Thank you, Cody Hoffman, for providing a local entry point to my annual column about what’s wrong with college football.

As I journeyed to the Willamette Valley for a family visit Saturday morning, I was probably driving alongside some of those Del Norters going to the BYU-OSU game in Corvallis to watch the former Warrior in action.

He didn’t disappoint, catching nine passes and playing the finest game of his young college career. And all that cheering from the Del Norters sprinkled around Reser Stadium wasn’t lost on the media. Triplicate Sports Editor Bill Choy was in the press box, where a couple of Utah journalists mentioned the Cody loyalists from Northern California. One joked that BYU should figure out how to get them to all its games, since they obviously bring out the best in Hoffman.

Thanks to Del Norters showing support for ‘hometown kid’

The Hoffman family would like to express our gratitude to all of you Del Norters and our friends from the East Coast that joined the “Cody Express” and made the trip to Corvallis on Oct. 15.

What a fun time we all had. It means so much that so many of you came out and supported our hometown kid. But then Del Norters are known for their support when it comes to football. Most of you have followed Cody through all his football days here in Crescent City. Whether it was youth football or Warrior football, you guys have been there to follow him and now through college football.

What a gorgeous week! Just chock full of unexpected good things, including sunshine and the first juncos home for the winter. It was one of those times when things turn out far better than if they’d happened as I’d planned. A week to remind me I’m not in charge, just along for the ride.

Jerry wants to know what temperature is best to dry seeds to save for planting next year. If you’ve got a dehydrator, keep the temp under 100. Seeds are alive, and you won’t get much germination if you cook them. Otherwise, put them in a brown paper bag, tie the top shut, hang it in a warm area and shake it daily.

These are tough economic times for California and the United States. The unemployment rate is 9.1 percent for America, 12.4 percent for California, and 14.2 percent for Del Norte County.

Taxes are down because income is down. Budgets are strained. This country is in a recession. Del Norte County is no exception to the dwindling budget syndrome. The city of Crescent City anticipates at $250,000 deficit in its budget commencing July 1, 2012.

A few weeks back Sheriff Dean Wilson spoke about his role as the county’s top cop in the Sept. 3 Triplicate article “Tea Party Sheriff: Dean Wilson is filling two high-profile roles in county.”  I listen very carefully when the sheriff speaks. He has his pulse on the community and when he comments, I pay attention.

Government can’t create jobs, should help private sector do it

I see by Marsinah Murakami’s Oct. 15 letter (“Keep pressure on GOP to make jobs, not posturing, its priority”) that Obama’s campaign strategy is working.

Murakami seems to think Obama’s plan is actually designed to create jobs. I don’t think so. I suspect it was presented with the knowledge that even his own party wouldn’t support it, and certainly not the GOP, thereby giving him something to blame on those bad old Republicans. As Murakami says, “... since when are Republicans against building roads and ... against creating jobs?”

My “sisters” and I pose for a photo before leaving the dahlia farm, left to right: Roseann, Denise, me and Shannon.

We were all born in the same year and went to the same schools. We’ve celebrated at each other’s weddings, watched our children grow and stood together at memorial services.

Life doesn’t just hand you friends like this. You have to work hard at nurturing them – by staying in touch, listening carefully and giving back whenever and whatever you can. This kind of a relationship has roots that run so deep that nothing can shake it loose.

The green frog sat proudly on the end of the bench watching over the 1953 Del Norte Warrior varsity basketball team.

The 1953 Warriors were a very talented group of athletes. The team won the Humboldt-Del Norte conference basketball championship for the first time in about 20 years. The Warriors only lost one game during the entire season. Arcata defeated the Warriors the first time they played in a close game, but the Warriors came back and defeated Arcata soundly the second time they played.

The voyage of discovery continues here at Third and H as we complete the second week of our transition to a three-times-per-week publication schedule.

We’re all still getting used to it. Yes­terday morning my wife Laura, also known as the newspaper’s Neighbors editor, went out to our Triplicate box attempting to procure a nonexistent Friday edition.

On Wednesday last week, the first non-publishing day of the new schedule, Circulation Director John Mihalyo came to work expecting dozens of calls from readers wondering where their Triplicate was. What he didn’t anticipate was being accosted upon arrival by one of our reporters complaining about finding no paper in the box at home.

Isn’t it clear both parties colluding with industries at our expense?

In the Oct. 11 letter by Dale Bohling (“Attack on conservative ideology repeats tired arguments of past”), it struck me that the competing element of our political divide is evolving into a culture of its own.

It’s like political poetry. My mind is tickled just melting the vocabulary and analogies together.

Interestingly though, if past elections are any indicator, it would seem that any political leader, either a Dale Bohling or a Bruce Kerwood (“Panning conservative ideology,” Oct. 6), would have received funds from the same sources. Our Obamas and Rick Perrys and so on are bought and paid for before we vote and we couldn’t possibly compete with the money involved.

From the pages of the Del Norte Triplicate, October 1945.

The Simpson Logging firm of Washington recently purchased over 13,000 acres of fine redwood timberland. The price was reported to be  $700,000.

The large tract of land is located north of the Klamath River and was purchased from the Requa Timber Company.