POSTED // Nov 12,2008 - It didn’t result in blows like the recent Jerusalem brawl between Greek Orthodox and Armenian monks, but another event this month reminded me that religion is a strange master. At an awards breakfast last week, this paper was honored with an achievement award in the “lifestyle” category from the Downtown Alliance. Judging by the response to the City Weekly award-acceptance video,...

POSTED // Nov 5,2008 - Had he not died this past spring, my brother Gary might have attended his 50-year Bingham High School reunion this coming Saturday night. I barely remember his high school years other than watching him play the sports he so excelled at, like baseball, football and wrestling. Not long after his graduation, he moved from our Oquirrh mountain home to Salt Lake City where he attended the University of...

POSTED // Oct 29,2008 - This morning, I got an e-mail from City Weekly publisher Jim Rizzi. I always anticipate his e-mails since I expect any one at any time to finally announce his plans for sending me out to pasture. I’ve been waiting for about four years now for him to fire me, but no such luck, despite the fact that I’m the single biggest cost to his editorial-department bottom line. Lord knows, and City...

POSTED // Oct 1,2008 - Despite what all those letter-to-the-editor Utah mamas had to say when Sarah Palin was named as John McCain’s running mate—“We love her! She’s one of us!!”—Palin has subsequently proven to be the weakest candidate for...

POSTED // Sep 24,2008 -  “Can I get my money back for those free tickets I received?” The above was the opening sentence to an e-mail I received this week from one of the lucky winners of the free BYU football tickets I recently gave away. I had bought, for...

POSTED // Sep 17,2008 - I don’t know Rebecca Walsh. All I know about her is that she is a fine newspaper columnist and was formerly a fine newspaper reporter. Via her column Tuesday, Walsh came clean with her admission that she is a closet Wal-Mart shopper, against her...

POSTED // Sep 10,2008 - Just as the swallows returning to Capistrano indicate that spring is right around the corner and the absence of the groundhog’s shadow indicates an end to winter, the annual Greek Festival assemblage of so many olive-skinned, black-haired and brown-eyed...

POSTED // Aug 27,2008 - First things first: Last week, I offered up tickets to all of BYU’s home football games to anyone asking for them. They were gone in less time than it took our military to capture Baghdad, not only exhibiting the value of those tickets but also...

POSTED // Aug 13,2008 - As has been noted here numerous times, I like reader feedback. I take the phone calls, I read the letters, I try to decipher the comment boards and blog posts. I even ask strangers in cafes and bars what they think. Only once has someone picked up their...

POSTED // Aug 6,2008 - I don’t think I’ll make it to Greece this year. That’s not the end of things as currently I have a group of four young dancers from Aspropyrgos, Greece, staying at my home. They’re in town for nearly a week participating in the...