A tip of the hat to a trusted friend, mentor

Much to my father’s surprise, it was a hand-shake deal.  When Butch Furse offered to sell this newspaper to Paula and I 22 years ago we were living in Fremont, where I was pursuing a goal to become a daily newspaper publisher.

Grades, excuses, bright parents all intertwined

For all purposes the 2020-2021 school year is over and in many cases students have already brought home their report cards. Hopefully most students received praises for their grades. Of course there was the report of one youngster who was chided for his low grades.

Adults setting poor example of ‘making country better’

We’ve always prided ourselves with the fact we lived in a democracy and enjoyed the benefits of the Land of The Free. Over the past decade it appears by political terms, the word “free” has gradually inched toward a new meaning.

Shoulder surgery has me feeling lucky, blessed

Sometimes it takes challenges or temporary setbacks to make us appreciate even the everyday things that we take for granted and then we realize how lucky we really are. I’m now speaking as a voice of personal experience.

Betterhalf gets first dibs on daily sports section

We don’t live in a normal household. Before you jump to conclusions, let’s us do a little explaining. The Betterhalf and I seem to have a race, which I generally lose. The race that I am referring to is the race to who gets to read the sports section of our daily state newspaper first.

Older generation gets steps in by backtracking

We’ve been told by health authorities that as we get older we don’t walk as much as when we were younger. As we’ve gotten older and observing our current walking habits I think some those health experts’ observations of seniors are wrong.

Leafless trees grow more attractive with (our) age

  “Driven . . . like leaves before an autumn wind.” That statement by writer/poet Robert Southey was made sometime between 1813-1843. Unfortunately, at the time of my reading a couple centuries later, it didn’t carry the romanticism the Englishman had wished to convey a couple of centuries earlier.

Not all persons give equally good speeches

  Cleaning out an old bookcase, I came across a book instructing the reader, “How to Prepare Your Speech.”  Curiosity got the best of me and I blew off some of the dust, opened a few pages, and caught a paragraph where the book’s author pointed out not all persons give equally good speeches.