Mad about Science: Great Famine of Ireland
By Brenden Bobby Reader Columnist The Great Famine, which took place in Ireland between 1845 and 1852, is something many of us learned about to some degree in school. It was a tale with...
Category: History
Mad about Science: Therizinosaurus
By Brenden Bobby Reader Columnist Dinosaurs were weird. Conditions on Earth over several hundreds of millions of years created some unusual evolutionary niches that nature was eager to fill. The Therizinosaurus was one of...
Jimmy Carter and Cecil Andrus exemplified public service
By Helen Newton Reader Contributor It was in October 1976, before he was elected, that I met Jimmy Carter. Well, to be fair, I didn’t actually “meet” him; but, in a way I was...
Mad about Science: Kiwi
By Brenden Bobby Reader Columnist We’re ringing in the new year with an ambitious experiment! In a Mad About Science first, we’re going to be learning about two completely different subjects under a single...
Emily Articulated: TEOTWAWKI
By Emily Erickson Reader Columnist If you’re reading this, the world is still spinning, and we’ve survived to swap our old calendars for new ones. This sentiment — the quiet marvel of continuation —...
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 —...
Mad about Science: Eggnog
By Brenden Bobby Reader Columnist The holidays bring a unique struggle for everyone. My own challenge during this season is standing near the cold case at the grocery store and weighing the pros and...
The white elephant in the room
By Soncirey Mitchell Reader Staff Over the last thousand or so years, the rituals and traditions surrounding Christmas have been solidified in our minds as perfectly ordinary, though they’re anything but. In reality, if...
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...
Mad about Science: Disc storage
By Brenden Bobby Reader Columnist I had the privilege of being a part of a library ambassadorial voyage through the state of Idaho earlier this year. The goal of this mission was to make...
