Columns

Life as Performance Art

Life as Performance Art

Editorial StaffFeb 12, 20254 min read

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…

Mike’s Musings: State mandated minimum wage increases will damage small business

Mike’s Musings: State mandated minimum wage increases will damage small business

Editorial StaffFeb 12, 20253 min read

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…

Historical Notebooks: Good Mariages

Editorial StaffFeb 7, 20253 min read

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)…

Out and About: Surgery recovery, and getting old

Out and About: Surgery recovery, and getting old

Editorial StaffFeb 7, 20252 min read

“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…

May I Walk with You? DISASTERS

May I Walk with You? DISASTERS

Editorial StaffFeb 7, 20253 min read

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…

Pat’s Bits and Pieces: Guess What – Road Trip!

Pat’s Bits and Pieces: Guess What – Road Trip!

Editorial StaffFeb 7, 20254 min read

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…

Blue Star

Blue Star

Editorial StaffFeb 5, 20254 min read

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…

Mike’s Musings: Even county governments spend unwisely: Case study, Allegan County

Mike’s Musings: Even county governments spend unwisely: Case study, Allegan County

Editorial StaffFeb 5, 20253 min read

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…

Life as Performance Art

Life as Performance Art

Editorial StaffFeb 5, 20254 min read

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…

Out and About: IceBreaker, moms, and hugs

Out and About: IceBreaker, moms, and hugs

Editorial StaffJan 31, 20253 min read

The twenty-third Annual Ice Breaker is scheduled for Saturday, February 22. The venue is the Armstrong Recreation Hall, 1015 Maple Street, in Three Rivers and is open to the public.The doors open at 6 PM for the Silent Auction Fundraiser,…

May I Walk with You? PARTICIPATION PLUS

May I Walk with You? PARTICIPATION PLUS

Editorial StaffJan 31, 20253 min read

As a lay person who “goes to mass”, it is easy for me to think that the priest prays the mass and that I am there to cooperate, say the right responses, fulfill my weekend obligation, stand, sit, and kneel…

Pat’s Bits and Pieces: February again – might as well enjoy it

Pat’s Bits and Pieces: February again – might as well enjoy it

Editorial StaffJan 31, 20254 min read

Fighting with a sinus infection this week left me wondering what in the world I could write about. Besides feeling icky, it’s winter with a capital “W”, and tomorrow it will be February again, the shortest, longest month of the…

Blue Star

Blue Star

Editorial StaffJan 29, 20254 min read

By Scott SullivanEditorStart Like FinnishLearning Finland is the World’s Happiest Country has plunged me into depression. By the time I pay for a 12-hour flight that will cheer me up, I’ll be too broke for a sauna, then to jump…

Mike’s Musings: Defund NGO’s, and do it now

Mike’s Musings: Defund NGO’s, and do it now

Editorial StaffJan 29, 20253 min read

If you’ve been watching the crisis at our southern border, you might wonder what has happened to the millions of illegal immigrants that crossed the border the last few years. Where do they go, and how are they supported you…

Life as Performance Art

Life as Performance Art

Editorial StaffJan 29, 20254 min read

By now we have all seen bleak photos from the fire zones in southern California. Thousands of homes, busi-nesses, churches and schools have been reduced to rubble.Other places have been so badly damaged they may have to be pulled down.…

Looking Out: Off sides

Editorial StaffJan 24, 20253 min read

by Jim Whitehouse “Mom, what’s that bird?” says a boy sitting next to me on the sidelines of a futebol pitch, which I’ve been told by my Brazilian friend Sergio is the same thing as a soccer field. My beloved…

“Out and About” ‘Southern Living,’ heart health, and great truths

“Out and About” ‘Southern Living,’ heart health, and great truths

Editorial StaffJan 24, 20253 min read

The population of Three Rivers is down a bit from what it was a month or two ago. The reason is because there are some folks who prefer to spend the winter months in the southern part of the United…

May I Walk with You? BLESSING IN TRAUMA

May I Walk with You? BLESSING IN TRAUMA

Editorial StaffJan 24, 20253 min read

It may seem a bit ironic and even insensitive, but in speaking and doing therapy with many people, some, but not all have arrived at a place where they see the blessings they have gotten from having undergone traumatic experiences.…

Blue Star

Blue Star

Editorial StaffJan 22, 20254 min read

By Scott SullivanEditorRealI like anything that starts with “real.” So real estate, Realtor, realize … the four-letter prefix gives me substance. At this stage, when so much amounts to vapor, firmament like the earth I’ll be buried in soon feels…

Life as Performance Art

Life as Performance Art

Editorial StaffJan 22, 20256 min read

Only the Olds will remember the chart above the blackboard in every fourth-grade classroom across the nation. It was the alphabet, both capitals and lower-case letters, in cursive.It was bad enough having to learn how to print; now that we…