Theater – We’re coming in on the deadline set by some major league contributors for Olympic Theatre Arts.

The (Bob) Caldwells loaned the organization a couple hundred grand back when things were getting kind of pinchy with the remodel project. Now that the note is coming due, the generous couple has offered to forgive the loan if the community can pony up a similar amount.

I’ve contributed, as well as many of you, but they are still a little short, and it would be more than a shame if the goal isn’t met. Not being able to sustain local theater is a sad commentary on a community, let alone one such as ours.

Brown Maloney, who owns this paper, certainly has contributed more than his fair share to the cause.

And it seems as we have a number of local celebs who’ve done some Hollywood time. I’m wondering if they’ve weighed in as yet. I’d think they’d really appreciate the need for community theater.

City Council – Oh dear, here we go again. Another council race and another crop of "elect me because they’re no good."

I wonder if there’s any chance we might hear of some positive suggestions that the new hopefuls might offer. I guess calling two current planning commission members and one past council member new hopefuls is wishful thinking.

Admittedly, the current council seems to have some trouble getting any traction, but that’s all the more reason to get some positive new members, not more naysayers and critics.

All we ask is that we get some direction other than build anywhere and anyhow.

As Wife Nancy and I enjoy our off-the-main-highway road trips, I always look for interesting little towns that feel good. When I ask how they got that way, I always hear the same story:

"Well, we rolled around on the ground for many years wrestling each other for control and finally we got together and started working together following a plan."

I’m looking for the candidates who show some vision and positive energy, not more critics and self-servers.

Vicky puts a cork in it – Don’t tell me that Victoria finally has ventured into the modern world. They actually are planning to quit dumping all of their raw sewage into the strait. I still can’t believe that the rest of the continent has allowed them to get away with this.

Perhaps it was just an extension of the thinking that "their stuff didn’t stink," but it still isn’t healthy for any of us. Now all we must do is hold our noses until 2016 when they might get the first of their plants online.

Water wasters – I recently saw an article in the Economist that did a little review of how much water the modern civilized world uses. It’s shocking. What are we going to do when there’s more of us and even less water?

The biggest stunner for me was the amount of water it takes to bring just one liter of coffee to my table. Would you believe 1,100 liters, or roughly 3,000 gallons? Wine’s not much further back, requiring more than 900 liters, or 2,700 gallons.

Even bottled water takes three liters to produce one liter of water. How does that work?

Go science – I’m always encouraged about our future when I see people like Marley Iredale coming along. (She’s the top prize winner at the International Science and Engineering fair sponsored by Intel.)

With students right here in Sequim High School with these kinds of capabilities, we stand a chance to make it for another century on this planet.

Her discovery was that

Sequim Bay contained evidence that it is indeed quite likely that we will experience a tsunami. This is more than just interesting, it’s critical.

On another front, scientists at Tufts University who are working with spider webs to come up with a way to duplicate them might end up with a material that could be truly revolutionary. I can only imagine what kind of messes they must end up in hanging around spiders their whole careers.

"Sorry dear, I’ll be home a little late tonight; I’m tied up here at the lab."

Finally, three major hotbeds of scientific development are about to announce a procedure that would enable us to generate electricity by fusion. A lot of heat is generated when you force two nuclei to join into one.

Wow, what a breakthrough. No ugly waste and no need for pricey fuel. Now, we are getting somewhere.

The hard part is that research costs money, and we don’t usually pay much attention to the future, especially if it costs money.

Jim Follis is a retired school administrator, has published two books and currently writes three newspaper columns. Eating, drinking and making merry are his professed hobbies. Traveling, trekking and observing people follow not far behind.