2009-11-08 00:03:00
MICHAEL LONG, Among the Living
My oldest son is 3, and I don't think it stretches the bounds of parental objectivity to say that he's particularly perceptive. He noticed early on, for instance, the absence of my father, who died in 2001. Figuring out exactly what happened to "Grandpa Bob" has been an ongoing project for h......
2009-10-25 00:02:00
ANNE KOENIG, Among the Living
Cathy Millhauser. Never met her. But I'd like to. She's a cruciverbalist. A person who creates crossword puzzles. She's one of many puzzle constructors; but I seem to like hers more than most. She's clever and witty, and she feeds my obsession. Crosswords are how I gear up for......
2009-10-11 00:01:00
STEPHEN KOPFINGER, Among the Living
My, my, all this talk about the death of civility. And why not, after a summer filled with examples too tiresome to mention: Mr. Wilson, Ms. Williams, Mr. West, et. al. You know who they are. And they know who they are. We like to think it wasn't always this way. "Back then," we say, pe......
2009-09-27 00:02:00
CHIP SMEDLEY, Among the Living
Somewhere along the line I became "Hon." It happened when my son and I recently went out for a Sunday-morning breakfast. We were joking and making small talk with each other and with our waitress. When it came time to order, the waitress (who was younger than I, but certainly not a rece......
2009-09-13 00:02:00
ANNE KOENIG, Among the Living
Columns are written by fools like me, But in my heart, there is a tree.I know. That was cheap. Poor Joyce Kilmer; sometimes he just doesn't get respect. What got me to thinking about trees, though, has nothing — and everything — to do with poetry. It's about ......
2009-08-30 00:02:00
STEPHEN KOPFINGER, Among the Living
Admit it oenophiles. We all have the box of wine. You don't want to admit it, but you have it. It's there, lurking in you refrigerator, stashed behind something in case company calls. What if they open your fridge and see it? You proudly display that expensive bottle of Bordea......
2009-08-16 00:04:00
CASEY KREIDER, Among the Living
My girlfriend and I were zipping along Newport Road, on the outskirts of Lititz, when a small flash of orange-brown shaggy fur caught our eyes. In seconds, I was turning around. Traffic heading in both directions, I pulled into a church parking lot and quickly wheeled my car back toward th......
2009-08-02 00:02:00
ANNE KOENIG, Among the Living
It's been an interesting several months preparing for our daughter Valerie's upcoming marriage to Seth. Newspaper and online wedding articles often list the duties of wedding-party participants and, while helpful, we've discovered they aren't complete. There are certain other roles people ......
2009-07-05 00:04:00
JO-ANN GREENE, Among the Living
"Dunner Wedder!" That's what I imagine Pop saying if he knew I was taking a class in Pennsylvania German dialect, aka "Pennsilfaanisch Deitsch." That translates to thunder weather or, more loosely, "Thunder and lightning!" It's a mild version of what today's English speaker might say to......
2009-06-21 00:01:00
ANNE KOENIG, Among the Living
It disturbed him. Our visit to the American Visionary Art Museum, in Baltimore, left my husband feeling a tad unsettled. So much of the art, Tim noted, had dark themes. Skeletons. Mental anguish. Frenzy. Pain. Loss. And then there were the exhibits of "junk" pieced together in kook......
2009-06-07 00:02:00
STEPHEN KOPFINGER, Among the Living
"Goodbye Bland Affluence," the headline read. It was atop a work penned by Wall Street Journal columnist Peggy Noonan. The subject was a familiar one: the consumption-based society is passé. People are scaling back. A big focus of Noonan's piece was a Michigan family, profiled in USA ......
2009-05-24 00:02:00
ERIC STARK, Among the Living
What happens in Vegas doesn't always stay in Vegas. Sorry, Jason. Trying to relive my youth, my friend Matt and brother Jason accompanied me to Las Vegas for my bachelor party in 2006 — my version of "Entourage." We entered the hip nightclub JET, in the Mirage resort hotel an......
2009-05-10 00:04:00
ANNE KOENIG, Among the Living
Two men are in a pub. One says to his buddy, "My mother-in-law is an angel." "You're lucky," his friend replies. "Mine is still alive."
