Columns

Readers of this column know I have been an avid proponent of balancing the federal budget. Our leaders simply refuse to turn off the money spending spigot, i.e., one has to only listen to the two presidential candidates and their…

By Scott SullivanEditorDead in the WaterOur Physics Made Simple series has been on hold due to popular demand. Not that physics is so complex it’s incomprehensible, just my writing. Are physicists geniuses or the rest of us so dumb we…

    As I have written many times in the past, I have long been entranced by newspapers.  You might, quite rightly, accuse me of being addicted to them.  It has been that way since I was in elementary school and…

I would like to thank the dozens of readers that commented on my Bicycle Hippie finds sobriety column from last week. It certainly was a change of pace from my ranting and raving about government overreach, so much so I’m…

by Jim Whitehouse Peanuts. They are delicious. I like peanuts. A couple of weeks ago, I invited some friends over for a spur-of-the moment bonfire gathering around our firepit. I put a great deal of effort into the party. My…

Here are twelve things we should all understand:

I’m afraid not, but sometimes you get your wish, or at least a bit of it.I was wishing for a longer summer season because it seems like this year’s had just arrived and was already over.Well, it seems that my…

In the gospel of Mark, the message Jesus preached, is quoted. “This is the time of fulfillment. The reign of God is at hand! Reform your lives and believe in the gospel!” In the next paragraph he calls his first…

By Scott SullivanEditorDarth’s DeathDarth Vader died Sept. 9. Or maybe the day before, I don’t know. Actor James Earl Jones, who played the Dark Force villain in “Star Wars” movies, was 93. There was no cause given.Too bad he missed…

I was riding my bicycle last Saturday (yes, the same bike I fell and broke my hip from a year ago) when I was about 8 miles from home, and I heard a loud splat. I knew immediately my bsck…

     After I wrote the Faces in the Crowd piece on teaching penmanship in school, my mind drifted  slightly sideways toward learning how to print in the first and second grade, and then cursive writing a year later.  That class…

by Jim Whitehouse Tomatoes. Wonderful things are tomatoes. Every spring when I plant tomatoes in our garden, I anticipate eating one of those sun warmed beauties picked right off the plant and scoffing at the memory of the rock-hard flavorless…

In celebration of our “Festival of the Forks,” coming up this next weekend, we go way back to the beginning of Albion’s history. Tenney Peabody (1792-1856) was the first white settler at “the Forks” of the Kalamazoo River. In March,…

We all have an expiration date. There are at least two things we must do and there’s not much we can do about them. We are all going to die sometime and we must all pay taxes. You really don’t…

Today is Wednesday, September 11, 2024, now 23 years since 9/11. This morning I noticed that Governor Gretchen Whitmer ordered all U.S. and Michigan flags across the state to be lowered to half-staff to honor and remember the victims of…

Sometimes prayer isn’t so easy. Sometimes it is really easy, especially if things are going well. Meaning that we are not worried about anything, everyone is healthy, the future is bright, we are on good terms with everything, and relationships…

By Scott SullivanEditorEthics CodeThere is nothing wrong with dusting off an old Saugatuck Ethics Code. City council, at members Russ Gardner’s and Logan White’s urging, reviewed its 2004-established code last in 2008.Filling 102 Butler Street seats then were Tony Vettori,…

Welcome back Congress, I hope you enjoyed your six-week vacation. That’s right while two wars commanding our attention, an economy that is not well, and a border that is actually borderless, our elected leaders took six weeks off.Of course they…

“The best road to progress is freedom’s road.” -John F. KennedyWe celebrate Labor Day this week. If your child is not already in school, he/she will be by the end of the week.Not only do we celebrate September 2 as…