Category Archives: Columns

As usual, I write one of these things and a week later somebody notable, like Tom Friedman, comes out with essentially the same theme. Great minds think alike. Not sure what’s happening in my case. But, here’s my original take: It was in the interests of the wealthy to look past Hitler’s sins. Germany wasContinue reading “Bad for Business”

While I’ve long fancied myself as a master of home repair, the older I get the more I discover that I’m really not so smart as I thought. Take home electrics. A recent trip to Harbor Freight yielded a $3.50 circuit tester, which, when deployed in the outlets around the house, caused me some realContinue reading “Shocking”

Published in Lititz Record-Express, 9/23/21 A short time ago somebody wrote to this paper concerning my column on Vaccine Passports. He accused me of constantly “fear mongering” in this space. Instead of immediately rejecting that notion, I did what everyone with strong opinions should do when those opinions are criticized. I considered the possibility thatContinue reading “Afraid?”

Published 3/4/21 in the Lititz Record After reading Tim Snyder’s sobering article in the NY Times, I’m beginning to think that America has at last been defeated. Not by external enemies but by our own insatiable appetite for information. We’ve abandoned our local news sources, as Snyder points out, in favor of “info” channels thatContinue reading “Maybe it’s time!”

Published in the Lititz Record, October 2016 Given that the election season, this two-year election marathon, is almost at an end, here’s a tale that may lighten your depression. But, while amusing, I may be telling it at my own expense. In 1995, when county treasurer Paul Thibault was running to replace Jim Huber asContinue reading “Sorry, Jim”

Published in Central Penn Business Digest, 8/90 New Orleans in June. The sun goes down but the temperature never does. You can’t even call what they have there humidity–you need a whole new word. Somehow, and I think it must be part of an ongoing conspiracy on the part of the transit system employees, I,Continue reading “Black & White”

Published June 1990 in Central Penn Business Digest Everyone who ever met Malcolm Forbes, no matter how casually, has now written his or her piece about what a character he was. I was hoping to resist the temptation my­self, but a strange coincidence has made me reconsider. It was Saturday, February 24, and I wasContinue reading “Goodbye, Malcolm”