Terror Vision

Get to know Bill Udicious

Birthplace: Hasting, Pa., which was coal-mining country.
Hobbies: Gardening. He plants tomatoes, beets, spinach and carrots.
Favorite sports team: Pittsburgh Steelers.
Family: Wife, Jackie, five children and nine grandchildren.

Being a judge is hard work. So hard, in fact, that sometimes these distinguished members of society go out in search of more plebeian ways to relax. Weve taken the time to write about their hobbies in the past. For example, some judges get off by packing penis pumps underneath their robes. Some judges prefer prostitutes, and other judges like to blow through thousands of dollars at strip clubs. Hell, some judges just like blow.

But other judges are apparent aficionados of the classic gateway drug marijuana. One judge in Texas was recently arrested for allegedly smoking two joints before he smoked two joints, and then smoking two more.

Who is the judge in question? Guadalupe County Judge Michael Thomas Wiggins. Judge Wiggins was picked up by the police in College Station, where he was staying to attend a judicial conference. Did Wiggins forget to put a towel under the door of his hotel room? The Seguin Gazette has the story:

The police officer was met by a hotel security officer who said a bellman had reported the odor of marijuana on the fifth floor of the hotel.

The bellman and the police officer went up to the fifth floor and soon located a hotel room where the odor seemed to be coming from.

After the bellman knocked, the door was opened by a man later identified as Wiggins.

After doing a protective sweep of the hotel room, the police officer asked if there was marijuana in the room, and Wiggins pointed to a duffel bag. The officer asked if he could check the contents of the duffel bag, and according to the departments report, Wiggins consented to the officers search of the duffel bag.

The officer said the bags contents included a silver grinder, rolling papers and a plastic bag containing 20.1 grams of marijuana.

According to the officer, Wiggins confirmed it was marijuana and admitted it was his.

Wiggins stands accused of a Class B misdemeanor, and he faces jail time of up to 180 days and a fine of up to $2,000. The Judge spent the night in jail, and was released on $3,000 bail, just in time to make it to the conference. When asked to comment on the allegations, Wiggins offered this to the press: Theres nothing I can deny. It is what it is.

Maybe this guy is an enhancement smoker. Hey, Judge Wiggins, you ever see the inside of a jail cell? You ever see the inside of a jail cell on weed?

Guadalupe County judge faces pot charge [San Antonio Express-News]
County judge arrested on marijuana charge [Seguin Gazette]
Judge Arrested at His Hotel Room on Pot Charge is Bailed Out in Time to Attend Courts Conference [ABA Journal]

Editors note: This is the first in a three-part series on the hobbies of area residents.

By Alisa Boswell

PNT staff writer

aboswell@pntonline.com

Gaming is not just an escape from reality but a healthier way to cope with lifes problems, according to local Portales video game players.

It takes me out of the world right now and puts my mind away from other things that have been getting under my skin and bugging me, like work or politics and other things, said Thomas Anderson, a retail store employee. It can help if youre playing something like a puzzle solving or strategy game and you have a realization halfway through, lsquo;oh theres a way to fix that problem. It has nothing to do with the game. Your mind just wanders then you have a realization that theres a way to fix your problem.

Gamer Anthony Sapp agreed with Anderson that gaming is an escape and problem-solver but that it also teaches valuable life skills.

It would change the way I viewed people, because I would see all these different worlds and characters in front of me, said Sapp, an Eastern New Mexico University student. It would make you look for the more subtle hints that peoples body language gives away and the way they speak. I guess its easier for me to see that now that Ive been playing video games for a long time.

Sapp said he has been playing video games since he was a child and he plans to make a career out of it after graduating with a degree in digital arts.

To be a gamer is more than just sitting down and playing games every now and then. Its seeing the world through a different set of eyes and having fun, Sapp said. It inspires you to improve in other aspects of your life, because you are always improving in gaming. You can apply that to how you are every day.

Anderson and Sapp said gaming also gives them the opportunity to meet people from all walks of life and experience other cultures.

With online gaming, one minute I could be playing with someone who lives next door and the next minute I could be playing with someone in Europe, Anderson said. You could learn something about different cultures without even meaning to.

Sapp said he has already designed a video game concept and plans to put it into the works after college.

My way of life is playing video games, going to school and playing more video games, Sapp said, laughing.

I think its just the sheer fact that its something you can do whether you are at home or not, Anderson said. You dont want to use it to completely escape reality, but as a stress relief hobby.

WEISER — While it is always important for anyone to take a
little time to themselves, whether to keep their minds off of work
or families, just for a little while, two Washington County
residents recently found out just how important taking that time
really is.

In the past year, Weiser resident Jane Betts has been diagnosed
with two different types of cancer — cervical and thyroid.

As a distraction for both Jane and her husband, Bill Betts, both
retired educators, they have rediscovered hobbies to keep their
minds and bodies occupied during the ordeal.

Jane spends much of her free time sewing, from tutus for
children and adults to costumes for Halloween to purses and many
things in-between. She spends her down time in her basement with
her 16 sewing machines, including eight sergers.

“Sewing is therapy for me,” Jane Betts said. “It is something I
enjoy doing. The spare bedroom is full of stuff I have sewn.”

Jane Betts has shipped her items all over the United States, as
well as overseas to London.

“It is fun. There are some things you never see around here,”
she said.

As for Bill Betts, he began wood-working — crafting boxes,
cutting out wooden puzzles and even making Christmas gifts for his
children.

He donates some of this time to the Weiser Little Theater,
helping build sets.

“I always told my students, in a community, you take from the
community,” Bill Betts said. “You need to pay rent.”

