Columnists
Age 20 Alexander Joseph Pattison, known to many as Alex or “Zander Bander”, was born in Reno, Nevada, on Aug. 21, 2005, and passed away in Carson City, Nevada, on Jan. 17, 2026. Alex is survived by his father, Christaphor Pattison; step-mother, Svetlana Grabelnikova; mother, Shannon Pattison; step-father, Josh Kelley;
Columnists
Footballs are pointy and bounce funny. I guess that’s what makes football so much fun. Watching a grown man chase a fumble is like watching a child chase a duck, it’s enough to make a cow laugh, really. Betting on sports is popular these days, but you don’
Columnists
At what point in life do you dare step out and take a chance, gambling everything? Most of us sense that we’re meant for some kind of adventure, but the moment to begin rarely announces itself. It usually arrives quietly—looking suspiciously like a bad idea. For my dad,
Dayton
There’s a place above Dayton that used to feel like a secret. A high overlook near the water tank where you could stand for a moment and see the country the way the old-timers saw it; wide, quiet, and tough. It sits near the route that climbs out through
Columnists
Those of us who knew him have one binding thing in common; each and every one of us has Rob’s fingerprints on our hearts. We are better people for having known him, and the world is a better place for his having lived in it. His presence was a
Columnists
Not everyone buried in the Dayton Cemetery started out famous, but one of them sure ended up that way. Meet Charles H. Russell, born in 1903, who grew up surrounded by the same sagebrush and stubborn wind that still define our Nevada home. Like many Dayton kids, he started small,
Columnists
Anger is one of the first things we ever do well. The moment we’re born, we announce our displeasure loudly—at the lights, the cold air, and the general surprise of being here at all. It’s not subtle. It’s not polite. But it is honest. That first
Columnists
I’ve never liked numbers, probably because they remind me of how random my life has been. As an example, by the time I was thirty I had attended three different colleges and held thirty different jobs. By the time I was seventy I had been married five times, and
Columnists
I’ve often wondered why the street that The Odeon sits on is called Pike Street. At first glance, the obvious guess is the Northern Pike, but that doesn’t hold up. Northern pike aren’t indigenous to Nevada. They were introduced into at least one Nevada water (Comins Lake
Columnists
Jimmy asked me to teach him how to swim. He was maybe fifteen, and I was a lifeguard not much older. He was also blind and liked to wrestle, so I wrestled him into some deep water, where he let go and learned how to swim. We became friends, and
Columnists
Before Dayton was known for mining, mills, and mischief, it had a woman with a drill and a dream. Meet Helen Rulison Shipley, born right here in Dayton on Jul. 23, 1870, and destined to become Nevada’s first female dentist. In an era when women were expected to sew,
Columnists
The stretch limo was solid white. The handsome man standing through the sunroof—wearing a solid white tuxedo and a grin you could see from orbit—was my dad. As the limo crept around California’s state capitol buildings, a string of cans rattled loudly behind it, doing exactly what