The pros and cons of keeping a journal

Written by JAYSON JACOBY Baker City Herald June 12, 2009 10:29 am

I wish sometimes that I kept a journal.

I don’t mean a diary. I have no need for a cute little volume with flowers on the cover and whose pages I would, I fear, clog with cloying poetry inspired by a pretty vista I had seen in the mountains.

Nor am I conceiving of a Twitter-like (Twittery? Twitterish?) document which records every banal aspect of my daily routine. The Internet is quite full enough without adding to it my tally of jelly beans consumed or phone calls made and received.

What I’m thinking of, rather, is a simple chronicle that preserves for each day one or two events, the details of which I might want handy so as to revive my failing memory years later.

State workers need to pitch in

Written by Baker City Herald Editorial Board June 05, 2009 11:26 am

Please forgive our indulging in an overused nautical analogy, but as Oregon’s economy has been foundering these past several months, it seems to us that state workers have more than their share of reserved seats on the lifeboats.

For instance, according the Oregon Employment Department, private sector wages in the state rose an average of 2 percent in 2008.

New ways to get you the news, now

Written by KARI BORGEN Baker City Herald June 05, 2009 11:25 am

I’m in my office waiting for a text to my cell phone.

As I write this column, Baker High School’s baseball team is playing Henley near Klamath Falls for a berth in the state championship game. Kial Richardson, sister to Baker player Trace Richardson, is texting game updates to a whole bevy of Bulldog faithful, including me. I’m updating the score to the breaking news section of our Web site, www.bakercityherald.com, as soon as I get them.

Lay the blame for murders on the people who pulled the trigger

Written by JAYSON JACOBY Baker City Herald June 05, 2009 11:23 am

Two Americans were murdered this week because they chose careers that some people don’t approve of.

On the list of ridiculous reasons to kill somebody, this ranks right beside “hey, he looked at me funny.”

From a fast drive to the final class: 17 years goes by in a blur

Written by JAYSON JACOBY Baker City Herald May 29, 2009 01:53 pm

On the day my older daughter was born I broke at least one Oregon law and possibly a few federal statutes.

The former could have cost me a couple hundred bucks, a bail I would have gladly paid. The federal rap, though, might have had serious repercussions — my own FBI file, for instance.