Category Archives: General

Doing research for my memoirs I unexpectedly came across this video of the visit Nigerian Prime Minister Abubakar’s visit to the United States in July 1961.  I appear in several frames, perhaps the only video of me at work during my … Continue reading →

Neither side should take pleasure in the outcome of Tuesday’s mid-term elections. Democrats may be overjoyed that they now control the House of Representatives, and Republicans are surely relieved that they have retained control of the Senate. What we are … Continue reading →

I am conflicted. I was appalled by President Trump’s reaction to the violence in Charlottesville, Va., and his obvious support of extremist right-wing groups. On the other hand, I agree with him that doing away with our Confederate monuments is … Continue reading →

My “bucket list” is empty! In recent years, this mental list has had only one item: Visit Slovenia! I finally went there in at the end of April (2016). “Slovenia? Where’s that?” you ask. That’s the response I’ve often gotten … Continue reading →

Growing up in a small East Tennessee mountain town in the 1930s long before TV, computers, the Internet, smart phones and the like, young boys found amusement in a lot of different ways. One way to have “fun” was to … Continue reading →

A week after we arrived in Santiago on our second visit to Chile, we were on another airplane flying toward the Atacama Desert, a place I had never heard of before. We left late in the afternoon for the two-hour … Continue reading →

Many of us old timers in the news business dreamed of owning and running our own newspaper. Few of us ever did. Eugene Harter had that dream and made it come true. Gene had been a newspaperman in suburban Chicago … Continue reading →

Recently I had to fill out a form for a company looking for Portuguese –to-English translators. One of the questions was something like: “How long have you been translating professionally?” That set me to thinking. Since a good part of … Continue reading →

Father John Rausch, a Glenmary priest who devotes his life to working for the people of Appalachia in Eastern Kentucky, is a dear friend of mine. In fact, I gave him his start as a columnist and now he is … Continue reading →