Part of paying rent for the Betts is by donating their time and
talents to the communities they love, and have grown in. Bill Betts
is part of the Indianhead Fly Fishing Club and helped build the
community pond in Weiser.

Jane Betts has donated much of her time and energy into making
book bags for students, as many as 500 in a single year.

“We have always had the mindset that we wanted to be involved in
the community, and we did,” Jane said.

Tuesday afternoon, as the snow flakes began to fly outside their
home, the Betts shared story after story about how their lives have
changed and how things have worked out differently than
expected.

The way their life has turned out turned out to be a blessing in
disguise.

Shortly after college life, the Betts accepted a home economics
position with the University of Idaho Extension Service in Weiser
and as a Fruitland High School math teacher.

They said they were just looking for positions that were close
to each other, with the only other option being in the Hood River,
Ore., area. The couple decided on the positions in the Treasure
Valley because Jane Betts’ mother was living in the Boise area.

The couple said their plan was to only stay a couple years in
the area and then move to another part of the nation, doing this
until they had done and seen all that they had wanted to do.

“Our jobs were such that we got to know a lot of people,” Jane
Betts said. “We don’t plan to leave here.”

Along with beginning their careers in Weiser and Fruitland, the
couple settled in a home just south of Weiser, not far from the
county line, where they raised their two children.

Jane Betts ended up spending 15 years as the extension agent for
the university, and Bill Betts continued his teaching career and
also added in some coaching as well as their family continued to
grow.

After Jane Betts’ position was cut, she was able to find a
position at Weiser High School, teaching a wide variety of classes,
ranging from teen living, adult living, parenting and child
development, occupations and economics and other classes. She
retired from Weiser in 2007.

Bill Betts retired from the Fruitland School District in 2007,
after two school years of working part time for the district.

During their careers, both Bill and Jane Betts have been named
Idaho Teacher of the Year by the U of I Alumni Association. They
figure Bill Betts has taught about 3,800 students through the
years, while Jane Betts taught about 3,000 students. That figure
does not count how many lives they have touched in the classroom
and in the community, however.

William Anderson is a news reporter at the Argus Observer. He
can be reached at (541) 823-4815 or by email, williama@argusobserver.com.
To comment on this story, go to www.argusobserver.com

If sharing a hobby is akin to sharing love, then participants in a National Hobby Day celebration at Frayser-Raleigh Senior Center on Jan. 26 generously displayed their personal natures.

A mutual love of model trains, for example, keeps Carolyn Speidel, 77, of Raleigh, and grandson Dennis Clay of Bartlett, 27 on Feb. 12, especially close. She became fascinated with trains in 1954 while on a trip from New Jersey to Pensacola, Fla., to see her husband-to-be. Later, as her hobby took hold, her now-late husband, William Speidel, went along for the ride, helping her set up and break down her displays. But it was grandson Dennis who inherited the Lionel locomotive gene.

As a young teenager, from Thanksgiving to New Years he would lay out the trains and tracks on our living room and dining room floors. … Elaborate layouts. … Elevations and tunnels.

The excitement, Clay explains, is in the timing: seeing one train, losing sight of it, and then having another appear somewhere else on a track.

While Speidel loved travel by mind and model train, senior center friends Joe and Maurine Tanner of Memphis took to the road. Hes 84, shes 80. Theyve been married 60-plus years and visited every state except Alaska and Hawaii together.

Maurine collected about 150 decorative spoons designating sites they saw, and eagerly displayed them to Hobby Day visitors. She also brought in some of her collectible ceramic buildings, including a replica of Nashvilles Ryman Auditorium of Grand Ole Opry fame.

At the next table, husband Joe Tanner displayed his meticulous needlework, a hobby he took up to keep his hands busy after retiring from 40 years as a paper machine operator at Kimberly-Clark. His elaborate Western scene on a basket is an original crewelwork in acrylic yarn. A 16-by-24-inch framed, needlepoint Nativity scene incorporates human figures from a pattern and everything else, from sky and sheep to dove of peace, from his own creativity.

Nearby sat retired Northwest Airlines ground crew member Bob Vincento, 68, of Memphis, among cardboard boxes of balsa airplane kits like those he has fancied since he was 10. His favorite model planes? Two World War II models: the British Spitfire and the German Messerschmitt Bf-109 — the latter kit within reach for a fresh start. A plane with a 30-inch wingspan, he said, is the biggest Ive ever worked on.

Retired Memphis Veterans Medical Center nurse Joyce Wiggins, 66, of Raleigh leans to the more whimsical. A world traveler herself, she collects American-made Annalee stuffed toys, pins and ornaments depicting fanciful human and animal folk.

I have 225 Annalee dolls, Wiggins said, from a caroler about 4-feet tall to a 3-inch ornament or pins. I have memories that go with many of them. I look at them and it just makes me smile.

Smiles make the day for hobbyist Sandy Stephens, 67, of Frayser too. The retired Kroger cashier has many hobbies, she said, but she presented proof of only a few: her feel for growing plants and crafting garden art. I have a small yard and a lot of shade.

Hobbies, she said, indicate her love of life. It is ironic, then, that she is fighting for hers.

I was diagnosed with Stage 3 ovarian cancer in October 2010, and have two more scans coming up, she says. Oh, Ive been worried, but Im doing much better.

I was having cancer treatments last spring, so I couldnt get out in my garden. My church members came in to help. I didnt want to sit and stare at the walls — though some days I must — so, I kept up the garden myself all summer.

Making pretty things and growing pretty things are important to me. Last year I had 102 potted plants on the deck and in the garden.

This year, she had the stories and photos to share.