Wilf Woods: South Korea’s economy continues to grow
While North Korea continues to make military noise, and missiles, it’s bigger neighbor, South Korea, keeps growing its production of goods. With a female president, Park Geun-hye, daughter of a former South Korean leader, this country has tripled its exports in the last ten years. Samsung and the Hyundai Motor Group are world-wide successes today.
Wilf Woods: Lake Chelan rentals off to good start
Vacation rentals at Lake Chelan are off to the best year ever, says Mary Beth Clark, who, with husband Lou runs most of the rentals around the lake. They took over Chelan Vacation Rentals fifteen years ago with eight units, have grown the business to 170 units, including 100 condos.
Wilf Woods: Remembering Columbia River swimming holes
A new swimming program was announced by the Wenatchee schools a few days ago for all freshmen PE students. It reminds me that the Columbia River was the place that early students learned to swim in places like Morris Pond, Cox Pond, or Porter’s Pond.
Wilf Woods: ‘The Story of Ain’t’
I write this little column with my dictionary by my side, a Merriam-Webster Ninth Collegiate edition, not realizing what a flap there was 50 years ago when Merriam brought out its third unabridged edition.
Wilf Woods: Lake Chelan needs sensible rules
Are they really going to get sensible about those crazy rules on Lake Chelan? It sounds like the bureaucrats are talking. That lake, with its big annual drawdown has been required to have trees and rootballs to help the fish. Makes sense for a lake that is stable, I guess, but it sure doesn’t make sense for this lake.
Wilf Woods: Walking in Bretz’s footsteps
Back in the 1920s a young Seattle teacher by the name of Bretz traveled across eastern Washington and was impressed by what he saw: he called it “channeled scablands” and started a long study of them.
Wilf Woods: Pybus opening is a new chapter for downtown
The ebb and flow of retail business in our downtown takes another turn with the opening of the Pybus Market this weekend. It will be interesting to watch, and I’m betting on Mike and JoAnn Walker’s expertise to make it fly.
Wilf Woods: “A Three-Nation Reading Vacation”
The author calls it “A Three-Nation Reading Vacation.” Arnie Marchand of Oroville has produced stories of the past from the Wenatchee Valley north into British Columbia in his book, “The Way I Heard It,” the three nations being the U.S. Canada, and the Indian nations of this area.
Wilf Woods: Digging deeper into dinos
Every kid loves a dinosaur, it seems, and author Brian Switek takes us on a lifelong journey of learning more and more about them in his new book “My Beloved Brontosaurus.”
Wilf Woods: Dickey’s a different sort of pitcher
Knuckleball pitcher R. A. Dickey was last year’s American League Cy Young Award winner, the only knuckleballer to win that award, Dickey writes. He has a new book out about his long career and getting to the top of the heap, entitled “Wherever I Wind Up.”
Wilf Woods: How Entiat got a foundry
Twenty years ago, Entiat got a new business when the Morel brothers of Seattle moved their foundry to a former fruit warehouse. The Port of Seattle had taken their site and they had to move. Their Entiat operation was merged three years later with Pacific Aerospace and Electronics, and both brothers then returned to Seattle, going back to the foundry business.
Wilf Woods: Fun days at Apple Blossom, long ago and today
The Memorial Park food and entertainment area has been a recent and popular spot during Apple Blossom Festival days. In my high school days, the lawn in front of the Chelan County Courthouse was the place where the ceremony of inducting the queen was held. My senior year of 1937 saw Queen Janet Foster crowned by Gov. Clarence Martin, who came every year.
Wilf Woods: A family newspaper history
John Hughes has been in town for the last two days interviewing Rufus and me about our family newspaper history. John knows the paper business. He spent 42 years at The Daily World in Aberdeen, from paperboy to publisher, leaving five years ago to join Sam Reed’s Secretary of State office.
Wilf Woods: The big festival keeps on changing
It sort of snuck up on us. I mean it’s Apple Blossom Festival time already, with full apple bloom already past. We don’t have many orchards close in any more, but that don’t hold us back from the city’s biggest annual celebration. It has changed over the years, of course. We have always had big parades. But the big food show in the park is more recent.
Wilf Woods: Soap Lake gets its own history book
Few small towns have had a history to match Soap Lake: mecca for Native Americans seeking health, target for World War I veterans with Buerger’s disease (resulting in a state-financed hospital in the late 1930s), and a healthy commercial business of making salts from the lake.
