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 handful of under-rated hockey players, laid off curlers, comedians, and lumberjacks not too many people want to Read More…
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 Birthday Rebecca Ann!!We must all be cautious of being scammed. People get scammed every day Read More…
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 was contemplating the end of another February.Of course, a prediction of several more inches of Read More…
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 Branch at Marion, Michigan.First, and most urgently this week, February 20-28, is the only chance Read More…
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 shots, except those from firearms? The STAT website warns avian influenza may be even more Read More…
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 themselves off from the rest of the world. Then one evening Danny “Professor Frisbee” Kaye Read More…
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 to career bureaucrats and elected leaders to tell us we can’t handle sensitive information because Read More…
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, you’ll never work a day of your life. I feel honored to be associated with Read More…
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 stand-off at our house. I will explain.Before moving to the new Pines, we spent years Read More…
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 the thermometer was even flirting with 50 degrees a little earlier today.Can’t go out and Read More…