I was checking the reader comments a few days ago when I came across one that was such a positive, sweet-filled bit of praise that for a moment I felt buoyant. It was a feeling not unlike the constant sense of lift one gets – or at least should get – from the loving presence of a mother.

Then I saw who wrote this particular comment. It was my mom.

On this glorious and sun-filled Mother’s Day, I am foregoing the period of hours I usually spend hatching another blog. Instead, like most people fortunate enough to have a wonderful mother …

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“I see the bad moon arising. I see trouble on the way.” -Creedence Clearwater Revival

Every now and then I will read a scientific explanation that doesn’t blow past my head at warp speed. I may not know what warp speed is, but I must have been paying some attention during Astronomy 101. I actually have a basic understanding of the phenomenon, known as the Supermoon, that will be playing out in tonight’s sky.

It’s actually pretty simple. Because the lunar orbit is an ellipse rather than a circle, its distance from any one vantage changes over time. In this …

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I knew a vampire once.

He had dark hair and pale skin and his clothes were a midnight blue. He usually woke up just as the last rays of the sun were winking out on the horizon. Give or take a few minutes.

My friend wasn’t especially adherent to the strict regimen of vampires – bloodsucking, for one, was not on his list of to-do’s. But then, strictly speaking, he wasn’t a traditional vampire. He was a cop on the graveyard shift.

What separated my friend from countless people working the night shift was this unique decision: He changed his …

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This column ran in 2011, but I am dusting it off in recognition of Congressman Norm Dicks’ plans to retire.

I stood by the open cockpit door of the little four-passenger Piper and imagined myself the very image of a nonchalant charter pilot. Then my passenger, Congressman Norm Dicks, stormed up, hot with anger, and my cool demeanor evaporated like water on the sun-drenched tarmac. He had just been told that I was his ride to Hoquiam, and I swear I saw smoke coming out of his ears.

That was back in 2000. I had just left Tacoma P.D. …

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After a quick scan of the paper over the last week there can be only one conclusion – we live in amazing times.

If you’re into extreme theoretical physics (or just a follower of “The Big Bang Theory”) then you would have been struck by news out of CERN, a world reknown physics lab in Switzerland. This uber geek think tank has taken on the arrogant and daunting challenge of disproving Einstein’s theory that the speed of light is our universal and absolute speed limit. After blasting their neutrinos from Geneva to Italy, physicists are almost …

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Collegiate sports may be fought in the turf or on the floorboards, but the competition also rages in one unexpected place: the office.

In just about any business setting, whether in the cozy corner offices of corporate officials or the fuzzy-walled world of government cubicles, you will find the logo of many proud alma maters.

And right now the UW banners are hanging high.

If you’ll pardon the smug and self-serving props to the Dawg’s, it can not be denied that their stellar record (5-1 in Pac 12 play) has far exceeded expectations in this first season of the post-Jake …

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I ask you, in all the wide world is there anyplace quite like Las Vegas?

I just returned from a 3-day trip to Sin City where the sun is shining, the dice are rolling and that sucking sound is the noise of money escaping one’s wallet. Nothing is cheap in Vegas, not even the free stuff.

But while I did return with less green in my pocket and more red on my face (and shoulders and back), I still had a great vacation.

Las Vegas is a town with something for everybody whether you’re a gambler (I’m not), a hiker …

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I stood by the open cockpit door of the little four-passenger Piper and imagined myself the very image of a nonchalant charter pilot. Then my passenger, Congressman Norm Dicks, stormed up and my cool demeanor evaporated like water on the hot tarmac. When he realized I was his ride to Hoquiam I swear I saw smoke coming out of his ears.

That was back in 2000. I had just left Tacoma P.D. to pursue an ill-fated dream of being an airline pilot (a year later I would lose my job at Horizon Air when the Twin Towers came crashing down). …

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