Ahem. In a few months, Molly and I will each assume the mantle of Mother-in-Law. It's weird. And exciting. It will be a new ......
2009-04-26 00:03:00
STEPHEN KOPFINGER, Among the Living
Dear Bo:
Congratulations on your new life as first dog of the United States. You're going to be one pampered pooch. I know it. Why? Because I'm a dog parent, too. And Issa, my Maltese, runs the house — I just live there. But you should know a few things so you don't ......
2009-04-12 00:01:00
BARBARA HOUGH RODA, Among the Living
Today I turn away from Dow Jones and look, instead, to a daffodil. For days, my high heels clicked quickly past it. I was too preoccupied, too worried about our world to acknowledge a little bud along the sidewalk. Yet this lone, fragrant flower atop what became a long, strong stem refused......
2009-03-29 00:01:00
ANNE KOENIG, Among the Living
Maybe it had something to do with the new blue streaks my youngest sister had painted in her hair. Maybe it was the chardonnay. Maybe it was the shame of placing third among six Scrabble players, a shame all the more stinging because my husband — who is "spelling-challenged"......
2009-03-15 00:01:00
STEPHEN KOPFINGER, Among the Living
Regular readers of this column know of my love of movies, especially old ones. But the thing is, I enjoy most films from the comfort of my recliner, thanks to cable TV and Netflix. I love movies but I don't go to the movies — as in sitting in a theater before the Big Screen — very m......
2009-03-01 00:04:00
SUZANNE CASSIDY, Among the Living
The economy is all I seem to be able to think about these days. The economic crisis seems to seep into so many stories I cover. And nowadays, being in the newspaper business isn't exactly walking on sunshine. Even when I resort to a little escapist television, reality bites. In repeat......
2009-02-15 00:04:00
ANNE KOENIG, Among the Living
You might be familiar with the concept of "six degrees of separation." Or "Six Degrees of Kevin Bacon." The idea is that every individual can be connected to any other person through a chain of relatives, friends or acquaintances that has no more than five intermediaries. I was never ......
2009-02-01 00:04:00
STEPHEN KOPFINGER, Among the Living
I want this guy in charge of my next flight. "This guy" being one Chesley Sullenberger, captain of the US Airways plane that ditched in New York's Hudson River Jan. 15. Oh, and I want his entire flight crew aboard, as well. This plane took off from LaGuardia Airport, apparently ran into so......
2009-01-18 00:01:00
MICHAEL SCHWARTZ, Among the Living
I went to school with a guy named Kenny Townsend. He's been bugging me to write a Sunday "In the Spotlight" feature about him since he found out I write them. (Please see Section B for an example of someone worthy of the "Spotlight.") He's become more shrill and indignant since we became roommates a...
2009-01-04 00:01:00
ANNE KOENIG, Among the Living
It took a year. My conscience was nagging for that long, that it was time to do the right thing. So, in August 2008, I started. My self-discipline lasted only four months, however, until I fell back to old, selfish habits. (Kinda like New Year's resolutions!) Still, I'm proud of those......
2008-12-21 00:01:00
STEPHEN KOPFINGER, Among the Living
I have to admit it: I have mixed feelings about the holidays. There are those who rejoice at the prospect of "Christmas is coming!" and start celebrating the day after Halloween. These are the people who put up their lights and decorations Nov. 1 and leave them up until March. Personally, I thi......
2008-12-07 00:02:00
JEANNETTE SCOTT, Among the Living
It was my favorite kind of morning: Indian summer. A November Monday, my day off. Setting out on errands, I felt compelled — halfway up the block — to drop in on my neighbor, a good friend and member of my church family. She'd had home-hospice care for some time. This day,......
2008-11-23 00:01:00
ANNE KOENIG, Among the Living
Have you ever been so blown away by someone's generosity that you can't even describe your feelings about it? When the word "generosity" seems wholly insufficient? My husband and I — and many, many others — were the recent beneficiaries of an amazing gift from a man I've met only br......
