As someone who loves to read, I’m forever devouring this book, scrolling that feed or scanning a paper or magazine. This past week I read an article about the best advice ever given and easily slipped over well-worn statements. Then a few gems appeared.
CNN issued a study a while back that found regularly attending church may increase a Christian’s lifespan, while at the same time help “them stay grounded and [provide] spiritual guidance.” I’m guessing this positive benefit results from the additional sleep gained by snoozing during boring …
The recent weather and seasonal developments have left many of us suffering from runny noses and sinus inflammation, myself included. In fact, February through April is the most severe allergy season in Florida due to the amount of pollen that is released, coupled with the drastic difference…
Local business is the heartbeat of a community. Everything a community is, wants to be and can be is driven by commerce. In other words, Business Matters.
The national Democratic Party is in full panic now, its leaders in a headlong flight like something from a 1950’s sci-fi flick where terrorized townspeople flee a 10-story tall monster crushing cars and flattening buildings.
Despite being the shortest month of the year, February brings one of the most exciting events of the year: the Highlands County Fair. Lasting nearly a week and a half, the Highlands County fairgrounds is filled with plenty of fun rides and hundreds of local residents wanting to have a great …
WASHINGTON — Despite what some might think, journalism is full of rules.
Like many Americans allergic to adulting, I often zone out on Facebook when I should be doing something more useful – like scooping the litter box or lecturing my children about the dangers of social media. Inevitably, I come across one of those surveys posted by Facebook users who are proba…
Our modern phones are a marvel of technology. Right now, as I type this my phone is playing music from an online radio station. It helps manage my email, my calendar, and my contacts. Oh yeah, it makes and receives phone calls too.
I would love to know what my dog is thinking or feeling.
Years ago, when I was a child living in north Florida, I spent a lot of time at my nanny’s house. She did all the classic grandmotherly things: canning, making jelly, falling asleep in the recliner watching her “programs” and the like. But something that she did that has stuck with me, which…
After two months of controversy and fierce debates, it is with disappointment that I write today about the fact that Commissioner Arlene Tuck was able to pass her Second Amendment resolution. This meaningless piece of paper labeled our county a “Second Amendment Sanctuary County,” which is n…
It’s always interesting and most certainly entertaining when the election cycle includes the race for the grandest office of them all. I am always trying to figure out the strategies of the party and the individuals who bravely put their names on a ballot.
Sometimes, this column business is easy peasy. I have a great topic I can go on about for the required word length and I get it written and done in plenty of time to make my deadline, no doubt to the delight of the newspaper.
We are always saddened when Christian believers are reproached for using a mythical God as a crutch. If the accusers weren’t blind, they would see the irony. Christ came to heal the lame; Christians don’t need a crutch — at least spiritually. If you wonder why some Christians do need physica…
Spending a rainy Saturday afternoon reminiscing over congratulatory keepsakes stored in the attic. Clutching vintage Valentines purchased at an estate sale. Sorting through all those shoeboxes of yellowing mementoes in your late great-aunt Sadie’s House Where Time Stood Still.
“Lift every voice and sing
A few nights ago, my friends Harold and Peggy took me night fishing for crappie. Most snowbirds call them crappie (rhymes with poppy), most southern folks call them speckled perch or “specks” except for folks from Louisiana who call them sac-a-lait (sack-a-lay).
Readers of fine newspapers may recall that last July I unleashed a tirade titled “Slow drivers: are they driving you insane?”
We should have seen it coming. Like most things that negatively impact our culture, it’s usually not a single, significant, or sudden change that alters the course of history. Usually it’s a slight, subtle, almost unnoticed course alteration. Most often it’s a few degrees here and there over…
Let’s be honest, one of the challenges young parents face is the concept of “me time.”
This is in response to a writer who responded to another writer in the Jan. 25 viewpoints of the Highlands News-Sun where one accuses the other of sticking by Trump, who is “destroying the checks and balances in our Constitution — a Constitution under fire by the Republican criminals and a m…
When my childhood home got a phone call, it was an event.
It’s about that time of the year when we all begin to realize that the resolutions we so confidently made in the start of the new year were too much to handle, and we have subsequently ditched our resolutions in exchange for ordinary life. It can be hard to keep your new year resolution, esp…
“For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life.” John 3:16 KJV.
