Mask: For some the most obscene four-letter word. My wife, Mary, and I met with a long-time friend and his wife at a familiar meeting place roughly halfway between our home and theirs just outside of Harrisburg. That was in late August. My friend, both of whom Mary and I have known since we were kids, is immunocompromised due to several health issues and his advanced age. He is among the more highly susceptible to COVID, and [...] READ MORE
Anger abounds during this pandemic, but what Constitutional rights are being threatened? We should all commiserate with someone who owns and operates a restaurant, bar or combination of both in this year of the pandemic. It was tough enough before when many concessions had to be made to keep dining rooms open, as well as limitations on hours of bar sales and other restrictive recommendations. Many supporters of these small businesses in our communities stepped up and [...] READ MORE
Wailing in the White House won’t help bring us together. I must confess I resisted following the blow-by-blow coverage of the presidential election, which required much of last week to project a winner. My attitude was just let me know when it is all over but the shouting. Well, the election part is over, anyway. As usual the shouting, better described as wailing, comes from a president who fears becoming something he detests above all things— a [...] READ MORE
Brainstorming with his conspiracy theory consultant. So why is everyone so caught up in blaming conspiracies for everything from the wearing of face masks to the existence of a small group of very powerful men who are orchestrating the pandemic and will do the same with the upcoming presidential election? “Conspiracy theories contribute to an increasing pollution of the information environment, a distrust of expertise, scientists, and the very idea of truth,” says Peter Knight, a professor of [...] READ MORE
Some slackers faced death sentences during the 1918 pandemic. I guess we are all familiar with the idea that history repeats itself, and, accordingly, if we don’t learn from the mistakes of the past, we’ll keep on making the same blunders. The Philosopher George Santayana gets the credit for best expressing this theorem with this assessment: "Those who cannot remember the past are condemned to repeat it." He was looking at this from a historical perspective, a world view, [...] READ MORE
Will a closer look at the words of Donald Trump help us understand? I’m trying. I really am. I’m trying to look at the humorous side of things. It was easy at first, with a president who could play himself in a Saturday Night Live skit. He can’t be serious, right? And yet there is so much to make fun of— ratings gold for the pundits. He’s a living reality show and, at the same time, so [...] READ MORE
How much plastic are you ingesting? I’ve been doing a lot of research the past couple of weeks on quackery and consumer scams, mainly because there has been such a tremendous increase of such chicanery and it is keeping state attorneys general busy across the country. This outbreak has been triggered by the pandemic that as already changed our lives and will recast our future as a country and, sadly I think, hastening our exit from the [...] READ MORE
Talking heads and promises abound… The following fake report is brought to you as a public service by SYMIC— Stop Your Musing It’s Confusing. And now a few words from our stars in a recent comedy or drama, depending on what does or doesn’t make you laugh. President Trump at April 23rd Briefing: (Addressing his medical experts) …And then I see the disinfectant, where it knocks it out in a minute, one minute. And is there a [...] READ MORE
Sometimes it takes some digging to get to the truth I guess you might call this the era of fake news, so our biggest challenge as informed citizens is to get real and not live life like a reality show. It’s about exploiting our biases with adulterated or downright phony stories that get passed along until they amass hundreds of thousands, even millions, of believers. The 21st Century version is nurtured and promulgated by social media and [...] READ MORE
Your local contractor may be struggling to get his foot in the door for emergency relief. There are a lot of things I enjoy about living in a small town, not the least of which is knowing most everyone personally or by reputation. If you don’t really know who someone is, there is someone you know who does. The same can’t be said of life in urban America. For one thing, we seem safer here from this [...] READ MORE
