My friends and I have stayed in Union on several occasions and have undeniably had quite enjoyable experiences. The historic Union Hotel is one of my personal favorites with its theme rooms, whispers of the possibilities of ghostly encounters, fabulous cuisine and the delightful gentleman owners. The other business owners and residents of the community have always been pleasant and cordial.

So recently, when attending the motorcycle rally in Joseph, the choice of accommodations was clear. To stay in Union. That apparently was a mistake, as two of my dear friends had an unfortunate and quite honestly archaic reception at one of the Union eateries.

Letters and Comments for September 3, 2009

Shredders are great. The Wonder Woman claims to have hers hooked up to the mail slot at her home. The mail gets delivered straight to the shredder.

No junk mail. No bills.

Many people are getting shredders for less mischievous reasons — to prevent identity theft. I joined that number recently, happily shredding records, anything I no longer had a use for. It was like making a clean break with my past, if such a thing were possible.

The dedicated staff at the city of La Grande has been very busy over the past several months with initiatives that will provide almost $2 million in benefit to our citizens with almost $1.4 million coming from successful grant applications.

I wanted to take a few minutes to acknowledge those involved and to let everyone know what they can expect to see in the way of improvements. What follows is a list of major grant projects or purchases that are planned for construction or have been completed.

The city received a grant from the Oregon Economic & Community Development Department (now known as Business Oregon) in early July in the amount of $7,143 for downtown historic building renovations. La Grande received the funds due to our active participation as a selected Oregon Main Street community.

Spending a day in court is an arduous experience for most people.

La Grande High School graduates might beg to differ — that is, if they had Darla Sunderman as their mock trial coach.

Sunderman helped many students experience some of the most fulfilling moments of their lives in courtrooms.

Last Christmas, my brother gave his girlfriend — they’ve been together for a year now — a Fry Daddy. When she went back to Mississippi for school where she’s studying to become a veterinarian, he cleaned out the bucket of the fry grease, packaged it securely and shipped it back to her from Hawaii, their home island, to the South. This is obvious true love.

For me deep-frying is a hazard though. At 5 feet tall, my face is too close to the stove top and the hot oil. I’ve tried standing on a stool to get my eyes farther away from the boiling vat, but being on a movable stool isn’t very safe when deep frying either. I’ve got super long chopsticks that are my best bet for staying unscathed while deep frying, but though I can reach with them, I can’t necessarily see what I’m reaching because I move my body to the side to avoid splatters. So I don’t really deep fry. If anything, Lucas, the 6-footer, must do it the few times we attempt it a year.

At a time when customer appreciation should be a priority it seems to be going in the opposite direction. A simple “thank you’’ at the close of a transaction not only confirms that you made the right choice for your purchase but that you are also appreciated for making that purchase.

Letters and Comments for September 1, 2009

Morgan, Hills

John Deal has printed two editorials containing false information, thus we felt it was important that the general public be properly informed. The district has been diligent about making the 2009/10 budget cuts and resulting adopted budget transparent to all, thus we are providing the following information.

While building the budget for 2009/10 the district made it very clear that it intended to fund a position to support plant and operations, the position now held by Jim MacKay. This intent was discussed in an Observer article dated April 10, 2009, and titled “School district faces mammoth budget cuts.” Within this article, it was stated that the “La Grande High School athletic director position will be cut to half time. LHS’s athletic director will remain a full-time employee, though, for he will assume about half of the present plant operations director’s responsibilities”.