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Columnists

FRED FIRST: Go West At Last, Old Man

Decades of frugality have come abruptly to an end. I have made the choice to spend on myself some of what remains of that squandered but shrinking nest egg....

ROBERT L. MARONIC: Bring Back The War Department

President Franklin D. Roosevelt gave a prescient and heartfelt speech in Chautauqua, New York, on...

FRED FIRST: Changing of the Guard

The theme for the Lenoir Words Writers Group this month is AUTUMN. And since I...

BOB BROWN: The Truth About Lying

Everyone lies! That’s the truth. Most people are relatively honest most of the time. The average...

ROBERT L. MARONIC: Hurricane Erin Is Our Future – Part II

Unfortunately, the U.S. is not the only country experiencing climate change. It is a global...

Wandering in Shanghai, Jewel of the Orient

Street food is always a good bet, so I try some more. The grinning vendor/cook is baking a tortilla-like pastry on a half-meter wide...

Between Nothing and Everything: A New Year

January takes its name from Janus, the Roman god of portals, of comings and goings, beginnings and endings—an odd-looking, two-faced deity who looks...

Consider The Twelfth Night

by H. Bruce Rinker, Ph.D. I don’t know about you, but I’m repulsed every Fall when I see Halloween witches, Thanksgiving pilgrims, and Christmas Santa’s...

It’s The Holidays When All Thoughts Turn To South American Polo Players, Bathing Beauties, Xavier Cugat And Mistaken Identities

How's that?  Here's how:  It starts with all-American beauty Esther Williams and Latin lover Ricardo Montalban.  In the 1940's Hollywood paired them in...

“Until One Has Loved an Animal . . .”

I was using my lathe in my outdoor wood shop when McChesney came to call. He sat first here, then there, I fed him...

Recognizing God’s Grace

God’s grace often comes in unexpected, unrecognized ways, and, truth be told, is sometimes unwelcome. Such was my experience when I learned that...