From the category archives:

Holiday Hits

Triple-dog dare

Thumbnail image for Triple-dog dare by Joe Plumber December 8, 2009

One of the newer features of Idaho Falls Today is the local news feeds on the mid to lower left side of the page. Skimming through, I noticed a story titled “Boise boy licks metal pole, gets stuck.” Instantly, I recalled the scene from “A Christmas Story” where one boy triple-dog dares another to lick [...]

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‘The Blind Side’

Thumbnail image for ‘The Blind Side’ by Guest Writer December 2, 2009

Actress Sandra Bullock says meeting Leigh Anne Tuohy, who she portrays in The Blind Side, showed her there really are some Christians who “walk the walk.”
The film, which opened the week before Thanksgiving, presents the true story of the Tuohys — a well-off white family in Tennessee — who welcome a homeless black youth into their [...]

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Kudos to Idaho Falls Snow Removal Workers

by Joe Vandal December 27, 2007

This is a couple days late, but I still wanted to give a big thank you to all the folks who have been working so hard at clearing the huge snowfall Idaho Falls received.
The snow began falling on Christmas Eve day, and some of those workers were already out clearing our roads. Christmas Day [...]

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The Flap Over The Flag

by Mike November 12, 2007

Here is a story that makes your blood boil on Veterans Day!!!
Recently, the Department of Veterans Affairs opted out of the tradition of reciting the significance of each fold in the flag-folding ceremony at military funerals.
The recitations accompanying each fold pay tribute to the service and sacrifice of our veterans and their families, and the [...]

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Idaho Falls 2007 Fourth of July Festivities

by Joe Vandal July 5, 2007

Another Fourth of July has come and passed Idaho Falls, and I think our city did a great job with this year’s festivities. Kudos to the thousands of people who worked behind the scenes to make all these great events. I hope a congratulatory picnic for those people can be arranged, we should thank them [...]

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What are your plans for Memorial Day weekend?

by chrisr671 May 24, 2007

I thought I’d write an article to see what everyone likes to do during Memorial Day weekend. I’m sure Bar-B-Q grills will fired up all over the city and the wonderful aroma of ribs, chicken, burgers & hot dogs will envelop the city this weekend. Others will no doubt load up the vehicle [...]

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Idaho Falls’ Best Sledding Areas

by Joe Vandal December 26, 2006

We finally got our snow delivered in southeast Idaho! Sledding is a great physical (and cheap) activity to take children out to do here. I wonder the same thing each year: where are the best sledding spots?

There is the small hill in Community Park, close but likely crowded.
There is the Ucon pit next to [...]

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New Christmas Computer Tips

by Joe Vandal December 22, 2006

I have a few tips and downloads for anyone you know who is lucky enough to get a new computer for Christmas. These little things will help ensure they get started on the right foot and make their overall experience much better than without.
You can really help them out by downloading a few of these [...]

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Where are the Biggest Idaho Falls Christmas Light Displays?

by Joe Vandal December 17, 2006

Christmas season is nearing the end, but there is still another week of time to drive around and look at the holiday lights. Some homes hang a few up (like mine), some hang many up, and then there are those few that hang so many up you wonder at their electric bill.

These are the “doozies” [...]

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Liberals or Conservatives- Who Gives More???

by flyonthewall December 5, 2006

Is it me or did anyone else find the 20/20 story on charity a bit ironic? If you didn’t see the episode it was a John Stosell report in which he interviewed Arthur Brooks who is a Professor of Public Administration and Director of the Nonprofit Studies Program at Syracuse University’s Maxwell School [...]

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Evidence of Idaho’s Christmas Spirit

by Joe Vandal December 5, 2006

I am buffeted by advice that this site should focus on more positive stories. I like to point out most anyone is free to register and publish positive stories on their own, so long as it is locally interesting.
Most everyone is also free to leave positive comments in some of the more positively-oriented articles, [...]

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Thanksgiving Dinner Restaurant in Idaho Falls

by Joe Vandal December 3, 2006

I would like to see an Idaho Falls restaurant focused exclusively on Thanksgiving meal-type foods. It could be called something like “Thanksgiving Dinner”, “Thanksgiving Diner”, “Thanksgiving Eats” or “Thanksgiving Fixings”.
The menu would feature things traditional Thanksgiving foods like turkey, smoked turkey, fried turkey, mashed potatoes, gravy, cranberries, rolls, deviled eggs, pumpkin pie, etc. The food [...]

