Columnists - The Durango Herald

Records of 2021 Part 2: Records 5 through 1

Every year seems to be better than the last for new music and 2021 was no exception. Last week, you got numbers 10 through six of what were my favorites of the year at the time of writing. T...

DATE: Dec 30, 2021 | CATEGORY: Downtown Lowdown

Man is absent husband, boyfriend

DEAR ABBY: I have been with my boyfriend for eight years. When I met him he was married, but his wife lived in another state. Although he said he loved her, he would visit her only for a wee...

DATE: Dec 28, 2021 | CATEGORY: Dear Abby

Making resolutions real

The new year is a time where a lot of us reflect on life – what’s working, what’s not and how we can improve. We are coming down off the “holiday high” with lots of baked goods, cocktails an...

DATE: Dec 28, 2021 | CATEGORY: Nourishing Morsels

Propane provision warms bodies and spirits at Purple Cliffs

Dear Action Line: I hear the city of Durango pays a propane company to fill up the propane tanks for the homeless at Purple Cliffs. Is this true? – Gasbag Dear Gasbag: The answer: Well,...

DATE: Dec 27, 2021 | CATEGORY: Action Line

Winter solstice: For millennia, cultures have celebrated the return of the light

The passage tomb at Newgrange in Ireland may be the most impressive winter solstice monument on Earth. Constructed about 5,200 years ago, before the Egyptian pyramids and even Stonehenge, t...

DATE: Dec 27, 2021 | CATEGORY: Guest Columns

Costa Rica has a law to make men responsible for their children

A chance encounter in a parking lot gave me the idea for this month’s essay. “Why not make a man responsible for the cost of raising any child he fathers?” “That’s a great idea!” I said, the...

DATE: Dec 26, 2021 | CATEGORY: Population Matters

Nuptials won’t include family role

DEAR ABBY: My 52-year-old twin brother – whom I’m close to – is getting married soon for the first time. His fiancee, who divorced after 18 years of marriage, is doing all the planning. She ...

DATE: Dec 24, 2021 | CATEGORY: Dear Abby

A year in review

As December nears its end, we are grateful for the blankets of snow covering the mountains as we take in the stillness before the new year. While we cannot begin to understand the true impac...

DATE: Dec 24, 2021 | CATEGORY: Local First

Alternatives to building bigger jails aren’t a partisan issue

If you know someone is a Republican or Democrat, then you might assume you know exactly where they stand on whether local jails need to be expanded. But if recent experience in the rural, so...

DATE: Dec 24, 2021 | CATEGORY: Guest Columns

Relative obsessed with parentage

DEAR ABBY: I am married to a wonderful man who has a teenage son, “Teddy,” from a previous relationship. I have no children of my own. I love them both and have no resentments about or issue...

DATE: Dec 23, 2021 | CATEGORY: Dear Abby

Records of 2021, Part One: Records 10 to 6

Most full-time, professional musicians are always productive. The pandemic and time off the road for full-time touring musicians was great for music fans who are always on the lookout for so...

DATE: Dec 23, 2021 | CATEGORY: Downtown Lowdown

Late mother’s lifestyle surprising

DEAR ABBY: I was never close to my mother-in-law, “Agnes.” She always came across as very religious and morally upright. She recently died of dementia. It came on so fast that there were thi...

DATE: Dec 21, 2021 | CATEGORY: Dear Abby