"It's weird because I've never held a job this long," jokes Margaret Weber when asked how it feels to mark her seventh year as owner operator of the Bear Trap Cafe and Bar. Under Weber's ownership, the Bear Trap will be celebrating its "copper anniversary" from 7-9 p.m. on Friday with musical guest Screen Door Porch.

In the April 1 edition of the Saratoga Sun, I contributed a piece on "Beaching Disease". It was the only time in the six years I have worked here that we have actually put out a paper with an April 1 date. Some people missed the other clues that this was an April Fool's joke. The clues started with the fact that my name was on the byline.

I bumped into C.J. Box the other day as he was passing through town on his way to begin his latest book tour for his 15th Joe Pickett novel titled, "Endangered".
Of course, I had to take the opportunity to ask him a few questions about himself, Joe Pickett and the Valley that helped to inspire both.

Front-woman Alysia Kraft recalls the name of her band, Patti Fiasco coming from a take on a nickname of sorts she got whenever she would get in trouble as a kid. "My mom's younger sister's name was Patti and when (mom) would yell at me for getting in trouble she would slip up and yell, 'Patti!'," Kraft said.

Recently I went south to Houston to see family and friends.
This time I flew out of a regional airport that turned out to be both closer and cheaper than our nearest big city hubs.
The security is much less stressful to get through at a regional airport and this particular regional airport actually lands the big jets and not so much with the little sickness-inducing prop hoppers.

The most controversial Oscar nominee this year isn’t American Sniper. Nor is it Selma, the Oscar-snubbed Martin Luther King docudrama. If you were like me, you probably hadn’t even heard about the film. Chances are you likely will following this year’s Academy Awards. The documentary, nominated for an award in the Best Documentary category is titled, “CitizenFour”.