to close its doors when the pandemic fi...
From both a personal and community perspective, we’d like to commend the boards and districts that have been conscientiously providing online access to their meetings throughout this pandemic. Not only has it allowed the public to avoid small rooms of large groups – the kind of places we’ve all been warned about by health experts – it has opened a new line of transparency to the people of Crook County. Offering choice is always commendable, when it’s possible to do so. Not everyone can take time off during the working day, or leave the kids...
Dear NP, My daughter struggled through school last year. Due to COVID, she was homeschooled for several months and I am worried about her focus. What are the signs of ADHD? M. L. Dear M. L., ADHD stands for attention-deficit hyperactivity disorder and can be a major problem for children and adults alike. Over six million children are diagnosed with ADHD every year, so it is far from a rare problem. However, many of the stereotypical behaviors of ADHD are things that all lively, energetic childre...
Food insecurity is a largely invisible problem, most typically experienced within the privacy of a home or kept an uncomfortable secret in a school setting. Walk into any grocery store in Wyoming and it’s hard to imagine how anyone might not have enough to eat, but that’s the irony of hunger: it isn’t that there isn’t enough food to eat, but that families and children aren’t always able to access that food. Kids who don’t have reliable access to food are much more likely to face unhealthy,...
Dear Editor, I am writing in concern to the Superintendent Mark Broderson comments about the opening the schools this fall (June 25 paper). The comments on page 12 about the students being called “bubbles” or “herds”. As I thought about the word herds is that our young men and women are not cattle, sheep, goats or pigs. On scripture in the Bible describes pigs who ran into the sea as a herd of swine. I don’t think “herds” is a very good choice of words to call students. Why not groups of students. “Herd” in the dictionary describes it as a...
