Valley Views

Lowdown on lino’

Linoleum. What comes to mind? Old plastic-y flooring that lasts forever? The floors of schools, offices, airports? Perhaps you even “showcase” linoleum in your bathroom or kitchen. Many decades ago, this flooring was an extremely popular choice with colorful, bold designs. While linoleum or “lino” was out of vogue for years, a surprising resurgence is occurring. To understand why, we need to take a look at the fascinating story of how this material came to be.

The story begins in 1855. An English inventor by the name of Fredrick Walton observed an unusual gummy layer forming on the top of a can of oil paint. The strange amber-colored goo was linseed oil, the primary ingredient or “binder” in the paint that had oxidized. Oil painters are familiar with this process, oil paints do not dry in the sense of losing water, rather oxidization hardens them. This why oil paint takes so long to dry and is so durable, but I digress. So, Walton became obsessed with this unusual substance, thinking he could utilize it for practical purposes. After a number of failed attempts to use the goo for waterproofing, varnish, and a considerable number of other things, he finally cracked the code. This inventor mixed the linseed oil with cork dust, sticky gum, and pigment. Next, the resulting goop was spread onto a cotton cloth for backing. Just like that, Mr. Fredrick Walton invented a new type of flooring.

Linoleum, the new invention’s name by merging the Latin words for “flax” and “oil,” was quickly patented by Walton. With great gusto, Fredrick formed a company to manufacture and began to market the product like mad. Linoleum was basically a miracle flooring: quiet and warm, more durable than floor cloths (the precursor to carpet). Plus, an array of colors and designs made lino very desirable, fitting any taste or preference. The hardwood or marble floors were challenged by lino’s excellent qualities.

This modern, amazing flooring exploded into international fame. In fact, Walton even created an entire town to make linoleum on Staten Island with the incredibly creative name “Linoleumville.” Because of the rise in popularity, other companies sprouted up all over the globe to manufacture this “luxury flooring.” Believe it or not, the Titanic used linoleum heavily throughout the entire ship. Even as the ship sits on the bottom of the sea floor, video of the ship taken with submarines reveals that the linoleum appears to still be intact and in good condition. Remarkable!

By the 1950’s, linoleum was becoming very inexpensive to produce and was, in turn, becoming very affordable. Reasonable prices plus easy consumer installation equaled an irresistible choice. Linoleum was becoming commonplace: durable, easy to install, easy to clean, what was not to love? Sadly, its popularity signaled demise; lino was perceived to be cheap. Additionally, its amazing durability meant as styles changed, lino patterns stayed around long after they went out of date. Linoleum did enjoy a minor revival as a printmaking medium and as an urban dance surface, but neither could preserve its previous popularity levels.

Then suddenly, against all odds, after several decades away linoleum is back. Featured in trendy furniture, chic shops, countertops, cafes, and so many other places, we appear to be in a lino renaissance of sorts. So beloved in the past, a new generation is discovering and loving it anew. However, linoleum flooring is now appreciated for reasons Frederick Walton never dreamed. Linoleum is extremely eco-friendly and completely renewable because of its plantbased raw materials. In fact, lino is so green and non-toxic you could technically eat it, although it must be said, this is not recommended. So, the next time you spot a trendy new design featuring the plastic-y covering, you’ll know the comeback story of the fantastic flooring called linoleum.ben there

DONE that

Ben Stone

Media Production, Valley Journal

An amazing body

In the last year, I’ve been working on appreciation.

Appreciating the big things. Appreciating the small things. Appreciating what I have and what I am. As part of that, I’ve been practicing appreciation of one of the most basic, most taken for granted and one of the most awesome things we all possess.

Our bodies.

In developing an appreciating for my own body and all the things it does, I attempt to contemplate the different systems, organs and the multitude of tasks that happen every second of every day without my even giving them a second thought. In this, I realize I’ve taken this magnificent entity of my physical body for granted for far too long.

The things it does are nothing short of miraculous and worth writing about. Let’s hit the highlights.

We breathe - in and out - every minute of the day. Our lungs take in air, filter out the oxygen and then release carbon dioxide back out to the world. We could look at this as breathing in energy and breathing out waste, but

Slices of Life Jill Pertler Syndicated columnist

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Celebrate library lovers month

The North Lake County Public Library is celebrating “Library Lover’s Month” all February long with 25% off in our gift nook and our annual Adopta-Book program. For a $15 donation you get to choose from a selection of children’s books and write a personalized note that will be placed in the front of the book. We have a lot of great books to choose from this year.

Sierra has a great Technology Program planned for Feb. 22 at 2 p.m. This month we are focusing on growing your pandemic literacy with a game called “Factitious.” Are you overwhelmed with news about COVID-19 that seems to be constantly changing and contradicting? This program will help you find peace of mind by sharpening your critical thinking skills. This is a great program for learning how to evaluate and identify good and credible sources of all information.

