“It doesn’t matter what you believe as long as you’re sincere …” I’m pretty sure nothing that Charles Schulz wrote for his beloved comic strip “Peanuts” has been as vilified as this statement Linus Van Pelt made about his love for the Great Pumpkin. Of course it’s the fundamentalists who loathe it. They think Schulz …
Short takes from a journey through a disorganized mind: During my years as a newspaper columnist, I wound up with a lot of topics that were interesting but not interesting enough to fill an entire column. That’s where “short takes” came from. Lately there seem to be a lot of mildly interesting things, so I’m …
Can it possibly be true that nearly a third of the country believes Donald Trump had an election victory stolen from him? I can’t complain too much. I myself believed the results of the 2000 and 2016 elections were at least a little off, but in both cases, my candidates conceded in a timely fashion …
“You’re drunk, sir. Sleep it off.” Those were not the first words I heard Larry King say, but they may have been the ones that set him apart from other all-night radio talkers. I probably heard King for the first time in the late ’70s on WAVA radio in the Washington, D.C., area. He was …
Are we at the beginning of a new era or sliding farther down the slippery slope that will end small-d democratic government in the U.S.? Are we ready to dismiss Trumpism or do we just have a short interlude before it comes roaring back stronger than ever? I have a very close friend who refuses …
I only saw Hank Aaron play once in a game I attended in person. It was July 23, 1969, at Washington’s Robert F. Kennedy Stadium, and the National League beat the American League, 9-3, in that summer’s All-Star Game. Aaron was 35 that summer, and he wasn’t the home run king that day. He had …
I was 10 years old for most of 1960, and there is one memory that stands out from the presidential campaign that year. Millions of Americans were seriously concerned about the possibility of a Roman Catholic becoming president of the United States. My grandfather, who was a Lutheran, was among them. Sixty years later, it …
STIGMA OF CATHOLICISM MIGHT BE ENDING IN POLITICS Read More »
I hear there are some last-minute changes in the way President Trump will leave Washington tomorrow morning. It turns out Air Force One won’t be available until 1 p.m., when Trump will no longer be president. Since Trump wanted the pomp and ceremony of leaving when he was still in office, he was given two …
My wife and I live in an active adult community, which is something of a euphemism for a retirement community. I’m glad we don’t live in The Villages. Our community is managed by Del Webb. About 1,500 out of what eventually will be 3,400 single-family homes are occupied and we have a population of somewhere …
“Dying is easy, comedy is hard …” The author of the quote that led to this line isn’t known as a comedian. Actor Edmund Gwenn is best remembered for his role as Santa Claus in the original “Miracle on 34th Street,” but when he was on his deathbed, a friend visited him and said, “This …
