Columns

Some may find it hard to believe but, long before our ability to instantly share news and events via television, cell phone, Facebook, Twitter, Instagram and so on, people found a way to spread their news, whatever it may have…

By Scott SullivanEditorWhere’s the Porn?God bless free speech. Without it censors would enslave us; with it we get letters to the editor such as Melanie Kurdyz of Plainwell wrote last week to the Allegan County News last.She corrects columnist G.C.…

    We see labels everywhere.  If we go into a grocery store we for labels so we know whether we are buying canned peaches or canned mystery meat.  Sometimes we read and compare labels of the ingredients to make certain we are eating…

Why are we still supplying Ukraine with taxpayer money and weapons? Wouldn’t the hundreds of billions of dollars we have sent to fight the proxy war against Russia, be put to better use at home? I certainly think so.We have…

Today is a special day to celebrate. On March 3, 1931, the Star-Spangled Banner was officially named America’s National Anthem. I know very few people who can sing our anthem the way it was written.The month of February passed quickly.…

I was going to write about “Marvelous Muddy March” this week, but since we are buried under nearly a foot of snow out there, I guess I will save that topic for another time.It may be March now, but it…

The voting may be done, but no winner has yet been announced by the Clarke Historical Library in their annual digitize old Michigan newspaper contest. As you may have read, the archives of the Marion Press, and its predecessors, were…

By Scott SullivanEditorSo CalledAmazon ad affiliate Lavatory Lab ranks Michigan public bathrooms “Among America’s Worst!” — 20th of 50 states for rankest. What Jeff Bezos paid PoopCo for online opinion poll data: priceless.Bottom of the bowl: Wyoming scored 3.5 out…

Growing can be a real pain, sometimes. What you once remembered with ease, you now forget.Case in point occurred last weekend. My significant other and I had booked a concert at a smallish auditorium back in December. It was sure…

    For a number of years, we have been seeing news reports about our southern borders.  Unfortunately, we have overlooked the fact that we also have a northern border with Canada.  It’s easy to forget about it because, with the exception of a…

I would like to take advantage of “Writer’s Privilege” and wish my sister a very Happy 90th Birthday. She has lived longer than both my parents and oldest brother, and the way she’s going, she’ll likely out live me. Happy…

Although I get discouraged as much as the next person, at heart I am an incurable optimist. My glass is almost always half-full.While sitting here at the computer in the office with the electric heater aimed at my feet, I…

It’s time for some local talk this week.  We have some news that’s urgent and some thoughts in retrospect on some recent Passing’s. It’s not often that we have some of both here on the quiet banks of the Middle…

By Scott SullivanEditorBird Flu“How worried should we be about bird flu?” the teaser read. I’m worried my wife’s birds won’t fly away. Squawking, gobbling seeds, crapping … It’s like being in a Hitchcock movie.Safe to live again without masks and…

   Perhaps you remember the 1948 film, A Song is Born, starring Danny Kaye and Virginia Mayo. The plot is simple:  A group of elderly scholars had been commissioned to write the definitive history of music. For nine years they had toiled away, cutting…

Our government seems to enjoy keeping sensitive information from you and I, even though we pay their salaries and place them in the positions they are in. I believe the people have a right to know. It is not up…

I would like to publicly thank everyone who voted me “Favorite Columnist” in this year’s Readers’ Choice awards. Putting together my weekly Out and About column is a labor of love. I’ve always believed that if you love your work,…

Ultimately, my Valentine’s Day gift to the Gardner was a fresh, neutral coat of gray paint on the walls in his bathroom. This may sound a bit odd, but it made perfect sense to us…and ended somewhat of a decorating…

It’s Wednesday and I’m not sure what is going on.I know, I know, it is still officially winter, but we did have almost a whole week with temperatures above the freezing mark, the snow is nearly all gone again, and…

By Scott SullivanEditorWaiting for GaudreauMonty Python met adventures seeking the Holy Grail, but none like I have pursuing perfection.My frustration meeting a standard that can’t exist — If no human is perfect, how can a human know what perfect is?…