Archive for January, 2009

What’s in a name? Trouble

Friday, January 30th, 2009

By BILL DUNCAN The View From Here
In the Oregon county where I live there is a population of over 100,000. I am the only William J. Duncan living in Roseburg but out of that 100,000 people, two others living in other parts of the county have the same name, William J. Duncan. That often causes [...]

Book Review/The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society

Friday, January 30th, 2009

 
The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society By Mary Ann Shaffer And Annie Barrows Dial Press A division of Random House Publishers Hardcover $22
By BILL DUNCAN The News-Review
Every now and then, a book comes along with an unusual title so intriguing that you have to peek [...]

Don’t write me in care of Prince William

Friday, January 23rd, 2009

By BILL DUNCANThe View From Here
You never want to get so smug that you rest on your laurels. Ever since I started writing a newspaper column my face has been plastered at the top of the column. If not me personally, at least my face has become almost a household legend.
However, that’s not to everyone. [...]

Book Review/Lincoln As I Knew Him

Friday, January 23rd, 2009

 
Lincoln As I Knew Him Gossip, Tributes & Revelations From His Best Friends & Worst Enemies A collected biography Edited by Harold Holzer Algonquin Books of Chapel Hill Paperback $14,95 
“We cannot escape history. We…will be remembered in spite of ourselves.”
-Abraham Lincoln from his annual message to Congress, December 1, 1862 
By [...]

Book review/The Green Collar Economy

Monday, January 19th, 2009

The Green Collar Economy By Van Jones HarperCollins Publishers Hardcover $25.95 
“When many people hear the term ‘green’ today, they still automatically think the message is probably for a fancy, eco-elite set – and not for themselves. And as long as that remains true, the green movement will remain too anemic politically [...]

Remembering the good old bad times

Friday, January 16th, 2009

By BILL DUNCANThe View From Here

The nightly news lately is depressing. To listen to the naysayers, one might think there is no way this nation can survive. We have survived worse and we have become stronger because of those trials. I teach a writing course and most of my students are seniors, many of whom [...]

Book Review/The Edge of Light

Monday, January 12th, 2009

The Edge of Light By Ann Shorey First of a trilogy in the At Home in Beldon Grove Series Revell Publishers Quality Paperback $13.99
By BILL DUNCAN The News-Review
Sutherlin author Ann Shorey’s first novel, “The Edge of Light,” is a reader’s introduction to a slice-of-life series about [...]

Thawing the memories of an old freezer

Friday, January 9th, 2009

By BILL DUNCAN The View From Here
So help me if I live to be a hundred, which is entirely possible at my age, I will never understand women. They cry over the damnest things.
Ever since my wife read a flyer inside the Pacific Power and Light bill offering $30 for any old, inefficient freezers, she bugged [...]

I’m saving this Christmas letter

Friday, January 2nd, 2009

By BILL DUNCANThe View From Here
During the Christmas season most of us receive typewritten Christmas letters stuffed inside Christmas cards from friends and relatives. And often the letters are subject to jokes and cartoons especially those long, rambling letters mentioning people you don’t even know.
Honestly, I read them all. I guess it is just because [...]