Talking It Over: Memorable week of music, but will strings play on?
Last week was a memorable music week in Wenatchee, as we heard two internationally-known string players perform. Evan Drachman, cellist and founder of the Piatigorsky Foundation, played at WVC’s new Grove hall on Tuesday. Saturday night came Mark O’Connor with the Wenatchee Valley Symphony, the country’s best-known exponent of fiddling country and bluegrass music, playing his own Improvised Violin Concerto, a full-length work that brought raves from the capacity hall.
Wilf Woods: Finding new uses for all sorts of things
Recycling is a way of life here at The World. We are printing this paper in a recycled building that used to house fruit. Our newsprint has a recycled content. And this week, we are putting into operation a huge inserting machine that we will use to put our daily inserts into the paper.
Wilf Woods: Pybus opening soon
They’re into the final push to open Pybus Market on May 11, just days away now. Gerry Ailts, in charge of contracts and sales for the operation, gave me a look at the corporate structure behind the whole thing.
Wilf Woods: PAC’s next season will be one to remember
What a difference a year makes. I’m talking about our PAC, Wenatchee’s Performing Arts Center. The 2012-13 concert year is winding down, with nine fine performances, of which two were supported by sponsors. But many of them left the center in the red, financially.
Wilf Woods: Immigration laws have long history
With all the immigration debate, we forget the recent history of what Congress has done. For instance, it was in 1986 that a reform act, master-minded by Sen. Alan Simpson, Republican of Wyoming, legalized 2,704,884 immigrants without documents.
Wilf Woods: Drachman continues with concert tradition on Tuesday
We welcome Evan Drachman, cellist and founder of the foundation named for his grandfather, the Piatigorsky Foundation, back to Wenatchee Tuesday.
Wilf Woods: From wolves to a Schnauzer named Gabriella
What makes dogs the faithful, loving pets we all adore? There’s a new theory, says Nature magazine this winter, that wolves which became dogs were those whose bodies were able to digest the starches that humans left behind.
Wilf Woods: New book out on history of Moses Lake
The Images of America book series has published county and city histories of this area. The latest, coming out the end of this month, is a pictorial history of Moses Lake. The largest city in Grant County has had an interesting past.
Wilf Woods: Book looks at costs of addiction
“Overcoming addiction and Ending America’s Greatest Tragedy” is the subtitle of David Sheff’s new book, “Clean.” He puts it succinctly: addiction is a disease with a neurological basis — a mental illness. But we have been treating it like a war, and we have lost that war.
Wilf Woods: Terry Johnson’s passing a loss for community
Pancreatic cancer is one that hasn’t been solved, and it took Terry Johnson this week, a real loss for the community. Johnson was an architect who has left his mark around the area, including his participation in the building of the Performing Arts Center of Wenatchee. His Montana upbringing left its mark, too. He and his wife Mary Lou have been a prominent and active part of the community since they moved here.
Wilf Woods: Tracing Bonneville’s history
Reviewing Federal power policies in this region for the last 62 years is no simple task, but Dr. Dan Ogden of Vancouver has put it all together in a new book he has produced. Ogden is no stranger to the subject. He served seven years in the Interior Department, director of budget for two of those, then moved to the Department of Energy from 1978 to 1984, moving to the Public Power Council after that.
Wilf Woods: Change afoot in oil-rich Venezuela
With the death of Hugo Chavez of Venezuela last month, the future of the great oil-driven socialist experiment of that country is in question. Venezuela, I learned, has more oil reserves than Saudi Arabia.
Wilf Woods: Sandhill cranes flock for festival
The official Sandhill Crane celebration at Othello is a week away, but the birds are there now. Thanks to Judy and Dan Smith of Chelan, both of them birders, I got an early look at literally thousands of those big sojourners, stopping on their way to northern Canada.
Talking It Over: Our trails all lead to a better community
Trail alert. The Complete-the-Loopers plan to hike the trail location from Odabashian Bridge to Rocky Reach Dam next Saturday, either from the south or north end.
Wilf Woods: Calvin Coolidge was a true fiscal conservative
The memory of Ronald Reagan’s presidency has made many a conservative voter wish for a return to his policies. He cut taxes, but grew the federal government.
