Columns

Several people have asked me why I spend so much time and energy on this column, which is read mainly (if not exclusively) by people who already share my views and values.

In 1986, the musical group Timbuk3 scored its biggest hit with the song “The Future’s So Bright, I Gotta Wear Shades.” If an historic building can be personified, it could be said that the St. Marys Theater and Opera House not only has a venerable past but also a future bright enough to require sunglasses.

Our granddog wears a hoodie. I can’t believe I just wrote that. The part about having a granddog. And the part about a hoodie.

America has never been the same since the horrific assassination of John F. Kennedy on what was an otherwise bright and sunny day in Dallas on Nov. 22, 1963. The fall of Camelot over 60 years ago is still felt across the nation today as questions linger about what role the CIA played in the killing and who was really behind the act.

Attorneys are hesitant to encourage people to prepare their own contracts, especially because there are hundreds of aspects to every contract that experienced attorneys can ensure are included. There are also common pitfalls in contracts that attorneys can ensure are not inadvertently included.

In no way do I wish to say all young people are lazy or unmotivated. I’ve met plenty of industrious people from every generation.

Both the college and pro basketball seasons are heating up now with games every day. I was watching my alma mater, Mount St. Joseph University, play Bluffton University and wondering if basketball could draw attention to global hunger. There are numerous countries where starvation is occurring because of wars and climate change.

Inspired by pop legend Neil Sedaka, who is most famous for his 1960 hit song “Calendar Girl,” I love, I love, I love to be a calendar guy, each and every day of the year. And since it’s 2024 already, this can mean only one thing for a geezer like me: Time flies when you’re incoherent.

Toward the end of January, the Pew Research Center published results of a 2023 summer survey it conducted through its American Trends Panel on religious “nones,” people who identify as “atheist, agnostic or nothing in particular.” Out of a targeted sample size of 12,932 U.S. adults, 11,201 participated, resulting in an impressive 87% response rate.

It’s Friday afternoon, somewhere around 4 p.m. in early November. The air is cool, and the sky is blue. Variegated layers of clouds rest above the western horizon — an inviting day for a walk in the woods.