By Perry Piper • Movies have been a favorite activity among all generations for many decades now and will continue into the future; the only change that will occur is in the way we watch them. Blu-ray Disc has become essentially mainstream, meaning that movies can be picked up new at some stores for $20 or less and that many older films are being re-released on the new format. If you haven’t yet seen the reason to upgrade, Blu-ray has become very affordable now and most people can finally use their HDTVs to their fullest extent.

By Nancy Chennault • Make this the year you pledge to “make over” the unruly Japanese Maple. Its appearance will dramatically improve and so will its health.

BY GARY MEYERS • Our Fourth Annual Haiku Contest ended on January 20. The judges have spoken, the results have been tabulated, and the winners are announced. It’s now time for the revelry, the horn-blowing, fireworks, and parades (all the responsibility of the winners and their fans).

By Rick Pope Q: The mailman rang my doorbell and alerted me that he noticed my neighbor’s front door open. I went to check and nobody was home. Concerned about theft, intruders, etc., I locked the door and closed it. Pretty soon my neighbor came to my door, saying she was locked out of her house and needed my help. She was furious when she learned I had “butted in.” I thought I was being considerate. What do you think? Q: My office coworker is an avowed atheist and objects when anyone says “Bless you” in response to a sneeze. He says people shouldn’t impose their “superstitions” or belief systems on others who may or may not share them. Is it reasonable for him to expect everybody else to suppress this customary goodwill gesture?

By Sara Freeman, PhD * The Columbia’s approach to “Cinderella” is both quirky and inventive, Morelli said. He expects that will be the primary mode for the Columbia’s homegrown productions. “I hope we get a reputation for doing very clever productions,” he said, — ones that delight more because of ingenious theatricality than big-budget spectacle. “Cinderella” features a chorus of “shadows” who will create visual magic throughout the show. This type of invisible-yet-in-plain-sight spectacle is common in lots of traditional theatre forms, especially Japanese Noh and Kabuki. It carries the pleasure of double vision: You get to enjoy stage effects but you also get to appreciate the elegance of how they are created.

By Laurel Murphy • What do guys want? Gift buying for men just seems so hard. Rick Pope, Columbia River Reader’s ethics columnist says that a gift “…pays the ultimate compliment of taking them (the recipient) as they are and celebrating it.” Therefore, I explored “guy land” to find some Valentine’s Day gift suggestions. I added an activity to each gift to promote that lovin’ feeling.

BY JOHN FREEMAN. Regularly wandering the foot path at Lake Sacajawea lets me observe the passersby, some with their dog or two, or others with a coffee in their hand. Those of us who usually walk at a certain time of day either nod or wave, sometimes saying “Good Morning.” As the days grow shorter and a little colder, there seem to be fewer of us out. . . Walkers at the lake so far this fall and winter have been very lucky. I am OK with walking in the rain, but not rain with wind. There have not been many days of heavy wind or rain, and no snow. I hope all who wend their way around the lake will take time to look at the trees and animals, as I do, adding a bit of zest to their winter musings.

I do not know how important football was to Steve Jobs, Bill Gates and all the other computer pioneers in 1967. But today’s Super Bowl fan can’t help but appreciate the communication abilities we take for granted 45 years later and the footprint they helped create.Vince Lombardi, the man who the National Football League (NFL) Super Bowl’s trophy is named after, winning coach of the first and second events, probably would have been astonished by the effect this game — of just determining which American football team was the best — would impact the globe today. He probably would find it hard to believe how important this game has become to so many people, football fans or not.

If you were sitting alone for an hour, without distractions, and asked to remember your childhood, this is the kind of book you would probably come up with, evoking moments—some painful, some humorous, some tender, others transcendent—that together are like pictures at an exhibition titled “Your Life,” which, like the Smithsonian’s, is too vast to experience on any one visit.

STORY BY PAUL THOMPSON • I enjoy dinner parties, and shaping the dough for a group’s dinner becomes a fun, social part of the evening. Make the dough ahead of time, ready to shape. Then let your guests pitch in and take a turn at the crank. Store-bought pasta is made with semolina flour and without any egg. Semolina flour, because of its high, harder gluten content, keeps its form when made into dough, cut and dried. Pasta noodles made with other flours need the addition of an egg to maintain their shape.