A clear sky. Low around 60F. Winds light and variable..

A clear sky. Low around 60F. Winds light and variable.

Plans are taking shape for Old Navy to debut at Nez Perce Plaza in Lewiston.

SEATTLE — The Houston Astros ended the Seattle Mariners’ winning streak at 14 games, with Jose Altuve and Yordan Alvarez homering in a 5-2 victory Friday.

This editorial was published by the Tri-City Herald of Kennewick, Wash.

Those breathtaking photos of deep space from the James Webb telescope renew that question humans have been asking for millenia — or at least since the 1950s.

Are we alone, or is there intelligent life somewhere out there in space?

The James Webb telescope images make clear, more than anything else I’ve ever seen, that space is so vast and so incomprehensible it seems crazy that a few billion people on one tiny planet that is a mere dust speck in the eye of the universe could possibly be the only place where intelligent life exists. In fact, there is a big question in my mind whether intelligent life even exists on this planet.

I have long believed in the existence of persons elsewhere in the universe. I hesitate to call them “aliens,” what with political correctness and all, and just not to be rude. Let’s call them “neighbors” who may or may not be green and have three eyes in the middle of their foreheads.

I also believe that these “neighbors” have visited Earth many times; in fact, I believe they have visited my house. Which is why I cannot find my extra set of car keys or my blue scarf or that bottle of soy sauce I bought several months ago and I know I put it in my pantry but is nowhere to be found.

You may say, those disappearances are all because of my own absent-mindedness and I shouldn’t go around blaming visitors from another galaxy for my carelessness. Normally, I might agree with you — I do tend to be a tad absent-minded at times and I have been known to drop things down in places where they don’t belong and then not be able to find them again quickly.

But I have been looking for my car keys for two months and that scarf has been missing for weeks. Is a burglar going to come into my house and steal the keys and not take the car? If so, what is he doing with my blue scarf? And why take the soy sauce? That makes no sense unless he picked up an order of Chinese takeout on the way to burglarize my house.

Space aliens — I mean, neighbors — on the other hand, might be able to make practical use of those items. To get my DNA or whatever. Not that I have any idea what they might do with my DNA, but still…

Maybe they want to make a clone of me, although, really, one of me is enough for any universe. Maybe to drive me crazy or maybe just for laughs, I don’t know. But I do know that as I gazed at those gorgeous, amazing, inspiring pictures from outer space gifted to us from the James Webb telescope, I was straining my eyes to see if I could spot anything that looked familiar.

Hedberg may be contacted at khedberg@lmtribune.com.

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