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Nov 18, 2024 | 
cdapress.com | Sholeh Patrick
Sleep has been more elusive of late. That’s nothing unusual over 50, but averaging an interrupted hour or two each night is becoming a chronic problem. Most at this age could moan about arthritis and various inflammations, but what’s put it over the edge is my mind: It just won’t stop. Don’t worry, this column isn’t about me. Minds worry. They fret. They obsess and rehash and reframe scenarios past and future, no matter how pointless. They just. Won’t. Shut.
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Nov 4, 2024 | 
cdapress.com | Sholeh Patrick
This hot-button topic — especially on Election Day — must begin with two caveats. First, while this column’s purpose is to explore a broad array of big topics in bite-sized pieces, political theories don’t fit in small packages. So please keep in mind any short definition must be incomplete. Second, political systems are inextricable yet different from economic ones, and the two are often conflated and confused. That includes politically biased websites purporting to teach them.
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Oct 21, 2024 | 
cdapress.com | Sholeh Patrick
It’s often said that language is a living thing. That’s true at least in one respect: It grows. Each year, English dictionaries add a few hundred to 1,000 new words, so if you’re keeping up, speaking what’s likely your native tongue is a lifelong pursuit of learning. Old English of the Middle Ages contained an estimated 50,000 words.
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Oct 14, 2024 | 
cdapress.com | Sholeh Patrick
They say a picture is worth a thousand words. Actually, New York newspaper editor Arthur Brisbane first phrased it a little differently in 1911:“Use a picture. It’s worth a thousand words.”As campaign advertisers know, skipping a thousand words also saves money and space. Instead of a paragraph to relay a platform on a bumper sticker or yard sign, elephants and donkeys convey messages we all recognize.
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Oct 7, 2024 | 
cdapress.com | Sholeh Patrick
Fall and unpredictable weather go hand in hand. Take the next two weeks in Coeur d’Alene. Highs range from the 70s to 50s with chilly nights. A morning coat is a must, but it’s too early to pack away summer T-shirts. Look to the creepy crawlies. Insects are good at sensing what’s to come, picking up small environmental clues that people tend to miss.
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Sep 30, 2024 | 
cdapress.com | Sholeh Patrick
Can you name the three branches? Most can’t. You’d think a nation that’s almost 250 years old would know itself better. On Sept. 22, The Press published an article about a University of South Carolina government professor and former West Point instructor who for years has required students to take the same civics citizenship test given to immigrants. Typically, about a third pass it. The rest, he said, “are just clueless.”By multiple measures, we’re failing civics at alarming rates.
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Sep 23, 2024 | 
cdapress.com | Sholeh Patrick
With a twist of irony, chatbots may provide answers to the problems they create. For most people, their first encounters with chatbots were consumer-oriented. “Have a question about your order? Chat with us now.” The other day, I was tempted to yell at one of those infuriating robotic voices trying to keep me from a real person (“in a few words, please describe …”), offering options that didn’t apply. Frustrating but not dangerous. It’s a different story when what we’re consuming is information.
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Sep 16, 2024 | 
cdapress.com | Sholeh Patrick
At last count, nearly one in three eligible Americans still aren’t registered to vote. Whether that’s due to apathy, disenchantment or just plain irresponsibility, given the flexible options available there’s simply no excuse. The vote was too hard-won, and if we have anything to complain about, not participating is no way to fix it. A disproportionate percentage of those eligible yet not registered tend to be poor, young or both.
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Sep 9, 2024 | 
cdapress.com | Sholeh Patrick
Wednesday marks 23 years since America’s first personal experience with terrorism (wrong as it feels not to “count” massacres of indigenous and enslaved peoples, those terrors we made legal). In less than an hour we lost that treasured, naive innocence that nearly every other culture left behind centuries ago. It brought us together, ever so briefly. Did it change us? Perhaps more on a personal level than as a community, despite initial feelings.
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Aug 26, 2024 | 
cdapress.com | Sholeh Patrick
None of us is (that’s “is,” Dear Reader, to agree with the singular “-one,” as in not one, or none) perfect. Your Mrs. Language Person is no exception. She’s getting grey-haired (gray is the dominant American spelling, but the Snitty Old Biddy detests change) and eligible for senior discounts (Huzzah! Yippee!). Perhaps that explains why this one slipped her feeble mind. A week has passed since a promised second installment of common English fauxs-pas failed to appear.
