Columns

A good day to celebrate an extraordinary mother

She was only 18 when rheumatic fever damaged her heart. The doctors said she’d be lucky to live into her 40s — that she was no longer strong enough to bear children. Lucky for my five sisters and me, she ignored them!

Have you heard of After School Satan clubs?

Sometimes it’s difficult to approach news items with the proper balance of bemusement, curiosity and wariness. (Sometimes it’s difficult to approach news items at all, when there are shouts of “When are you going to carry out the garbage?” and “That lawn isn’t going to mow itself!” But I digress.

Picks and shovels, then bats and balls

Organized Little League baseball was still far in the future when the Crowley Rotary Club decided in the spring of 1923 to set up a four-team league for any boy between the ages of 12 and 16 “whether he be a star or whether or not he feels that he is a good player.

Beware of legislation titled ‘fair’

When you want to persuade people that the thing you are doing is good, moral, and just, you throw in the word “fairness.” That’s what the Democrats in the Pennsylvania House did last week, when they passed — by the slimmest of margins — House Bill 300 which was dubbed, duh, the Fairness Act.

Community banks more important than ever

We have a government induced banking crisis, and it is not contained — but rather is in its early stages.

Prom season: What’s wrong with daddy?

It’s that time of year again when dads of daughters all over the country are experiencing severe headaches, watery eyes, shortness of breath and even hives. No, these symptoms are not from seasonal allergies, but from a traumatic phenomenon known as “prom season.

What did you inherit from your mother?

As Mother’s Day approaches, it is appropriate that we discuss the physical characteristics, personality traits, coping mechanisms, etiquette rules, life ambitions, etcetera that we inherited from our mothers. Let’s discuss it in hushed tones, though.

Louisiana’s tidelands fight took 50 years

The fight between Louisiana and the federal government had been going on for 16 years when Congress passed “historic” legislation in May 1953 to “restore to the state land that was taken away from it by decisions of the Supreme Court.” The land in question was beneath the Gulf of Mexico.

‘The View’ is TV trash talk

When you grow up with an Italian mother, you are familiar with the phrase, “let’s go in the kitchen and have coffee.” Most people, regardless of their ethnicity or heritage, are used to the idea of sitting down and having coffee.

Handicapping this year’s governor’s race

I just know all your readers are anxious to find out my thoughts on the coming gubernatorial election. We are five and a half months away from the first primary election date (October 14th), with seven major candidates for governor having been announced so far.