In the First Amendment in the Bill of Rights, it explicitly states, “Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press; or the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to pet…
When Governor Ron DeSantis released Florida’s graduation data, we were excited and proud of our high school graduation rate increase. Highlands County’s gains were among the top 10 of Florida’s 75 total school districts (comprised of counties and other school districts). Highlands County’s h…
Our president and his administration have now done more for people of faith in three years than any other president in our lifetimes. In a prior guest column on Feb. 27, 2017, I wrote that “People of faith finally have a friend again in the White House. Persecution will end. Religious libert…
A couple of weeks ago, I told you how my friend Dixie offered to take me to South Carolina to meet my new grandson and bond with my lovely 21-month-old granddaughter. I took her up on her generosity, and very early on a Thursday morning (if anyone questioned my love for my family the fact I …
One opinion from Sebring stated: “The Second Amendment was never meant to protect individual gun ownership. It secures the power of governors to summon the National Guard.”
The video game world is always changing and adapting. There’s always a new game or a remake of an old game coming out, sometimes taking years in the making. These are things I’ve become more aware of since dating my current boyfriend, a certified gaming nerd.
Last Friday, an article regarding the Tourist Development Council’s sports tourism marketing workshop caught my attention. The article described how the TDC hired Jon Schmieder of Huddle Up Group LLC, to discuss potential options for sports marketing in the county.
Every now and then, my wife encourages me — REALLY encourages me — to put on pants, get out of the house and go hang out with friends for some “boy” time. After all, I serve as the sole representative of semi-masculinity in a family that includes my wife, three teen daughters, and various fe…
Last week I gave you some examples of good people to make the argument that there were good people in the world that we could find and rejoice over. Apparently, several you enjoyed that column.
I was showing a Discovery Channel documentary video on the Lockheed SR-71 “Blackbird” to my high school aviation class earlier this week. The SR-71 was the fastest air-breathing aircraft ever flown. Cloaked in secrecy for years as our top spy plane, even today after 30 or more years when it …
Not wanting to “beat a dead horse,” but in answer to the obviously angry response it generated, it was gratifying to see how my recent letter to the editor seems to have touched a raw nerve.
Every baseball fan of a certain age knows that in 1956 the New York Yankees’ Don Larsen threw a perfect World Series fifth game against the Brooklyn Dodgers. But even though Larsen’s recent passing has once again drawn attention to his long-ago gem, his unique achievement is still under-appr…
In response to a viewpoint in the Highlands Sun-News on Jan. 11, the writer rants about a few things involving President Trump — guns, Putin and Kim Jung Un and far right wingers, as she puts it. The writer comments about a gun show on the fairgrounds in Sebring and how bad this “right to as…
This century began with a bang, quite literally as President Donald Trump ordered the killing of the top Iranian general, Qasem Soleimani. Soleimani was a notorious Iranian general that has been labeled by many as a terrorist. Soleimani led attacks against the United States during the 2003 i…
Sometimes, it’s very easy to believe that humanity is primarily composed of jerks and creeps.
With former housing secretary Julian Castro departed, the oversized Democratic presidential field reaches a critical point: More candidates have dropped out than remain in the race. But that still leaves 14 – a bulky ballot as the marathon moves closer to actual primaries and caucuses beginn…
Many of us can remember the feeling of counting down the days until our 21st birthday. And an even better — or worse, depending — memory is of the actual day you turned 21. The day you were allowed into those 21-and-up bars that had previously been denied to you. This changing of age, of cou…
I read Laura Ware’s column on Jan. 4, 2020 titled “Nation has become a house divided.” She talks about trying to see the other side and not hating the other side. She wants us to look at the political situation in the U.S. without blaming the other side.
Let me start by posing one simple question: Is asking your local government to prevent economic stagnation a form of entitlement or a form of accountability? The simple answer is that doing so is truly a form of accountability.
In Mark 3:25, Jesus says, “If a house is divided against itself, that house cannot stand.” (NIV). Abraham Lincoln would quote this verse as in 1858 during his failed run for the Senate, as the country headed for civil war.
”What we do for ourselves dies with us. What we do for others and the world remains, and is immortal.” — Albert Pine
The day that we celebrate the new year on is actually the first day of both the Gregorian and Julian calendars. The Gregorian calendar is the most widely used calendar across the world, and the Julian calendar is an adaptation of the Roman calendar, which started the new year in March. Howev…
