Never Have I Ever…

May 13, 2023

I am sure that most of us at one time or another participated in playing the game, Never Have I Ever. The premise of the game is simple. Each player gives a scenario they have never done. Such as, Never Have I Ever been run over by a bicycle or perhaps Never Have I Ever been sent to the principal’s office. Both, unfortunately I cannot truthfully say Never Have I Ever to either one of those things! When I was in second grade, I was indeed run over by a boy coming down the hill on his bicycle when his brakes went out. I ended up with my leg broken in several places. There was also my ...

Finding a topic isn’t always easy

May 1, 2023

I sat down to write this column and I couldn’t settle on a subject. A lot of different ideas filled my congested head (thanks to the extreme temperatures of the world we live in where it’s 80 degrees one day and 43 the next, I caught a cold. I’ll raise my plastic Dayquil cup to toast to Mother Nature and global warming). I could write about self-improvement and personal development. I’ve started a new takeout-free diet and fared well the first week. Being a single guy, I’m not the best cook. I also realize that ordering out gets expensive and packs on the pounds as a nasty ...

The “Maine” Event

April 29, 2023

This is what my daughter-in-law, Katie, and I called our recent impromptu trip to Maine. I casually mentioned to her that I had a pressing desire to see Maine. A friend had planted the seed a few years ago, telling me that Maine was a must-see state, and his contagious enthusiasm for its beauty left an indelible impression on me. My desire to get there was then heightened last summer when it seemed as though every person I spoke with had either just gotten back from Maine or was on their way there. This turned my desire from “I would like to see it someday,” to “I must see it ...

Always remember Journalism 101

April 24, 2023

I graduated from college at the University of Maine more than 30 years ago, and I admit most of the sage advice my college professors gave me is collecting dust in a box in the corner of my basement. But there is a tidbit that one of them told me that I use each and every day when I sit down at my computer to write this and other stories. It was, “Don’t make yourself part of the story; you are just there to report it.” Of course, on this page, I am entitled to interject my opinions. But on the front page or the others, it would break his golden rule. His words also ring ...

Executive aggrandizement vs. women’s sports

April 19, 2023

By Rich Lowry King’s Features Syndicate Decades from now, when scholars are debating how the executive branch jumped the rails of any legislative accountability or rational rules, the new Biden administration Title IX edict should be the prime exhibit. It is a sweeping expansion of regulatory power, not in the service of the original goal of the underlying statue, but in opposition to it. This is brazen even for the Biden administration of the student loan forgiveness program and the rent moratorium. The new draft rule forbids blanket bans on transgender athletes competing in ...

Things that make you go hmmm

April 17, 2023

My fellow Generation Xers might remember the popular dance band with the hit, “Things That Make You Go Hmmm ….” The song’s well-known lyric plays in my head every now and then when I see something that makes me think, “Did that really just happen?” Like the trash-talkers at a sporting event where their team pulls off a big scoring play, and their fans flash the No. 1 sign. Huh? Do you see you’re still down 35 points in the fourth quarter … look at the scoreboard. If you’re driving along and someone pulls out and cuts you off. You slam on your brakes as they speed ...