2008-11-09 00:03:00
STEPHEN KOPFINGER, Among the Living
A few feet from my front door, the mysterious red lady beckons. Not a lady in red, mind you; I don't live in that kind of neighborhood. This particular lady is red, spray-painted on one of those curbside utility boxes the guys from the phone company come to check on eve......
2008-10-26 00:03:00
JON RUTTER, Among the Living
The 767 sledded down through the mist and landed at Newark, N.J. Just like that, the vacation was over. The mountain hiking was done. My friends were 4,000 miles away again. The man, the woman, the little girl. The boy with his jazz of toy cars. Back in Geneva, Switzerland. At takeoff......
2008-10-12 00:02:00
ANNE KOENIG, Among the Living
First, those who annoy; then, those who give joy.
Peeved about:
•Lazybones who can't walk their empty grocery carts a few steps to the cart corrals. •Southbound commuters in the left-turn lane on the Oregon Pike who blow through the red light at......
2008-09-28 00:04:00
STEPHEN KOPFINGER
She left England a ship of millionaires. She docked in New York a few days later, with a passenger list of ruined men. It was October 1929, and the liner was the British steamer Berengaria, a floating palace catering to the rich and titled; and now, thanks to a stock market crash — th......
2008-09-14 00:01:00
PAUL FRANZ
"So, what station are you with?" "I'm not TV. I'm with the Sunday News." "Huh?" "Yeah, newspapers are doing video now." "Oh." Contrary to the casual observations of passersby, I don't work for WGAL-8 or Fox 43, though the tripod and video camera might be deceiving. Welc......
2008-08-31 00:04:00
ANNE KOENIG
I was privileged to attend the recent wedding of some very special people: Clarissa Gage, who is my daughter Valerie's longtime best friend, and Ryan Lynch. Before, during and after the ceremony, Clarissa could have served as the Anti-Bridezilla Poster Girl. In body and spirit, she was beyond g......
2008-08-17 00:02:00
STEPHEN KOPFINGER
My faithful old American-made brand-name washing machine, which has washed, rinsed and spun for some 13 or 14 years in the basement, began showing signs of the End Times recently; so, it was off to the appliance floor of a major department store for a replacement. A replacement that, I hoped, w......
2008-08-03 00:03:00
SUZANNE CASSIDY
Like a lot of people, I want my summer reading materials to be escapist, undemanding fun. I'll save the political biographies, the taxing books about history and culture, the highbrow novels by foreign writers for the depths of winter. In the summer, I want beach books. I'm not Evelyn Wood......
2008-07-20 00:03:00
ANNE KOENIG
For the most part, reaction to the Living section's recent reports on pornography was positive: "I urge all readers of this series to take this issue seriously," one reader wrote in an e-mail, "and get help before it destroys your family." But there were some other — opposite — resp......
2008-07-06 00:04:00
STEPHEN KOPFINGER
I recently heard that, with the soaring cost of airline travel, flying might soon return to what it was 40 or so years ago: something for the money and business crowds. That's not a good thing for the rest of us travelers, who are already facing a $700 fare for a round trip to Chicago and have ......
2008-06-22 00:01:00
MEGAN HART
I was watching the Jeopardy college tournament, recently filmed at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, when my mother asked me if I ever regretted my decision to attend Michigan State University instead of Wisconsin. My knee-jerk response was no; but the truth was, I had never really thought about ...
2008-06-08 00:02:00
ANNE KOENIG
So there we were, spending our Saturday last weekend doing what I've affectionately (and, I admit, sometimes exasperatedly) dubbed "The Cemetery Stomp." Twice a year, my husband and his relatives make the rounds of Berks County graveyards, placing flowers at the headstones of their deceased lov......
2008-05-25 00:01:00
STEPHEN KOPFINGER
Whether you live in a grand estate or a one-room walkup apartment — trust me — nothing humbles a person like cleaning out stuff. It doesn't matter how large or small your abode is; you will accumulate stuff. So much, you'll wonder not just where it came from, but why it's t......
2008-05-11 00:02:00
CHIP SMEDLEY
Former Sunday News Sports Editor Bill Fisher occasionally used his column to embark on a "King of the World" fantasy. So, in my first kick at the "Among the Living" can, I thought I would take some time to doff my cap to a friend and mentor, and to indulge my own fantasies a......
