Columnists
Dr. Arrowood Shares Update
If you are out and about, be sure to stop by Dark Side Coffee House in Cicero and check out the charming surprise in the back hallway: the Tiny Art Gallery, a creative partnership led by HHHS art teacher Carrie VanAlstine. Inside it sits an even smaller delight — the Teeny Tiny Art Gallery, a…
Read MoreChristmas on the Prairie, Circa 1975
From Time to Thyme By Paula Dunn That recent spell of frigid temperatures took me back to my first experience working at Conner Prairie 50 years ago. (50 years? YIKES!) I was a volunteer during their 1975 Christmas celebration. I stood outside the Conner house and directed people toward the Village (aka Prairietown these days)…
Read MoreAsk Rusty – If We Both Collect, Will Our Benefits be Affected?
Dear Rusty: I reached full retirement age back in June, but I have not yet filed to collect Social Security. My husband currently collects SS funds, and he waited until he had reached full retirement age a few years ago. I am considering signing up now to receive my funds, but I am a little…
Read MoreMound Builders and Charles Cox
This was supposed to be a reader column, but it’s really part reader and part “this and that.” After I wrote about Strawtown’s mounds, Ed Snyder emailed that he’d heard rumors other mounds had existed in this county at one time, but that they’d been lost to agriculture or used as levees along the river.…
Read MoreCatching Up With Coach Dave Nicholson
Noblesville boys basketball fans, especially those not identified as Baby Boomers, might not recall the terrible state of Noblesville High School basketball before Dave Nicholson showed up for the 1975-76 season. The Millers had been so bad that legendary sports scribe Don Jellison wrote a damning column with the headline: Basketball Stone Dead in Nob…
Read More‘Twas the Night Before Branna’s Deadline
Who remembers the Noblesville Daily Ledger’s annual Christmas poetry contest? Well, I sure do, as every year it was a competition between my grandma, Bertie Hoover, and I to win the big prize! I started submitting mine in middle school, and who knows how long before that grandma was penning her prose. I won a…
Read MoreFINAL MUSINGS
This week, I have a few final observations as we head into 2026.Every few days, my printer temporarily refuses to print. It sounds like it’s trying to process something, maybe something disagreeable that I wrote, and struggles to spit it out. Then I see a display saying the device is running a self-diagnosis, with a…
Read MoreAsk Rusty – Did Obama-Era Social Security Tax Cuts Hurt?
Dear Rusty: I will be retiring early next year but my question to you is: During the Obama administration, payroll taxes that employees pay were cut in half from 6.2% to 3.1%, while the employer’s part stayed the same at 6.2%.This continued for around a year I think. This was an attempt at giving people…
Read MoreTaking Close Look at Barry Odom’s Purdue Roster
In hindsight, first-year coach Barry Odom signing 82 new players to a Purdue football roster decimated by the transfer portal was adding quantity over quality. The record says 2-10 but there was some talent among the newcomers as indicated by five selections to All-Big Ten teams. Let’s rank some of these transfers by their play…
Read MoreCheese Balls & Chex Mix & Fondue, Oh My!
From Time to Thyme By Paula Dunn When I was trying to come up with an idea for this week’s column, it occurred to me that although I’ve written several times about cookies for the holiday season, I’ve never touched on the savory food that was standard fare at local holiday parties back in the…
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