Winter weather

Fish Tales

By Lynnette Hintze

The Old Farmer's Almanac, hot off the press, predicts a mild, dry winter for northwestern Montana. That's a relief, because I've been hearing rumors of a repeat of that El Nino-induced winter of '96, the one that had us all up on the rooftop shoveling snow.

I don't know whether to put much stock in the Farmer's Almanac predictions, but it's been published every year since 1792, and I don't think people are buying it for the apple-stuffed baked fish recipe that's in the 2005 edition.

Their forecasts seem pretty general, though, such as this prediction for the intermountain region: "The coldest periods will be late December, mid-January, and mid-February. Expect snow around Christmas, in early January, early and late February and early March." Duh! Those of us who live here already know that's pretty much the routine every winter.

The mail gets through

"Neither snow nor rain nor heat nor gloom of night stays these couriers from the swift completion of their appointed rounds."

True to its motto, the U.S. Postal service gathered up the retrievable mail after a contract mail transport plane crashed in Montana's Little Belt Mountains on Aug. 17, and a few days ago, the Whitefish Pilot received two tattered pieces of correspondence from that wreckage. They were enclosed in plastic envelopes with an apology from the Postal Service. Tattered and dirty, the correspondence included a news release from the Department of the Interior and a piece of "junk" mail from the Union Pen Co. Though that envelope was torn, the Post Office retrieved the free pen that accompanied the special offer, and sent it on to us.

Goodbye, Food Pavilion

It won't be the same in town without the Whitefish Food Pavilion, which closes its doors for good this week. We wish all the employees well as they contemplate what to do next.

And we'll be anxiously awaiting the Super 1 Foods store that will open next spring, bigger and better than anything Whitefish has seen heretofore. Until then, expect the remaining grocery stores to be a bit crowded as they handle the overflow.

Care of bears

Bears are out and about in Whitefish with great frequency this fall. It seems obvious, but bears reminding local folks to keep garbage cans in the garage, pick fruit off trees and temporarily take down bird feeders to keep hungry bruins out of your back yard.