Wilf: Calvin Coolidge a true conservative
The memory of Ronald Reagan’s presidency has made many a conservative voter wish for a return to his policies. He cut taxes, but grew the federal government. Perhaps they ought to have looked back farther to find a president who actually shrank the government.
Wilf Woods: Hey, read a book
Good news about bookstores. Independent bookstores are growing, and sales in 2012 grew by 8 percent over the previous year, according to a survey by the American Booksellers Association.
Wilf Woods: Rowing season is here
Skip Johnson reminds us that rowing season is upon us, and the Wenatchee Row & Paddle Club is preparing to expand the rowing program, based at the Linden Tree area at the foot of Ninth Street on the Columbia.
Wilf Woods: Reminders of the costs of war
A couple of biographies have kept me busy reading about Winston Churchill and Dwight D. Eisenhower. Both of them are fat books, “The Last Lion” a thousand pages, and Ike’s story — “Eisenhower in War and Peace” — more than 700.
Wilf Woods: Welcome to Mission Street, Harriet
The neighborhood just got upgraded, and we’re glad. Harriet Bullitt bought the old KPQ building, an old concrete shell of a building, next to The World for her radio stations.
Wilf Woods: Walkers help add new, shiny chapter to riverfront history
I had the privilege of presenting Mike and JoAnn Walker with the Legacy Award at the Wenatchee Valley Chamber of Commerce banquet last night, on behalf of our Wenatchee Valley Business World and the Chamber. The Wenatchee Valley Business World is the monthly voice of our business community.
Wilf Woods: 20,000 come to town during 1915 for a chance to win a homestead
The year 1915 was an interesting one for The Wenatchee World. The World sent out little classified ads to papers all over the country, advertising the opening of the Colville Indian Reservation for homesteaders.
Wilf Woods: FDR and a sudden turn of events in the sagebrush
Eighty years ago this month, President Franklin D. Roosevelt decided to put men to work, and allocated Public Works funds to start work on two Columbia River dams, Bonneville and Grand Coulee, along with a lot of others.
Wilf Woods: Apple Leaf takes a closer look at WestSide High
We produce a lot of publications on our press, big and little. I was impressed with our own Wenatchee High School’s Apple Leaf that was printed in February, 28 pages chock full of high school news.
Wilf Woods: A sensible approach to gun ownership
A sensible approach to the contentious question of gun ownership and use comes from the opinion page of the Scientific American’s March issue. They equate the gun business with the history of automobile safety, of all things. Back 60 years ago there were suggestions that auto fatalities could be lessened with better auto design and seat belt use.
Wilf Woods: Remembering dad — and much more
It’s fun to impersonate somebody else. In my case, it was my father, whom I became for Saturday’s People of the Past event at the Wenatchee Valley Museum & Cultural Center.
Wilf Woods: Spokane is leading the way in science education
Science education has taken new life in Spokane with the opening six months ago of the Mobius Science Center, twinned with the Mobius Children’s Museum, which has been operating for seven years.
Wilf Woods: A new look at pre-1776
Stories of our nation’s beginnings always attract me: the latest book, “1775.” Its subtitle is “A Good Year for Revolution.”
Wilf Woods: Love still springs eternal
Yes, today is Valentine’s Day, in case you had not noticed.
Wilf Woods: And another thing about insurance
Beth Stipe tells me she just won a battle with a rental car company in Hawaii.
Wilf Woods: Buying insurance locally
Buying cheaper insurance is great, if you never need it.
Wilf Woods: Maybe I have become more sensitive
Maybe I have become more sensitive in my senior years, but even with a hearing loss I find many music venues simply too loud for comfort.
Wilf Woods: Figuring out what happened to Red Delicious
The research folks are trying to bring us better apples, and the latest WSU Magazine tells of the work going on to find the next star in the apple galaxy. What happened to our Red Delicious?
Wilf Woods: Jazz season!
We’re waiting for that jazz workshop in a few days, that brings in a group of hotshot musicians every year. In the meantime, we attended a jazz afternoon last Sunday at the Upper Eastside Coffee House, where Mary and Steve Sanders hang out once a month, augmented by vocalists Ruth Parsons and Mary Resk.
Wilf Woods: Sun setting on skin cancers
Dr. Annalisa Gorman, who removes my skin cancers, tells me that in a few years the incidence of these pesky things will be declining in number. Why? Because we oldsters never had skin protection in our youth.
Previous Next