"A study in the Netherlands found that one in four doctors said they had killed patients without an explicit request—including one doctor who believed that a dying Dutch nun was prevented from requesting euthanasia because of her religion, so he felt the just and merciful thing to do was to dec… Read full post »

The late comedian Louis Grizzard observed that he was an American by birth and a Southerner by the grace of God. Now there was a man that loved the South.

Oddly enough, many people from the North move to the South to retire, some even before that. When Yankees move… Read full post »

You never know who you’ll bump into when your get in your car these days, so I’ve become an amazingly docile driver.

Enlightened self-interest motivates me to exercise restraint in traffic. There are a bunch of crazy drivers on the road, and they seem to be getting more irritable all… Read full post »

My daughter April called me last night to make plans for her family's
Thanksgiving visit with Linda and Me.

I told her to tell Salem,10, that I wanted him to help me blow and rake leaves; she reminded me that he and Aurora,12, would want to roll and play in… Read full post »

Finding a person to do small repair jobs around the house is really hard. Most people who do that kind of work are moonlighting or retired and don’t really take their work very seriously. They show up if they feel like it; they don’t if they don’t. You never get an… Read full post »

According to the experts, the number one reason for failed marriages is unrealistic expectations. Apparently the number one myth about marriage is that happiness will result from choosing the right person who will meet all our needs.

Do you think the key to your happiness is in the pocket of… Read full post »

Posted to honor our veterans on November 11, 2009, Veteran's Day:

 In Flanders Fields

In Flanders fields the poppies blow

Between the crosses, row on row,

That mark our place; and in the sky

The larks, still bravely singing, fly

Scarce heard amid the guns below.

We are the dead. Short days… Read full post »

When I meet somebody new, it doesn’t take long for the conversation to turn to spare-time activities.

"What do you do on your day off?" I’m likely to ask.

People do a variety of things in their spare time. Golf. Shopping. Gardening. Hiking. Sightseeing. Movies. Concerts. Travel. Leisure… Read full post »

I’ve never had reason to question my sanity, although I’m sure somebody else probably has.

In my circle of acquaintances, I’m considered to be a stable fellow of above-average intelligence, maturity, and social standing. Why, occasionally others seek my advice on matters of importan… Read full post »

My parents taught me to be friendly, to speak to strangers, and to be especially nice to old people. So I just naturally developed into a person who thinks the best of people. I assume they’re regular folks until they act in some irregular way.

This man I know has been… Read full post »

God is funny! Yes, He is.

He created man and woman. God created the concept of marriage, but it takes a God who likes to laugh to place a man and a woman in the same house together for life. Think about it.

He created woman and the institution of… Read full post »

I love to sleep. I always feel better when I wake up. Sleep is its own reward. Sleep is, well, wonderful!

I can sleep anywhere, anytime, and in any position. As a matter of fact I do sleep in any position except standing. And I’ve been close to sleep several times… Read full post »

You may want to tie some strings to your next charitable contribution unless it’s your intention to subsidize silliness.

Most people have in mind that the money they donate to charities will be used for some noble cause. Perhaps helping to build a new children’s wing at a hospital. Or to… Read full post »

A woman in California woke up one morning several years ago and discovered that her husband had disappeared with all her money. Having never worked a day in her life, after losing her home and everything her first husband had worked his entire life to accumulate, and in her late 70s… Read full post »

I’m not your most experienced international traveler, mind you, but I’ve learned a few things I want to pass along to you that will make you a more savvy traveler than I was before I gained this valuable knowledge.

A few years ago my wife Linda and I took a sailing… Read full post »

When I got my driver's license you were not born gasoline was 20 cents a gallon.  Today, I filled up for $2.59 per gallon. 

Driving home I remembered something I was told at Alumni Summer College this year.

Milk is $4.29 per gallon.  

Dasani bottled water from the vending machine… Read full post »

Chocolate and ice cream rank high on the ladder of comfort food, according to food science and technology Professor David A. Golden of The University of Tennessee.Psychology Today, 2001, reported in a survey that 1,005 men and women named ice cream as their favorite comfort food. Comfort food is… Read full post »

It’s Halloween. Let’s have a little fun. Fun is all Halloween ever was to kids when I was growing up. Never once did we ever think of it as worshiping evil spirits and paying homage to Satan. It was just a day of the year that we dressed up as ghosts… Read full post »

Dedicated to marytkelly.  I'm 71, Mary, and you can't catch me.  Na, Na. Na. Boo boo.  Happy Birthday, Mary!

10. Watching my grandchildren drive my daughter crazy, and seeing my child do things she swore to God she’d never do. It is especially pleasing when I catch her sayin… Read full post »

A few years ago, I clicked on the TV during the day and low-and-behold I heard a United States Senator and the Secretary of the Treasury having a heated, emotional argument over who grew up the poorest. Each man was virtually in tears, with voices and lips trembling.

Senator Robert Byrd… Read full post »

We read about this fabulous place to eat in Cape Girardeau, Missouri. It was a restored saloon or something on the banks of the Mississippi River. It was 1967.

So on Saturday night four of us young couples piled into two cars and headed north from Tennessee on U.S. 51 for… Read full post »

My name is Big Blue. I’m a Great Blue Heron, and I live on Honey Run Creek.

My life was pretty normal until about two years ago when it changed forever. The city built the Greenway, and my days now are filled with anxiety. Quiet days wading the creek alone… Read full post »

Imagine yourself in this situation. You’re 21years old. You’ve been a newspaper reporter for the Kansas City Star for about a year.

You really like your job, but during the last year you developed some kind of stomach trouble. You’re pretty sick, virtually an invalid for about seve… Read full post »

Dying isn’t something I think about that much. I’m not afraid of dying; I just don’t spend a lot of time thinking about it. But, I’ve developed a habit that puzzles me. I’ve become an obituary reader!

I don’t know exactly when I started it, and I don’t like w… Read full post »