Here’s a thought…
Guest Opinion | Thinking bigger picture on electricity
||| FROM ELISABETH ROBSON ||| The message we as a community have received recently from OPALCO is that we are in trouble related to electricity supply meeting demand on the Northwest Grid. Recent articles in
Long-term islanders offer long-term islanders a long-term island home
||| BY LIN MCNULTY, theORCASONIAN EDITOR ||| Following three months of desperate house hunting on Orcas Island, long-term islanders have offered long-term islanders a much-needed long-term island rental home. When we were notified that our
Letter to Editor | Odd Fellows thank you to community
||| FROM DIDIER GINCIG for ODD FELLOWS ||| The Odd Fellows would like to extend gratitude to our generous community for your support of our quest to upgrade sound and lights at the Odd Fellows Hall. Thanks
Midnight Mutterings | I (don’t necessarily) love a parade
||| MIDNIGHT MUTTERINGS by JACKIE BATES ||| There are a lot of nice things to say about some parades and I won’t bore you here with what I think makes a parade worth watching. Except
Guest Opinion | What are we really protecting?
||| FROM ISLAND STEWARDS ||| Island Stewards began this year with a simple belief: the future of the San Juan Islands should be shaped by those who live here — not just by markets, mandates,
Letter to Editor | We need your help
||| FROM SAN JUAN COMMUNITY HOME TRUST ||| The Town is blocking our development of affordable housing. For the past two years, we have been diligently trying to satisfy the Town of Friday Harbor’s requirements
As the Paradigm Shifts | Asking for magic, one day at a time
||| AS THE PARADIGM SHIFTS by ROSIE KUHN ||| I want to share something that bubbled up just yesterday and continued into this morning—something simple and tender, and also kind of profound. Over the years,
Guest Opinion | Terminal chaos
||| FROM MICHAEL RIORDAN ||| Chaos erupted yesterday at the Orcas Island ferry terminal — a harbinger of what may occur in July after the management transition there. The Issaquah ferry from Anacortes had been
Adrift | The housing search, sadly, goes on
||| ADRIFT by LIN MCNULTY, theORCASONIAN EDITOR ||| With only a couple of weeks before our moving deadline, the search goes on for housing on the island where I have been living since before the
Midnight Mutterings | Pink smoke
||| MIDNIGHT MUTTERINGS by JACKIE BATES ||| Almost two weeks ago, on April 21, 2025, Pope Francis died. I have been touched by his life since he was elected by the Papal Conclave in 2015,
Guest Opinion | Reflections of a new American on the state of our government
||| FROM PAUL KING ||| As a recent U.S. citizen, my journey to citizenship was marked by hope, aspiration, and a deep admiration for the principles this country was built upon. America, for me, has
Letter to Editor | The patient died: a parable
||| FROM BILL APPEL ||| At a faraway hospital at which that faraway region’s foremost medical specialists were on call, a comatose patient was brought in through its busy emergency entrance. The patient had been
Loyalty to the Earth | Bound
When we try to pick out anything by itself, we find it hitched to everything else in the Universe. — John Muir ||| LOYALTY TO THE EARTH by ELISABETH ROBSON ||| A forest is not
Letter to Editor | Tidal change?
||| FROM ELISABETH BRITT ||| Investing in equitable treatment for all Washington State Ferries (WSF) workers is not just about fairness, it is vital to the system’s long-term stability and resilience. In the Pacific Northwest,
Letter to Editor | Health District thanks community
||| FROM ORCAS ISLAND HEALTH CARE DISTRICT BOARD & STAFF ||| Thank you for your strong support of the healthcare district's temporary levy lid request. As of Wednesday evening, the provisional results show it passing