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What are your holiday traditions, Idaho Falls?

by Joe Vandal November 26, 2006

I think it’s widely acknowledged the holiday season starts Thanksgiving weekend. I was wondering what similar or different holiday traditions we celebrate in Idaho Falls?
My family sets out our Christmas decorations on Thanksgiving weekend. We have two fake trees now, one for upstairs and the basement. We only setup one at first with wooden ornaments, [...]

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4th of July Contest Winner

by Joe Vandal July 13, 2006

We picked a winner in our first-ever contest, last week’s 4th of July 2006 Contest that asked for five freedoms guaranteed in our First Amendment.
While the response was disappointing (only 29 entries), the winner was not disappointed! In the interest of proving it was all kept ‘top shelf’, I’ll describe the procedure to pick our [...]

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City needs porta-potties at fireworks show

by Joe Vandal July 8, 2006

I heard some people complain about the lack of porta-potties at this year’s Idaho Falls fireworks show. They sat on the east bank, across from the recreation center. The only public restrooms they could find were the permanent ones located kitty corner to the Eagle Rock Post Office. When they arrived, they found a line [...]

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Afterparty proposed for amateur fireworks

by Joe Vandal July 7, 2006

The other day I was discussing with someone in the chatbox about the issue of illegal fireworks in Idaho. (Here’s an article about the dilemma.)
Through our discussion, we came up with the idea for Idaho Falls to add another major fireworks event, perhaps called ‘the afterparty’. It would probably be held at Sandy Downs [...]

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A fireworks show by any other name

by Joe Vandal July 6, 2006

Now that our annual fireworks show has successfully come and gone again, IdahoFallz.com will bring up a few related issues over the next few days. We hope the discussion will help pave the way to a bigger and better holiday next year in Idaho Falls.
The first issue is the name of our fireworks. It was [...]

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4th of July Contest

by Joe Vandal July 4, 2006

UPDATE: Winner selected, view details here.
UPDATE: Contest is closed.
Happy Fourth of July, Idaho Falls. Either you wandered onto IdahoFallz.com naturally or you’re here as a result of our flier handouts at the parade. Either way, we welcome you to explore the site. You can see it’s all about Idaho Falls, from the pictures to [...]

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Legalize Better Fireworks in Idaho

by Joe Vandal June 30, 2006

It’s fireworks season again, so I thought I’d bring up an annual fireworks issue.

No, this is not about the Melaleuca Freedom Celebration (I’d link their fireworks site but it’s been down for a few months now, anyone know why?), but rather is about consumer fireworks use.
There’s debate about what fireworks we citizens are allowed [...]

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Idaho Falls ought to shoot 13 guns on the Fourth of July

by Joe Vandal June 8, 2006

I found this interesting Fourth of July historical fact at Wikipedia:
In 1777, British officers noted the firing of 13 guns, once at morning and again as evening fell, on July 4 in Bristol, Rhode Island.
I think it’s fair to say Idaho Falls celebrates the Fourth of July more than most cities with our parade, [...]

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Thank you Frank Vandersloot for the Awesome Fireworks

by BuddhAllahrist June 5, 2006

Love him or hate him, agree or disagree with his politics, buy or don’t buy his $4 soap bars, I think Frank Vandersloot has done a great thing for Idaho Falls with his annual fireworks show on the fourth of July.
Sure it’s a blatant advertisement for Melaleuca (even renaming it the ‘Melaleuca Freedom Celebration’). [...]

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Watch 4th of July Fireworks from Keefer Island, Idaho Falls

by Joe Vandal May 10, 2006

Poor Keefer Island sits unused and seemingly unwanted in Idaho Falls‘ Snake River stretch. The city used to shoot our fireworks off from the north end of the island. When Frank took over with with the awesome Melaleuca Freedom Celebration, he deployed so many fireworks as to outgrow the island space and they have been [...]

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Wal-Mart on Easter Eve

by Joe Vandal April 15, 2006

We had prided ourselves on buying Easter goodies early this year, but found late tonight a forgotten but critical item: little chocolates.
Our family tradition is to place a trail of little wrapped Easter chocolates from our kids’ bedroom doors leading out to their baskets in the living room. It’s kind of neat, the kids squeal [...]

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Valentine’s Day Group Kiss

by BuddhAllahrist February 7, 2006

A fun thing for Idaho Falls-area couples to do on Valentine’s Day would be to gather in a large group somewhere and everyone kiss their partner at the same time. Yeah it’s cheesy, but for couples it would be fun, and guys it would mean a lot to your ladies to take her to such [...]

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