Bellingham Herald freelancer Michelle Nolan will discuss popular culture of the mid-20th century during a program Wednesday, March 11.

Her talk from 2 to 3 p.m. at Bellingham Public Library is part of the “Memory Makers” series organized by the Alzheimer Society of Washington.

Coffee and cookies will be provided. Admission free, but donations to the society are accepted.

Other sponsors are the public library, the Herald, Alderwood Convalescent Care, The Courtyard Dementia Care, KVOS-TV 12, The Leopold Retirement Center and Quicksilver Photo Lab.

No, I’m not leaving the Herald.

Rather, I’m taking on some new duties here in the newsroom, so next Monday, March 9, will be the last day for this blog.

I admit I haven’t been a frequent contributor to this blog, and most of my postings have been strictly informational - not much debate or glamor to be found here.

But if you’ve been sending me neighborhood- or history-related notices, please continue to do so. I can usually find a place in the paper or on our Web site for your information, or can relay your info to the appropriate person here.

Don’t let that deter you, however, from entering your community event info yourself via our online calendar posting system.

Thanks,

Dean Kahn

Floyd McKay, a Bellingham resident and a retired journalism professor at Western Washington University, has a column today at Cross.cut, the online news site for, mainly, Western Washington.

In his piece, McKay cites studies showing that people’s views become more rigid when they are amongst like-minded people.

A similar tendency, it’s feared, occurs when people get more and more of their news from narrow-audience online sources, rather than more general media like newspapers and network television.

To read McKay’s article, click here.

Could Sarah Rubin, who submitted a student essay to the Herald, please call me at 715-2291?

Thanks, Dean Kahn

My column Sunday talked about the declining number of reporters assigned to state capitals, and what that means for news junkies and citizens in general.

For those of you interested in the subject, here are a few suggestions for sources to stay abreast of state lawmakers, and a couple of suggestions from readers.

My suggestions:

Read The Bellingham Herald, especially Sam Taylor’s politics blog. Lots of area lawmakers do.

Check out the Olympian’s Web site at www.theolympian.com, because state government is Olympia’s biggest local industry.

Follow bills and the announcements of our 40th and 42nd district lawmakers at http://access.wa.gov/government/state_legislature.aspx.

Grab a bag of popcorn, settle in and watch legislative meetings at www.tvw.org.

After my column appeared, I was pleased to receive an e-mail from Mike Bay, vice president for programming at TVW, the nonprofit TV station that provides lots of coverage of the Legislature and state agencies.

His e-mail mentions new TVW programs that go beyond the raw footage (popcorn excluded) of legislative hearings and other extended proceedings.

Here is Bay’s e-mail:

“Saw your article on the shrinking Capitol Press Corps here in Olympia. Just as an FYI, we’ve started up a couple new things this year that make it easier for people to follow the Legislature in digestible chunks:

Our new-this-year weekly show The Impact airs Wednesdays at 7 & 10 p.m. – more highly produced than anything TVW has ever done, a magazine style show that gives viewers the top stories of the week in an hour.

Our new blog, thecapitolrecorg.org, is also new this year, a running commentary on legislative highlights.

We’re also continuing the shows we’ve done for years:

Inside Olympia, Thursdays 7 & 10 p.m., in-depth interviews with legislative leaders.

Legislative Review, 11 p.m. weeknights, a daily 10-minute recap of legislative highlights.

We’re trying to do more of these types of programs, which complement our gavel-to-gavel coverage and are much shorter format.”

Thanks for the update, Mike.

In addition, a reader suggested going to www.truelobby.com to follow the Legislature.

I checked it out and signed up (it’s free).

At first blush, truelobby appears to be a bill and politics tracking system, with e-mail alerts, etc., blended with touch of Facebook.

You can communicate with lawmakers, other citizens, interest groups, etc., with state legislation and politics as the focus.

The fourth annual Sue C. Boynton Poetry Contest is accepting submissions from Whatcom County residents of all ages and experience. Poems will be accepted from March 15 to April 15.

An awards ceremony will be held May 13 at Whatcom Museum, and winning poems will be displayed at the Bellingham Poetry Walk by the public library, and on WTA buses.

Last year, people submitted more than 475 poems. Winners ranged from a first-grader to an 81-year-old resident. The contest is named for Sue Boynton, a poetry lover and community activist.

Contestants must be county residents, and can submit one previously unpublished poem. Poems can be on any topic and in any form.

Full details are at www.whatcomcf.org and www.alliedarts.org, and at area schools and bookstores.

If you were interested in my recent story about “green burials” at Greenacres cemetery, then you’ll be interested in a recent article at Slate magazine called “The Green Hereafter.”

Writer Nina Shen Rastogi weighs the environmental pros and cons of burial vs. cremation, and suggests some possible, but stomach-turning, options that might arise in the future.

Read my column here.

Check out the Slate story here.

