Columnists
IDEA WIFE
For the past 25 years, my wife has been crucial to my success as a humorist. She’s complained about my napping, sense of direction, and messiness. She’s told me how scatterbrained I am. She has been the well I went to when I needed material for my weekly feature. I don’t know what I’d do…
Read MoreThe Season of Sneezing
It’s once again time to run my annual column on allergies. Some of our readers are likely already cursing the annual return of allergy symptoms. Tree pollen levels of maple, ash, and birch are high and climbing. Spring allergy symptoms can make it even more difficult to differentiate who might have an upper respiratory infection,…
Read MoreAsk Rusty – Will My Social Security Increase if I Keep Working After Applying?
Dear Rusty: I am going to be 67 in a few weeks & I plan on working for another year or two. According to Social Security, they count the best 35 years to come up with your benefit. I currently have 30 years, with 2024 and 2025 taxes yet to be filed. If I take…
Read MoreThings Looking up for Purdue Basketball and Maybe Football
November can’t get here soon enough for Purdue men’s basketball fans. Not since the Troy Lewis-Todd Mitchell-Everette Stephens Boilermakers in 1987-88 have expectations been higher in West Lafayette. Now that the Final Four curse has been broken, a national championship does not seem out of the question to a normally pessimistic fan base. Some even…
Read MoreDr. Arrowood Shares Update
With less than 30 instructional days left, we are in the home stretch of the 2025-26 school year. As we wind down our school year, Whitney Gray and Mitch Street are moving full steam ahead in their new roles as our high school principal and assistant principal. Together, Gray and Street, who began their careers…
Read MoreClose Encounters of Famous Kind
Nope, I’ve never met E.T. But I can definitely say I have had some close encounters, if not actual face-to-face contacts, with people who have seen their time in the limelight. First off, there’s our very own hometown hero, Steve Wariner. I have vague, but memorable morsels of meetings with Steve, who was a few years…
Read MoreIt’s a Mean World; What Can You do?
Politics . . . mass shootings . . . property taxes . . . even our Colts . . . there just doesn’t seem to be a lot to be cheerful over. Cheer up Buckwheat! Need a dose of positivity? Oh sure, I can already feel some of you already rolling your eyes. Stop it.…
Read Morein the ’60s, Dam Sliding and One More Judge New Story
From Time to Thyme By Paula Dunn This week’s reader column actually grew out of comments I received about the previous reader column. After the subject of the old Strawtown restaurant, the Trading Post, came up, Jeanne Flanders reminisced about her family enjoying their 1963 Easter dinner there. While Jeanne didn’t mention attending any of…
Read MoreForgiveness then Love … or … Love then Forgiveness?
April 10, 2020 (original), revised March 2, 2025, April 16, 2025 Which is a more accurate statement? Forgiveness then Love … or … Love then Forgiveness? Are these words mutually exclusive? Can one word stand on its own without the possibility of the other? Do we forgive the actions or inactions of others first, so…
Read MoreVERY SPATIAL RELATIONSHIPS
My wife is smarter than I am. She has earned more money than I have. She is far better looking and makes a better parent. I wanted to tell you this up front because I’m going to make fun of her now, and I don’t want you to think I’m a total jerk. As you’ll…
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