Jim Willard

Jim Willard, a Loveland resident since 1967, retired from Hewlett-Packard after 33 years to focus on less trivial things. He calls Twoey, his bichon frisé-Maltese dog, vice president of research for his column.

Trivially Speaking: Route 66 carried mystique as the ‘Mother Road’

May 10, 2026 at 7:42 a.m.

Interstate 25 doesn't carry with it the mythic connotation of Route 66, but then that's because it's a Journey-Come-Lately. No other highway — not even California's “Bloody One-O-One” carries the...

Trivially Speaking: Sharing the music of kinder, gentler times

April 25, 2026 at 2:55 p.m.

If you pay attention (and I hope you do) you'll note that the atmosphere in this country is more divisive than I can ever remember in my more than 70...

Several Rocky Mountain National Park officials spoke at a Learn with the League event on April 15 at the American Legion Post 119 in Estes Park including, from left, fuels specialist Nate Hallam, public information officer Kyle Patterson, Superintendent Gary Ingram, public information specialist Jamie Richards, forest ecologist Kevin Gaalaas, and large mammal ecologist Will Dearcy. (Jeffrey Bear / Trail-Gazette)

Timed entry, fire and staff housing addressed by Rocky Mountain National Park officials

April 23, 2026 at 11:02 a.m.

Rocky Mountain National Park rangers talk housing, fire and timed entry at a Leage of Women Voters forum on April 15.

Trivially Speaking: 7 deadly sins have been with us for centuries

April 18, 2026 at 1:40 p.m.

Pope Gregory in the sixth century listed the Seven Deadly Sins in this order: Pride, Greed, Lust, Envy, Gluttony, Wrath and Sloth. I don’t know what directed his choices; it...

Trivially Speaking: 18 students, 2 peach baskets and 1 soccer ball added up to a lasting game

April 11, 2026 at 1:08 p.m.

On that December day in 1891 when James Naismith, an instructor at the YMCA training school in Springfield, Massachusetts, instructed “Pop” Stebbins (a janitor at the school) to nail two...

Trivially Speaking: Sermon leads to a lick of knowledge

April 4, 2026 at 2:20 p.m.

Just the other Sunday while I was liturgist in my church, the minister used the phrase "doesn't have a lick of common sense."

Trivially Speaking: Paper boys on bikes are now a distant memory

March 28, 2026 at 11:49 a.m.

Who'd have believed it in the middle of the last century? For many young boys (not many girls) a paper route was the first paying job outside the home.

Trivially Speaking: Springtime behavior can sometimes be ‘twitterpated’

March 21, 2026 at 1:33 p.m.

"Twitterpated" was coined by the scriptwriters for Disney's "Bambi" (adapted from the novel by Felix Salten) to describe a condition explained to Bambi, Thumper and Flower by a passing owl....

Trivially Speaking: A quarter century of trivia aimed to ‘Educate, Inform, Entertain’

March 14, 2026 at 4:35 p.m.

March 11, 2001 is a date that will live forever in my memory. Why you ask? At least, I hope you do. The date marks the first appearance of “Trivially...

Trivially Speaking: Backtrack through time, and math, to trace the circle

March 7, 2026 at 2:44 p.m.

“Why are there 360 degrees in a circle,” a regular reader once asked me. My first response was to say, “Because Miss Helland told me so.”

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