Mukilteo Beacon - Your Hometown News Source

Does the name Doug Forcett ring a bell? I’m not suggesting it should. I had to look it up, and I’m writing this thing. Doug Forcett is a minor character on the NBC sitcom “The Good Place,” whi...

I run a small business, and I need widgets. You’re the owner of a widget factory. I’m me. You’re Bob. Hi Bob! My customers have become accustomed to quality service and products. They expect...

I should just take the week off. I don’t know anything about Halloween. Apparently I was sick the day they explained it. I understand the basics. I remember some fun Halloweens as a kid, going trick...

It was a special day in my family when the diaries arrived. At some point in the 1970s, we were sent little journals from Nielsen Media Research to manually record what we watched on TV. For one...

For someone whose summers are typically low-key seasons, this past one was an anomaly in the sense that I lost it. I spent about a month traveling this summer, making several trips, and I’m...

I’ve been reading your mail for 18 years. I just realized that sounds sort of illegal. Let me clarify. I’ve been writing this column for 18 years. A few weeks following the attacks of Sept. 11,...

I’ve been exchanging text messages with an old friend lately, “old” as in old. We met when we were 15, 46 years ago this month. Maybe on this very day, who knows? I didn’t make a note in my...

I suspect that most of us have a sense of the history we don't really know. We grow and move beyond simple, chauvinistic attitudes about what happened in the past, elementary school lessons seen...

At some point around the middle of last century, my father began to smoke cigarettes. He would have been around 13, although I’m just rounding off anecdotes for convenience; I don’t have an exact...

Summer in the Northwest is abstract, only minimally tethered to the calendar. Summer weather seldom gets going until mid-July, but the season starts when you decide it does. I suspect we all...

I’d like to state for the record that I consider Alan Alda to be a national treasure. I’m going to write a bit about Alda, so I wanted to be up front about my personal feelings. I should probably...

“History never repeats itself,” Mark Twain once said, “but it rhymes.” Of course, if you believe the internet, Mark Twain said everything worth saying. Aside from a couple of nods in the...

I don’t drink and I don’t play golf. They still let me come to Scotland. I spent the past two weeks in that wee country, although it’s really not that wee. I just like using the word. It’s a...

It’s an unremarkable place, even by the standards of nondescript architecture. A low-slung building with what appears to be a tin roof, a tourist stop just an hour away from the Grand Canyon, Black... Full story

Yearbooks have lost most of their power now. What used to shock me on the rare occasions when I ran across them, the stray moments preserved in handwriting, the DNA pressed between the pages, has... Full story

We entertained a couple of friends from out of town a few weeks ago, although I’m not sure how entertaining we were. We didn’t tap dance or anything. It wasn’t unusual. A high-tech conference...

A quarter of my life has passed without my father being around to hear about it. I used to enjoy calling him on Saturday nights, catching him up and just chatting about whatever, and for months after... Full story

I heard two ugly travel stories last week, not very soothing as summer season takes off. Both involved planes that were supposed to be flying, and were not. Both of these people shared some details...

On Sunday, Jan. 17, 1965, I joined my brother and sister in front of our black-and-white TV set to watch the annual showing of “The Wizard of Oz” on CBS. I’ve been alive long enough to...

I stopped eating sandwiches about 15 years ago. It was a peculiar life choice, as up until then I considered no food completely edible unless it could be placed between two pieces of bread, including... Full story

One cold winter’s day, wearing a bulky coat, I walked down a grocery store aisle and my sleeve brushed a display of wine glasses. There wasn’t enough contact to cause breakage. The metal snaps on...

I have a confession to make. I skim the news a lot more than I used to. I didn’t have to confess that to you specifically. I just felt like I should tell someone. Because keeping up with current...

I was visiting my daughter in San Antonio last week, a spontaneous trip that needed no special reason, as the reason is 5 years old and has a nightlight in his room. If you catch my drift. This kept...

John Tyler was our 10th president, the first one not born an English subject, and the namesake of Tyler, Texas, about 100 miles southeast of Dallas. I suspect most of Tyler’s 100,000 residents are...

It occurred to me a few years ago that if I’d known, as a little boy, that in the future I’d use so many passwords every day, I would have imagined a much cooler life. I’d be Steve McQueen or...