Last words, maybe, and a few thanks from Last Best News
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I was planning to ride off into the sunset today, but if I may appropriate an observation by Benjamin Franklin, it looks as though I might be heading in the direction of the rising sun.
In the week since I announced that Last Best News would cease publication today, I have heard so many expressions of interest in reviving it in some shape or form, with or without my continued involvement, that it appears likely that this independent online newspaper will live on.
Prairie Lights
The column that should have been written
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Ed Kemmick is on vacation, visiting his granddaughter in a distant state, which means he won’t be writing his Prairie Lights column this week.
Which is too bad, because Ed made the mistake of keeping up with the news in Billings while he was on the road. As stories dribbled out about the City Council’s marathon meeting Tuesday night, Ed became more and more outraged, as well as somewhat despondent, which is the last thing he expected to be on a vacation to see his granddaughter. Continue Reading →
Billings
‘A little piece of heaven’ — 25 years at Pioneer School
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Sally Peterson first wanted to be a teacher when she was only 11.
“I had a teacher at North Park School named Edith Freeman who went on to become a very famous woodprint artist,” she said. “I just absolutely loved that woman and she liked me. One day, I said, ‘I want to grow up and be a teacher just like you.’” Continue Reading →
Culture
Lively jazz scene thrills musicians, listeners
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Sitting in the bar at Walkers Grill on a Sunday night, you can tell when the out-of-towners walk in.
They generally pause just inside the door and stand there staring at the scene before them. It’s almost always crowded, with a clientele running from teenagers to people in their 70s or 80s. Continue Reading →
Lay of the Land
That Dynamite Summer
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Lay of the Land: A series of essays on the spirit of Montana
Editor’s Note: Shortly after Last Best News opened for business, we were surprised and honored to receive unsolicited essays from several friends and a few strangers.
We were even more surprised to discover that all of them covered similar ground. Whether in the form of memoir, yarn or personal essay, all of them touched on what it means to live in Montana, or to have formed some connection with this state. Continue Reading →
Billings
Benny’s big adventures
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Photojournalist John Warner began taking his cameras on walks with the family dogs, Benny the Yorkie and Lucy the Scottie, to see if he could find interesting images along a rather routine stretch of the irrigation canal from Wicks Lane to Lake Elmo in the Heights. Continue Reading →
Billings
Real prayer doesn’t need government sanction
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By DAVID CRISP
BILLINGS OUTPOST
Billings Gazette Editor Darrell Ehrlick began his May 18 column with the phrase “God Bless America,” then quickly added that he meant it literally, not “as some obligatory phrase tacked onto the end of a speech.” Continue Reading →
Photo Galleries
Too much visual information
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A friend of mine who used to go to the New Orleans Jazz and Heritage Festival every year told me that on the drive back to Montana, after four or five solid days of music, he couldn’t even listen to the radio. He was filled to the gills, exhausted, all the listening space between his ears depleted. Continue Reading →