On Saturday, Feb. 26, at 10 a.m. Felicia is leading a Leap into Science – Light & Shadows workshop. Join us in the large meeting room for story time, a shadow puppet show, and hands-on learning stations. This is a great family program for kids of all ages with parents or caregivers.

Don’t forget Mother Goose Mondays at 9:15 a.m. for the 0-3 crowd and Story Time Thursdays at 9:15 a.m. for the 3-5 group. Participation by parents and caregivers, and older siblings is always encouraged and welcome. This month the themes include the Olympics, Valentine’s Day, colors and letters. Gwen Hadrits, from the Lake County Health Department, will join us on Feb. 14 and 24 with a little extra fun.

Thanks to the Montana State Library, we have added some really great resources to the Libby app. We have Method Test Prep for SAT & ACT study help and practice exams, and the Great Courses and Universal Class for adult continuing education videos and courses. These are all great resources to encourage lifelong learning.

We have the IRS instruction booklets and hope to get the 1040 forms soon. You can also print your own from: www. IRS.gov/forms-instructions. The State of Montana does not print or send us any forms or booklets. Those can be found at: www.mtrevenue.gov. Both entities encourage e-filing and direct deposit as the fastest way

to file and get a refund. The library will be closed on Monday, Feb. 21, in recognition of Presidents’ Day. We will close at 2 p.m. on Tuesday, View from the March 8, for an all-staff training. The library’s regular hours

Library are Monday - Friday, from 9 a.m.-6 p.m. Wednesdays and Fridays from 9 a.m.-10 a.m. are times reserved as a high

Abbi Dooley, North Lake County Public Library District risk hour (please wear a mask during this time). On Saturdays we are open from 9 a.m.-4 p.m. Curbside pickup is also available for everyone during open hours. Please call us at 406-883-8225 or email us at: polsoncl@polson.lib.mt.us with questions or to request curbside pickup.

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carbon dioxide is not waste. It is the life breath of the grass, flowers and trees living around us. They breathe it in and (here comes the magic) release oxygen back into the air, which our lungs use to nourish our bodies.

I’ve known about this process for most of my life, but I never really contemplated the overall simplicity and genius of it. It’s recycling at its best. And we don’t even have to think about separating the paper from the plastic - or in this case the oxygen from the carbon dioxide. Not ever. We don’t have to think about breathing or converting oxygen, our body just does it for us, and in doing so keeps us alive. It keeps the planet alive.

It’s hard to top the oxygen cycle, but I’ll try. Let’s pay homage to the lungs’ life partner: the heart. It beats 24/7, circulating blood throughout the body, distributing oxygen and then returning “old” blood to the lungs to replenish with more oxygen. The heart – and lungs and pretty much every cell in our body – work 24/7. They keep on ticking even when we are asleep. We can check out and rest; they keep working.

The 26 small bones in our feet carry our entire body weight, even when barefoot. You probably know your fingerprints are unique to you, but did you know the same is true of your tongue? Human fingertips each contain more than 3,000 touch receptors. It’s likely they house the most sensitive skin found in any mammal.

Our skin is a miracle in itself. It helps regulate body temperature. It protects us from infection and the sun, among other things. It provides a protective cushion for our bones and organs. At any given time, our skin could very well have more than 1,000 species of bacteria living on it. The skin fights that off and keeps us healthy. It is a source of beauty.

Like most cells in the body, the skin is a multi, multi-tasker. Yet, we often don’t give it a second thought unless we get a cut or a bruise and then we may pay a short amount of attention to our pain, but we don’t fully or willfully focus on healing. We take that for granted. Our skin heals automatically, on its own. In a word: magnificently awesome.

I have more to say, but not the room here to say it. Much like the human body, this miraculous information doesn’t stop. Perhaps I’ll put more information together in the weeks to come.

We have a tendency to harshly judge our bodies. We are too fat, too thin, too wrinkled, too pale. We forget about all our body does for us, without our even realizing it. Maybe it’s time for that realization, and appreciation. Of your breath. Your heartbeat. Your skin. The way it all works together, not just within your own body but within the planet. Appreciate that. All of it.

Jill Pertler is an award-winning syndicated columnist, published playwright and author. Don’t miss a slice; follow the Slices of Life page on Facebook.

Time for change

Editor,

I wish I was smarter than I am but since I keep being ineffective at initiating change maybe I should become a politician.

For years we keep re-electing the same Lake County Commissioners despite the fact they have told us they don’t have a jail solution problem. They voice the same yearly concerns and issues for our county. They seemed surprised when the dam changed hands and income dwindled. We continue to dangerously share the road with DUI repeat offenders for lack of a better solution. Here, change seems viewed as a swear word.

The last time Mr. Decker ran for re-election he was saying he would pull tribal lands out of their protective status and get us tax money for the jail. He of course got re-elected and we of course got, well, the same problems.

