Columns

by Jim Whitehouse “I need to send an antique teapot to my sister,” says Lyle Pratt, setting his coffee cup on the table next to his dirty breakfast plate. “Why?” I say, handing my own breakfast plate to Matilda, our…

When we lose our “Life-Partner”, we will experience an amount of grief we had probably never experienced. My father passed away fourteen years before my mother. Several years after my father died, I asked my mom how she dealt with…

It is hard to wrap your mind around the immediate change of seasons we just experienced, plus the summer temperatures and “coatless” living here in the south, especially when the love of your life keeps reminding you of past and…

Ever notice how when children are in church with their parents, how much better it is?I have! Some one said that the church that is not crying is dying. Even if there are times when they don’t behave and get…

I was talking with my son recently, and somehow we got on the topic of these pre-recorded prank calls he used to get. Unlike most of us he enjoys engaging with these pranksters. He know they are fraudsters but gets…

BY G.C. STOPPELI came to know John Thistle when we played bagpipes in the Fourth Battalion of the West Mosby Volunteers Band. The name came from a tiny village a few miles outside of Mosby, Mont. He was a good…

 by Jim Whitehouse My car is a mess. It is coated with salty, dirty, yucky stuff. The windshield and back window are streaked. My wipers and washers are not doing a good job clearing the constant spray from the other…

“Motivation is the art of getting people to do what you want them to do because they want to do it.” -Dwight D. EisenhowerThis Friday, February 14, is Valentines Day. We should let our loved ones how much they mean…

Woke up this morning (Tuesday) to birds singing and temperatures soaring.Seriously, it is actually 80 degrees outside with just a sprinkle of rain possible. (More was predicted) I don’t mind though, we are actually here in the “sunshine” state finally,…

One of the activities that many Catholic Christians participate in is Adoration of the Blessed Sacrament. This is a time of prayer where the Blessed Sacrament is exposed on the altar in a monstrance and people present themselves to pray.…

By Scott SullivanEditorHotspotsWho knew Grand Rapids’ Gerald R. Ford International Airport is one of America’s Dating Hotspots?The website DatingAdvice advises GRX ranks tops in the state among most likely places to meet a prospective partner. So I headed there right…

In December I wrote our list of Christmas cards was shrinking each year. Often this was because a friend had passed away. Our card would come back with a yellow USPS sticker saying it was undeliverable and the person’s address…

You gotta feel for small businesses. Not only are their pricing and services under attack by big box stores and internet giants from here and China, they must weave through a ton of regulations placed on them by the government.The…

by Jim Whitehouse Having just celebrated a wedding anniversary that ended in a 5, it occurred to me that we give special credence to zeros and fives. Sure, we tend to make a big deal out of 16 (drivers’ licenses)…

“In the End, we will remember not the words of our enemies, but the silence of our friends.” -Martin Luther King, Jr.I was discharged from Borgess Hospital on January 15 after a successful open-heart surgery and have been recuperating at…

Like me, I’m sure you have noticed some very unusual natural events that can only be called disasters. To my recollection, over 40,000 acres have burned in southern California and thousands of homes have been destroyed. My sister reports that…

As of today, we are officially on our first “road trip” in years! As you read this we should be about one-third of the way to the sunny south, where we will stay for a bit with Sister-in-Law Marlene. I’m…

By Scott SullivanEditorBird FluWhy is the bird flu big news? Birds have always flown. You mean avian influenza? OK, that’s different, but still What does that have to do with the price of eggs?Word’s gone viral since a second case…

Our government, whether it is at the local, county, state or federal level, makes numerous decisions on how they spend taxpayers’ money. Some we can agree with, some we can’t. I would like to think with the advent of social…

Sixty years ago a classmate said something insulting and demeaning. It left me with a choice: I could either turn his nose to 12 or tattle to the teacher. I chose the latter and right after school he turned my…