Columns

With the end of summer comes the return to school. And although most students have the option to return without a mask, those attending Jefferson County Schools in Louisville (Ky.), San Diego, Sacramento, New Haven (Conn.), Philadelphia and Newark (N.J.) are among those facing mandatory masking.

Remember the James Stewart classic “Mr. Smith Goes to Washington”? A political rookie is appointed U. S. senator out of the blue and then — spoiler alert! — goes to Washington.

The $28 million effort to fumigate J.D. Vance’s reputation might not be large enough.

What’s the golf version of an “own goal”?

Three days after receiving a patent for the telephone in 1876, Alexander Graham Bell placed a call to his assistant, Thomas Watson. Here is a transcript of the conversation.

Maybe I didn’t choose to wear the mascot costume. Maybe it chose me.

The Democrats in Washington are doing another one of their zillion-dollar smash-and-grabs.

Just as I was wondering whether various crises were coming too fast to allow our usual “silly season” of oddball late summer news, an appropriately weird-sounding social trend popped up on social networks and intriguingly struck a nerve.

Facing fierce competition in the job market, prospective employees are shelling out $1,000 for a professional headshot hoping to gain an edge.

In my current line of work, I spend a considerable amount of time behind the wheel and staring through a windshield. These days I do far more driving than I used to do back in my teaching days when I spent no fewer than 10 hours a day in the same room, Room 16, in an old high school building over in St. Marys, a building that no longer blocks the view of Skip Baughman Stadium from West South Street.