Now we’re suing our state (that’s ourselves as well) for $4 million for expenses only Lake County has acquired when it chose to take over civil and criminal obligations from the tribe under PL280. Follow that 1953 act to here and see this is the record, not an opinion.

Cost must be the reason we are the only county of the four the tribal lands cover that are doing this work by choice. In 2018 Hertz sponsored HB450 - a bill to require the state to repay us. That bill died. Now we’re suing for that amount? Our taxpayer money pays for that suit and diverts Lake County resources in staff, material, and re-assignment of duties away from other more service-oriented efforts.

We live in such a beautiful place with so many God given gifts all around us. How do we not work toward keeping that protected and enriched with an eye to the future living with the diversity around us? Accepting that we share, not dictate, control or abuse, our land or our neighbors whose views, likes, habits, may indeed bring changes to our own lives or understanding.

Maybe later, if we lose, we can even toss any reference books to this issue from our libraries.

Rich Bell Polson

Qualified water board appointments

Editor,

Having been an active supporter of the Water Compact, I am very pleased with the appointments to the Water Management Board. Lake County commissioners nominated and our Governor appointed individuals with strong water law and hydrological backgrounds. So did the CSKT.

During the board’s first meeting, one public speaker thought that water users should have been appointed. Sounds reasonable, but it would be very hard to find one or two users who could credibly speak for all users.

More importantly, many of the board’s decisions will involve competing claims among different users. I believe that board decisions in individual cases should be based on water law and hydrological considerations.

To keep water users informed, I hope the water board will hold meetings that enable the board to discuss the legal and hydrological issues that will underpin its decisions in individual cases.

Dick Erb Moiese

Responsible bathroom etiquette

Editor,

From the simplest bathroom to the fanciest, these two suggestions are applicable:

Number one: Leave things where you found them.

Number two: Don’t flush heavy papers.

Gene Johnson Polson

Enough spending

Editor,

When I read of Tester’s latest expenditure of my tax dollars it is just too much. Now he has a bill for veterans exposed to burn pits. You’ve got to be kidding me. There is no end to this blowhard’s PR stunts. There isn’t one rock, however small, that this guy won’t turn over to find a reason to spend our money. He makes drunken sailors look like teetotalers.

Enough is enough. The big government Senator needs to know he represents Montana, the one that voted Republican this year. His support of out-of-control spending is embarrassing. Nearly every single week there is a newspaper headline touting how big Jon just got this outfit or that millions of dollars. Well, Jon, they’re our dollars not yours and we’re sick of it.

With a deficit of a mere $30 million it’s time to put that chained wallet of yours back in your pocket. It’s time to quit spending and start fixing the problems you helped create by supporting the people destroying our country. I’d love to see a headline once, just once, where you did something other than ‘award’ my money to someone.

We all know every year you’ve been in there your net worth has climbed until it’s now up four times what it was when you started. It’s time to represent the little people you so often claim to represent and never do. By the way, I’m a Marine veteran, and despite all your rhetoric the VA is the same as it was 10 years ago.

I’m reminded of what Alfred E. Newman said many years ago: “Just because everything is different doesn’t mean anything has changed.”

It’s time to tighten your belt, big guy.

Ed Kugler Kalispell

Use our minds

Editor,

Our present lives as humans on earth are filled with increasing chaos, confusion about life, and our development of advanced methods of killing each other. This threatens our continuing human existence on planet earth. There is a powerful answer to all this - it involves the ‘power of the mind.

We humans have been gifted with minds. Our minds are not “of the body.” Minds transcend the body and have the ability to connect with universal wisdom. Jesus, as a human, was a perfect example of a person practicing the teachings of universal wisdom.

We have a choice each moment. We can either think, speak, and act from an ‘ego-based’ thought system involving selfish living, or a ‘spiritually based’ thought system involving love.

The differing characteristics of these thought system are as follows: The ‘ego-based’ thought system involves fear, greed, hate, anger, casting blame, and attack. The ‘spiritually based’ thought system involves, trust, joy, giving, forgiveness, peace, and love.

Today, our ‘ego-based’ thought system is definitely in charge in our nation and our world. To activate the ‘spiritually based’ thought system takes choice, listening, and practice, practice, practice. It is up to each of us to choose our thought system.

Bob McClellan Missoula

Our democracy

Editor,

The recent whitewashing statement put out by the RNC stating that the January 6th assault on our Capitol was simply “legitimate political discourse” is reprehensible. Is this what the Republican Party has devolved into? Advocating violence and enabling hate as a means of justifying their position?

I am a proud veteran. I used to be a proud Republican. Not anymore. I am deeply concerned about the future of our country. As Benjamin Franklin famously said, we have “a democracy, if you can keep it.” Can we? Will we?

Gary Teggeman Polson