Columns

My Hero, My Dad

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Wendell Goffe Armour

My hero, my Dad

By IRENE POWELL
Los Alamos

Army First Sergeant Wendell Goffe Armour was 92 years old when he left this world June 26, 2014. He was a brave solider and a man proud of country. He experienced the horrors of war, and once said to me, “you don’t know what its like to have a buddy die in your arms.”

At 17, he joined the 28th Infantry Division of the Pennsylvania National Guard in Pittsburgh. They were called to active duty in February 1941 to Europe, but because he had a mother living in Germany, the Army sent him to the South Pacific. He joined the Army Air Corps and spent WWII Read More

Food on the Hill: A Red, White and Blue Veterans Day Menu

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Food on the Hill
By FELICIA ORTH
 
This week’s recipe:
 
A Red, White and Blue Veterans Day Menu
 
 
 
 
 
Photo by Felicia Orth

My grandmother Mabel regularly hummed a certain tune, unfamiliar to me, throughout the years I lived with her, 1976-1980. She was 76 years old, I was 17 and at a university in St. Louis. She hummed all of it except the words “my buddy, my buddy,” which I took to mean her late husband Leo. Eventually I heard the song played on the radio during a Veterans Day broadcast. Although the song by Gus Kahn and Walter Donaldson was published shortly

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Grant: Lifting The Veils Of Perfectionism

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Lifting the Veils of Perfectionism
By Elizabeth Grant
Licensed Professional Clinical Counselor

“Perfection has one grave defect: it is apt to be dull.” –William Somerset Maugham

Perfectionism, some wear it like a badge of honor but in many ways it’s highly overrated. Passion and excellence are character building and make for a better world. They come from a place of internal striving. On the other hand, perfectionism tends to be externally focused and is about trying to gain approval and acceptance. Perfectionism doesn’t allow for mistakes and can feed off of a feeling of not being good enough. Read More

Yang: The Prison Walls For The Middle Group

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The Prison Walls For The Middle Group
Part 5 of the series on intergroup dynamics
By ELENA YANG
Los Alamos

My sympathies initially were with the Middle group; they really were squeezed between two polarizing forces. The tension from such polarization was the basic reason for the Middle’s existence, yet managing this tension was what ultimately trapped them. 

The middle group always tried to mediate between the top and the lower. However, the paradox of “success” for the Middle group meant that a relatively peaceful co-existence between the top and the lower would render the Middle group Read More

Peterson: Help! I Turned To Get The Toast And My Back Went Out

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Help! I Turned To Get The Toast And My Back Went Out
By KREIG PETERSON
Medical Message Therapist

We have all heard this story in one form or another, or if we have experienced this phenomenon we know that this condition can literally take you out of commission for a week or more. What really happened and what can we do about it? Enter the world of myofascial trigger points and how they can be treated.

Myofascial trigger points are the discovery of two brilliant MD’s named Dr. Janet Travell and Dr. David Simmons. Their seminal discoveries in chronic and acute pain took decades of research. Currently, Read More

Williams: Superintendent Search Update

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By MATT WILLIAMS, Secretary
Los Alamos School Board

So there is quite a bit of buzz in the community about what is going on with the superintendent search. It’s due time the community heard directly from a School Board member (who of course is not officially representing the School Board as an entity).

What’s this about “advisory committees”? – I want to be on one!

First – committees are small intentionally, and have already been selected by the Board. You’ll have your chance to give input, that’s a promise from the School Board.

So what do these Read More

This Week At The Reel Deal

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Column By JIM O’DONNELL 
Reel Deal Theater  

Reel Deal Tuesday’s are back! All movies, all day Tuesday, are only $6.50! Holidays, winter and summer break excluded.

This Friday we are opening Big Hero 6 and Interstellar.  We will hold Nightcrawler, and Book of Life for another week. John Wick and Fury will end this Thursday.

We managed to get a print of both Big Hero 6 and Interstellar for this weekend. That’s a great thing as these are the first of the big holiday films and are both getting good reviews. Interstellar is almost 3 hours long so this would be a good time to look at the Read More

How the Hen House Turns—Introduction To The Early Years

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How the Hen House Turns
Introduction To The Early Years
Column by Carolyn A. (Cary) Neeper, Ph. D.

It is spring of 1943, World War II on the home front. A 40-acre fruit orchard on the outskirts of Hayward, California becomes a haven of self-sufficiency as butter and milk and meat grow scarce.

Our family of four begins life in the country with our new pup, Boots, and the gentle cow, Buttercup, who loved my dad, Pa. As more and more animals are brought to live in and around the barn at our victory farm, childhood-long lessons in independence and integrity begin.

A calico kitten found under the schoolhouse Read More

Purtzer: Strategies To Reduce Youth Substance Misuse

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Aaron Purtzer
 
By AARON PURTZER
Los Alamos

Recently Los Alamos Police Chief Dino Sgambellone presented a talk on the ongoing drug problem in Los Alamos public schools. Subsequently the Los Alamos Public Schools superintendent responded in an open letter discussing the schools role and processes for intervention and education.

 
The message I received from both Chief Sgambellone and Superintendent Gene Schmidt is that they are doing what they can to protect our youth from illicit drugs in the public schools but the community needs to participate in preventing substance abuse
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Cunningham: Thank You, Vote And Consider Me For Council

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By ANDREA CUNNINGHAM
County Council Candidate

As we move toward election day on Nov. 4 and the end of the campaign season, I would like to take this opportunity to thank my fellow County Council candidates for their civil discourse, consideration and respect for me and each other throughout the race.  

It saddens me to see the vitriol and fear based ads for all levels of the other races. No matter our opinions, we should treat each other with dignity and respect as fellow human beings. Los Alamos is blessed to have candidates where we can distinguish ourselves through presenting our views

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