A delivery of hope (and food)
By Ben Olson Reader Staff There’s a theory that sandwiches taste better when someone else makes them. I wonder what the consensus is on delivered meals? Since 2019, the students at Lake Pend Oreille...
Category: Ben Olson
Ben’s best albums of 2024
By Ben Olson Reader Staff Let me begin by stating how ridiculous it is that I’m the one writing this article highlighting the best albums of 2024. New music is like penicillin: It might...
2025 year in preview
By Reader Staff Even if you’ve never read any of the works of 19th-century German philosopher Arthur Schopenhauer, you’ve probably heard someone repeat his famous line: “A pessimist is an optimist in full possession...
Notes on a vicennial deadline
By Zach Hagadone Reader Staff This week marks 20 years since the first edition of the Sandpoint Reader hit the streets on Dec. 23, 2004. That feels like a trick of the calendar —...
Con artists, armed Boy Scouts and Santa Claus
By Ben Olson Reader Staff Nobody knows who wrote the first letter to Santa Claus, but the practice didn’t catch on in mainstream America until a con artist named John D. Gluck became intertwined...
‘We do what we can’
By Ben Olson Reader Staff Food insecurity is a terrible thing, but it’s especially heartbreaking when it involves children. For the past 15 years, the nonprofit organization Food for our Children has pledged to...
Festivus for the rest of us
By Ben Olson Reader Staff For the uninitiated, Festivus is a holiday invented for an episode of the sitcom Seinfeld called “The Strike,” which involves the airing of grievances; feats of strength; a celebratory...
A (different kind of) Christmas Carol
By Ben Olson Reader Staff There is perhaps no other Christmas story more impactful than Charles Dickens’ novella A Christmas Carol. The original work gave us timeless characters like Ebenezer Scrooge and Bob Cratchit,...
Gift guide 2024: Local goods for the win
By Ben Olson Reader Staff It’s gift-giving season in North Idaho, and there are few better ways to support your neighbors than buying local. For this week’s gift guide, we’re offering some ideas for...
Freedumb
By Ben Olson Reader Staff If you toss a water balloon into a crowd of Idahoans, chances are you’ll hit someone wearing a shirt that has something about “freedom” written on it. Perhaps it’s...