In honor of Presidents Day, Whatcom County resident Frank Miller sent me this poem that his mother, Helen Miller Tuck, wrote 40 years ago.

The title is … “February”

This is the month we recall two great events,
The birthdays of our most beloved presidents,
And it is not my wish to diminish them with jokes
For this would certainly and rightly offend most folks.

But it seems to me George Washington would be amused
To learn how his image in schoolrooms is used
To admonish children not to tell a lie
And how we celebrate his birthday eating cherry pie.

And how he’s shown standing in a boat not very large
Crossing turbulent waters that would capsize a barge!
I can hear one of his men saying with his heart in his throat,
Please, General, sit down, you’re rockin’ the boat!

Surely, Lincoln would smile at his likeness so solemn and blue
When books say he had a matchless way telling a tale or two,
And to see how much we make of his rail-splitting ability
By baking “Lincoln Logs” to observe his nativity.

Forgive my musings for I truly have much admiration
For the man first chosen to lead our great nation,
And for the man who believed deeply in the equality of man
And that “a house divided against itself cannot stand.”

An open house is planned from noon to 4 p.m. Monday, Feb. 16, by the man building a 15-foot skiff to honor Dirty Dan Harris, the founder of Fairhaven who was born Feb. 16, 1833.

Ralph Thacker, who has researched and written about Harris’ life, is a building the boat in donated space in the southwest corner of the lower level of the new building next to Fairhaven Bike & Ski, 1108 11th St.

People are welcome to visit, refreshments will be provided by Fairhaven restaurants, and photos of visitors will be taken for posting in the windows at Fairhaven Pharmacy before Dirty Dan Days, April 25-26.

Thacker’s work space can be reached via steps down from 11th Street, and by a path up from the nearby Fairhaven walking trail. Signs will be posted.

A Charitable Feast is a local group of people who host meals to support community organizations, so it makes great sense that they are staging a grand veggie dinner to raise money for Bellingham Food Bank.

Two meals - at 5:15 and 7:45 p.m. - will be served Feb. 28 at a private residence in Geneva.

Minimum donation is $35 per person, with group tables available.

Seating is limited, so early reservations are encouraged.

For reservations and information, call 715-3453 or send a query to mail@CharitableFeast.org.

Make out donation checks to “Bellingham Food Bank” and mail them to 4700 Lakeway Drive, Bellingham, WA 98229.

A Charitable Feast is made up of Beth Beyers, Anji Citron, Todd Citron, Ken Marshall, Jane Moudry, Carol Oberton, Ben Phillips, Vicki Roy, and Allison Williams.

Whatcom Parks and Recreation Foundation has donated $1,000 to the effort to revitalize the unused caretaker’s house and grounds at Fairhaven Park’s former rose garden.

A local group, the Center for Local Self Reliance, wants to turn the house into a community educational center focusing on self-reliance skills, and turn the lawns into demonstration gardens.

The $1,000 will be used to build a wheelchair ramp for the house.

The center also recently received a grant from Whatcom Educational Credit Union to support a liability insurance policy, and a grant from Community Food Co-op to produce brochures for fundraising.

For details on how to donate or volunteer, see www.caretakershouse.org.

A public discussion is planned Jan. 31 on Whatcom County population projections through 2031.

The projections will guide future land-use planning in the county

The discussion is hosted by Citizens’ Forum, a group organized to foster discussion about growth in the community.

The event will run from 10 a.m. to noon Jan. 31, a Saturday, at Fountain Community Church, 2100 Broadway.

The opening presentation will be by Dan Warner, of Futurewise Whatcom.

Flags in Bellingham will be lowered Thursday, Jan. 15, to note the recent death of two community leaders - Barney Goltz and Andy Anderson.

City Council members authorized the action Monday.

Harold A. “Barney” Goltz, a former state legislator, died Dec. 25 at the age of 84. And former KVOS newsman and congressional staffer Andy Anderson died Jan. 4 at age 77.

Mayor Dan Pike proclaimed Jan. 12 as Harold “Barney” Goltz Day and Jan. 13 as Andy Anderson Day.

Flags will be lowered in their honor at sunrise Thursday, and remain lowered until sunset.

I’ve just learned that the public is welcome to attend Geneva Elementary School’s assembly at 1:45 p.m. Thursday, Jan. 15, to honor Martin Luther King Jr.

The assembly is in the school gym. Come early for seating.

In honor of Valentine’s Day, the Herald would like to publish your love poem.

It can be a newly written poem, or one already written but not yet published, but it must be written by a Whatcom County resident.

Poems will be published in The Herald and online at www.bellinghamherald.com.

People are welcome to submit a related photograph with their poem.

The deadline is Jan. 23.

Include your name, age, address and phone number, and send your poem and photograph to dean.kahn@bellnghamherald.com; or to The Bellingham Herald, attn: Dean Kahn, P.O. Box 1277, Bellingham, WA 98227.

If you have questions, call me at 715-2291.

Thanks.