Tim Van Schmidt News Today

Tim Van Schmidt I wrote a letter to the President. I thought I would ask him a question. I sent my letter to the Press Office in the White House, thinking maybe my august position as a freelancer writing for the North Forty News might work. I pleaded my case that I was a senior writer looking at “retirement” and that working a White House press conference had always been a dream of mine. NOCO calling – White House, Washington DC; Photo by Tim Van Schmidt Then, I tried to ask a question of...

  I first heard The Grateful Dead play live on New Year’s Eve. This was back in 1970, but it’s not as cool as it may sound. The Dead were playing Winterland Arena in San Francisco and a television station there was broadcasting it. My family had just moved from Phoenix to the San Fernando Valley, just north of Los Angeles. I found myself on New Year’s Eve that year playing cards with the son of one of my dad’s colleagues while flipping around the channels of the TV. At one point, I hit...