Several times a year the Oxford English Dictionary (OED) gets an update. The dictionary, almost universally accepted as the authority on the English language, has a team of experts and a stringent system in place to keep the words updated and flowing. First published in 1884, the dictionary …

“In Germany they are preparing for this crisis by stocking up with sausage and cheese. That’s the Wurst Kase scenario!”

The great American playwright and novelist Thornton Wilder was an enthusiastic and inspired walker. He once wrote that “…one day’s walk is productive of one fifteen-minute scene.”

If there were a trite phrase to summarize leadership in 2020, it would have to be that “you can’t win for losing.”

The last few months have been the most agonizing of my entire life. I don’t think I am alone in that. COVID has separated us physically, frightened the bajeezus out of us, and turned us into mask-wearing people no longer able to touch each other. The tension was already high because some ink…

A few days ago the heating element in our oven burned out for the second time in two years. I ordered a new one online, but it won’t get here until next week. In the meantime, we’re preparing food with stovetop burners and microwave. Like many things, an oven is something that you don’t real…

Joe Kernan was what America should be.

”Now is the time to know that all that you do is sacred.”

John Lewis was an activist first, a congressman second.

Congress continues to wrestle with finding the best way to stimulate the staggered giant of the American economy. Some suggest providing citizens with another incentive check. Others suggest that payroll tax cuts would help not only the workers by providing more take-home money in their pock…

The maddeningly bizarre social media food-fights over the value of face masks in preventing the spread of COVID-19 won’t end just because Indiana Gov. Eric Holcomb mandated Hoosiers to wear them.

“Remember; wherever you go; there you are!”- In Loving Memory and Tribute to Louisville Radio Icon Johnny Randolph

The fellow that owns his own home is always just coming out of a hardware store. — Kin Hubbard

Since the murder of George Floyd and the protests that have ensued, two words have been on my mind: Listen and Act.

In this time of national nervousness, with pandemic fears and civil unrest widening our already vast political divide, I am just one of the little people waiting for the change our leaders have promised.

It is really uncomfortable. The thing restrains me too much. There are too many places where it doesn’t fit right. This really is an infringement upon my freedoms. I always forget to wear it. The government has no right to tell me what to do. Initially, their use was to be voluntary.

Despite the heat and itch of head-high summer weeds that take over many of my favorite places, I still go to the creek to wander sandbars and wade in the shallow clear water of the dog days.

“When I left his office back in ‘95 I told him I wasn’t leaving to go against him. I was leaving because I wanted to build a practice like he had done.”

“Where there is no vision, the people perish.”

Personally, I haven’t noticed very many people wearing face masks in public lately. At the end of June, however, a Pew Research Center survey found that over 65% of Americans claimed that they wore face masks when visiting stores or other businesses. About 16% of adults, however, say they ha…

Sunday, July 12, 2020, was a different kind of day in Jeffersonville. As a police officer it had to be a pretty scary day. In their honor a group of well-intentioned citizens responded to a woman from another community reaching out to honor those in Blue. A counter statement to all those spe…

“Indiana” has to go, so we’ll need to come up with a new name for the state.

“We can’t call you the First Gentleman, so we are going to call you the First Dude!”

Everyone, from Gov. Eric Holcomb to parents, teachers, students and employers, yearns to reopen schools and universities within the next three to four weeks. But parents are consumers, and most want schools to reopen when it is safe to do so.

We have reopened, but the masked shoppers pushing carts past half-empty shelves on the paper goods aisle in the grocery remind us that we’ll be living with this pandemic for quite some time to come.

On the Fourth of July, the radio program This American Life repeated an episode that described the art of the deal for car dealerships. The show argued that the buying of a car was a quintessential American experience. The automobile industry is central to the economy and most Americans purc…

About a week ago, my grandson wanted to see a jar filled with fossils that I keep on an ancient pie safe in what once served as a breezeway. The deep green Ball canning jar I handed to him is one of a half-dozen I’ve filled with Indian beads and Lake Michigan beach stones, marbles and buckeyes.

Personally, most of the time the COVID pandemic remains a perplexing enigma. The effects are seen in how life unfolds each day. Business and industry have altered their schedules or closed indefinitely. Entertainment opportunities have changed. Even the way we celebrated Independence Day was…

I’d like to confess something I feel guilty about.

“I look at her very proudly. She has offered Charlestown a lot — and a lot they really wanted!”

My grandson lost his job at a ski resort in Colorado after early closure due to COVID-19. His employer paid each worker two weeks salary, and advised them to apply for unemployment. He wasn’t having that. Single, with no dependents and in good health, my grandson used his stimulus check to r…

During the COVID-19 pandemic a lot of people have been working from home using video conferencing. One of the most popular platforms, Zoom, has a lot of desirable features. The one, however, that people seem to like the best is the ability to pick almost any images or video clip to use as a …

I read an interesting article today on the economics of poverty; it was a guest column in another paper and it had some interesting points on the issue of race and poverty. From an economist point of view it made sense, many points I agreed with. I do believe we have a larger discussion on t…

“What were they thinking” is the question most of us ask when we consider our ugly history of slavery and those who supported the cause.

Much more than a boxer, Muhammad Ali was a cultural icon, a source of Black pride, a conscientious objector to the war in Vietnam, a convert to Islam, a political activist, a humanitarian and a philanthropist.

As a kid, I spent as much time riding my bike as I now do peering into a screen.

“There’s only two kinds of people you should lie to — the police and your girlfriend.”

Dear Readers,