When I served as Director of Admissions at Ohio Wesleyan in the early 1970s, one of the associate directors was Dick Payne, an African-American who’d been a track star at Ohio State. Dick and I had many open talks about work and life. One day he said to me, “Not a day goes by that […]

Is the world finally coming to grips with the wrongs I endured as a child growing up in the 1970s? I came of age before 24-hour cable news channels sensationalized childhood abductions and made every parent in America terrified that their kid was likely to become the next victim. We ‘70s kids were in constant […]

My friends and I are proud Yankee penny-pinchers, we even jokingly call ourselves “Miser Snobs” as we compete with each other to find the best bargains. But our frugality is the opposite of Scrooge, we try to save on everyday expenses so we can spend more on the people and things that really matter. The […]

If only we had a vaccine that would cure our sick obsession with the Royal Family, I’d be the first to sign up. I’d cut in line for that. If 100% efficacy required three doses, I’d raise my arm for that. At some point in the 19th century, when some ill wind blew through the […]

The rollout of the COVID-19 vaccine has been accompanied by reports of line-jumping as people farther down the list attempt to get ahead of those deemed higher priority. In late February, for example, one health provider, One Medical, was stripped of its vaccine allocation after allegedly allowing people connected to the company and those paying […]

When COVID first reached our state, and severe restrictions were set into place to control the spread of the pandemic, our fourth-generation family business, the Harraseeket Inn in Freeport, was hit incredibly hard, and we were forced to lay off 90% of our staff to stay afloat. We were heartbroken to have to take this […]

Craig Hickman, who won a state Senate special election on Tuesday, would be an unusual candidate in any political contest. Inevitably, though, he stands out through a category that – much more than most would like to admit – has long dominated American life. The competing narratives were laid out recently in the New York […]