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Sunday, October 28 marked the 50th anniversary of Soviet Premier Nikita Khrushchev’s momentous announcement that his nation would withdraw nuclear-armed medium-range ballistic missiles from Cuba, just 90 miles from the United States. After weeks of tension and fear, the world breathed a collective sigh of relief, as nuclear cosmocide was averted. Or was it...
As the weather cools down and autumn leaves change, millions of people around the world will celebrate on October 31 a very strange and macabre phenomenon called “Halloween.” It is relatively easy to research the holiday’s beginnings and learn of its pagan roots, particularly the Celtic Samhain.
As the weather cools down and autumn leaves change, millions of people around the world will celebrate on October 31 a very strange and macabre phenomenon called “Halloween.” It is relatively easy to research the holiday’s beginnings and learn of its pagan roots, particularly the Celtic Samhain.
The late Jerry Clower, a teller of funny stories, related a hilarious tale about the lady who went into an old-fashioned butcher shop. She said to the proprietor behind the refrigerated meat case, “I would like a 3½ pound frying chicken.” It was near the end of the day, and as the butcher reached down behind the counter into the chest full of ice that had...
I remember seeing my mother sew a pouch in my father’s long johns with their life’s savings in it, when news of bank failure came many years ago. My father went to work carrying a shotgun. Why was all of this necessary? Are we talking about the good old United States of America?
Each day as I peruse the obituaries in our statewide newspaper, I am struck by the number of deaths of World War II veterans. These men are now in their eighties and nineties, so it is not unusual that they are reaching the end of their lives, but what is remarkable is how many lives were touched in that awful conflict. It was the “greatest generation,” as...
Recessions, unemployment, mortgage defaults, bankruptcies, debt and poverty: these negative, economically-related terms appear in today’s headlines across the globe. Why? What’s wrong with the world’s economies?
Some years ago, I traveled to the Philippines, and there I witnessed much that I will never forget. One event, in particular, provoked me to think deeply about the issues it raised.
When my wife and I made our way to the roadside after eating at a restaurant, two young boys—no older than nine or ten—saw that we needed a taxi. Seeing that we were "Westerners,"...
On a cold Sunday many years ago, the local sheriff called me at my home. I was a teacher in a small town school and some of my students had been found unattended and deserted in their home. I was well acquainted with three of the boys who were in my class at school and there was also a sister and a baby. The sheriff found a lady, recently widowed, who had...
Anyone who has watched cowboy movies set in the old American West is familiar with the “Wanted—Dead or Alive” poster, showing the outlaw’s picture and a healthy bounty for his capture—or for his killing. The awful crime could have been anything from robbery to murder. The poster conveyed the notion that the criminal was such a confirmed threat to decency and...