My first thought when I walked into the theater was that it’s going to be packed with five year old boys laughing and screaming at every scene that’s supposed to be really immature and dim-witted, but I was wrong.  I’m not saying this is the most divine movie of all time, but it did keep me entertained.

Inside all of us there is a wild thing. People may look like they are heading for a business meeting, but that doesn’t mean they are bland and humdrum. They just might have a wild side that lurks within their personality - you just have to look deep down inside. This is the theme of the movie “Where The Wild Things Are.”

“To infinity and beyond,” shouts Buzz Lightyear as he leaps off the bed, bounces off a kickball, lands on a minuscule pair of skates, rides a loop-to-loop, launches off a jump, clutches onto a remote controlled helicopter attached to the ceiling, executes a couple of spins and gracefully manages to return to the bed (or as Woody called it “falling with style”).

As the new interim superintendent of the Selah School District the first six weeks of the new school year have been very exciting for me.  I have met many people in the community and many parents as I attended each school’s “open house.”  I was able to visit classrooms in every school in September and I saw a lot of excellent teaching and learning. I saw a safe and supportive learning environment, standards-based teaching, and high levels of student engagement at each school.

“It all begins with a dream,” or at least in “Fame” it does.

We’ve seen quite a bit of Tim Eyman over the years, and he’s even spent some time in Yakima County recently pushing his latest initiative I-1033 which he says will “protect taxpayers by reducing our state’s obscene and unsustainable property tax burden by controlling the growth of government to an affordable level.”

Have you ever jumped in a castle made of Jell-O?  Climbed down a tunnel of peanut brittle? Made an ice cream snow angel?  Or seen a tornado of stringy spaghetti noodles? Probably not. These incidents can only be found in the movie, “Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs.”

Increasingly we have been receiving reports of identity theft. Identity theft occurs when someone uses your personal identifying information such as: your name, Social Security number or credit card number, without your permission to commit fraud or other crimes.  The Federal Trade Commission estimates some nine million Americans fall victim yearly to some form of identity theft.

Last Friday, September 11th, was a time to reflect on the last eight years since 343 FDNY firefighters lost their lives trying to save others. As it is often said, firefighters are always running into burning buildings or disasters as others are running out, no questions asked, that’s the job! That infamous day was the highest loss of life to firefighters in a single incident since Benjamin Franklin organized the nation’s first volunteer fire department.

Well, the Summer is over and it's time to get back to business!  This month's column contains a few ramblings about our community.  Subjects included are the entry sign, the revival of Selah Stars, the Matson Fruit Company expansion and a little bit about the Czech Republic.