Columns

Two days ago I met a guy from Chicago.  He was trying to sell me a car and must have thought it was important to tell me that he used to be a major league baseball pitcher. I needed new…

“America is another name for opportunity. Our whole history appears like a last effort of divine providence on behalf of the human race.” -Ralph Waldo EmersonThis month is filled with days of remembrance. Eighty years ago, June 6, 1944, allied…

Father’s Day is only a week away – Sunday, the 16th.You still have time to do something special for the man in your life.Father’s Day is a day of commemoration and celebration of Dad. It is a day to not…

Newspapers serve a multitude of purposes. First and foremost, they deliver the news be it local, the nation or the world, and send it our way daily or weekly. It’s their primary job. We read them, or at least the…

Recently I have been pondering what I will do with the rest of my life and part of that is asking Jesus what he would like me to do. While on a recent trip to the Upper Peninsula I went…

By Scott SullivanEditorWaxedEmancipation by manipulation? Lincoln was accused of it. In America we depend on our independence, which can serve and boomerang.Witness Waxology, a new shop that fills a double suite in a strip mall next to Fruition, where I…

     Five, ten, or more centuries ago, the whole purpose of etiquette was to demonstrate partiality, respect, and submission to one’s “betters.”  That is something of an offensive way of saying being respectful to someone simply because he or she was of…

Have you ever been trapped in an elevator?Until last week, I could unequivocally say “no.” Now having been around for a while, I have ridden up and down on my share of elevators and never gave it a second thought…

When I think of Memphis, Tennessee, the first thing that comes to mind is Elvis Presley and Graceland. I also think back to the early sixties when several families moved to Three Rivers from Memphis, because they were needed at…

Well, it is here now – summer has begun again and that headline doesn’t apply to me!Remember when I said it will be September 1 before we know it? Well, it is Tuesday, May 28th already. I am sitting here…

I listened intently as Pope Francis’s interview with Nora O’Donnell aired on CBS on May 20, 2024. I was glad to hear that the Pope and Ms. O’Donnell discussed many questions about how we ought to live our lives on…

From 1951 until 1982, Marion’s fire siren blew to let us know that the noon hour had arrived. It was a welcome noise to many, from Main Street to the school yard. When it sounded at any other time, it…

By Scott SullivanEditorRisk ReductionI haven’t written this story yet but may soon. It’s about the Saugatuck Township gun range.The gun range is in the township, not owned by it. But it may need one in self-defense. With prime land —…

      For the past few summers, a small group of fellow journalists, all writers for the British magazine The Chap,  have banded together, along with some other friends, wives and sweet-hearts for their Annual Grand Flaneur. Last year there were some sixty “Chaps”…

Here I go again. One of my favorite rants is “Why do we send so much money and weapons to Ukraine to further a war they will never win?As a country we are nearly $34 trillion in debt and have…

by Jim Whitehouse “I’m about to turn off my light,” I say to my beloved wife Marsha, as I put my book down on the nightstand next to the bed. “Already?” she says, turning a page in her own book.…

Each year at this time I like to feature one of Albion’s Civil War soldiers. Benjamin Barnes Ford (1837-1861) was one of the Albion area’s first casualties of the War. Benjamin came to Michigan in 1844 from New York state…

Next Wednesday, May 29, Chef Brigitte Romanelli will offer a cooking class at the Immaculate Conception Church, 645 S. Douglas St., in Three Rivers. This “Cook for a Cause” will feature preparing Homemade Pasta and Meatballs. The cost is $55.…

Decoration Day, as Memorial Day was originally known, was established in May 1868. It was designated as the day to decorate graves and honor the memory of soldiers killed during the then very recent American Civil War. Today, we honor…

I can’t remember a time when I did not have a garden of some kind. The early part of my life in northern Gratiot County was accentuated by gardens. Not only were there the gardens where we planted, weeded, and…