2008-04-27 00:03:00
ANNE KOENIG
It's been about three weeks now and I can't stop thinking about Max. No, it's not necessarily about Max, although he was one muscular fella. It's about where Max took me — into a world that was So-Not-Here that I sometimes wonder if it had been a dream. But it was as real as it gets.......
2008-04-13 00:03:00
STEPHEN KOPFINGER
Believe it or not, it was once a nice place. Not long ago, there was news about the partial demolition of the east side of Lancaster Square, that desolate, windswept plaza surrounded by the hulking, windowless Bulova building on one side and the Hotel Brunswick on the other, all connected by a ......
2008-03-30 00:03:00
MIKE GROSS
I'd like you to meet my son. That's him over there, all feet and legs and contrarian hair, with the Jimi Hendrix T-shirt and the floor-sweeping pants. Something of a free spirit, this kid. It'd take a team of trained, heavily equipped professionals to clean his bedroom. His diet stapl......
2008-03-16 00:04:00
ANNE KOENIG
Cancer, I HATE YOU. I just learned you've attacked one more member of my family, a stellar man who does not deserve to have you slinking around in his lymph nodes. But you don't give a rip about a person's character, do you? You'll ambush anyone, if given the opportunity. You took the......
2008-03-02 00:02:00
STEPHEN KOPFINGER
By the time you read this, will Britney Spears still be alive? Or sane? Will Lindsay Lohan be sober? And which pop star, rap star, sports idol — take your pick — will be in jail? This, sorry to say, is the state of celebrity these days. You've heard this rant before. But, ......
2008-02-17 00:02:00
ERIC STARK
Serving in the Armed Forces, ducking bullets and dodging bombs to protect others, that's someone of honor and courage, a hero. Playing professional football, eluding defenders and escaping would-be-tacklers, that's an athlete, someone with strength and boldness. But the fortitude to run on......
2008-02-03 00:01:00
ANNE KOENIG
There's "some kinda wonderful" involved in being middle-aged. I realized it when I arrived at a Saturday morning exercise session wearing my thick glasses, very frumpy old sweatpants and "bed head." Didn't really care how I looked. I realized it when I wanted to push myself through th......
2008-01-20 00:02:00
STEPHEN KOPFINGER
Mon Dieu! A smoking ban in France! Next the French will be electing a pro-American president. Oh, wait, that's already happened. I've never been a cigarette smoker, for a couple of reasons: I can't stand the smell and I'm really, really bad at it. When I have had a cof......
2008-01-06 00:01:00
BARBARA HOUGH RODA
They cuddled together on an old fuzzy blanket, just a few feet from the Christmas tree. "Adorable," I told my 8-year-old. Did the pup wriggling in her arms have a clue as to what that meant, I wondered aloud. "Of course," answered my daughter, rolling her eyes. &qu......
2007-12-23 00:01:00
ANNE KOENIG
For the past couple of years, one or the other of us would give the idea a voice: "Maybe it's time to get an artificial tree." And then we'd wrinkle our noses dismissively. For whatever reason, Tim and I both hold to the notion that artificial trees are "lesser." And......
2007-12-09 00:02:00
STEPHEN KOPFINGER
As the holiday season approaches, we all know there are gifts that keep on giving, gifts treasured for years and gifts accepted with insincere smiles before they're quietly exchanged, re-gifted or disposed of. But there's another category: Gifts that never cross your mind to give to anyone, unl......
2007-11-25 00:03:00
JO-ANN GREENE
There's another woman. And she's come between us, quite literally. Whenever we go anywhere, she sits closest to my husband, daintily perched on the console between the car's two front seats. To think this ménage à trois was my idea. Yes, I'm the one who wanted the h......
2007-11-11 00:02:00
ANNE KOENIG
'To the left of the high gray cloud, the one that kind-of looks like an aardvark ... it's now into the streaky wisps. "First-year bald eagle high overhead." The volunteer bird counter at Hawk Mountain Sanctuary's North Lookout announced each raptor as it came into vie......
2007-10-28 00:01:00
STEPHEN KOPFINGER
The newspaper section you are now reading is called "Living;" but I'll remember 2007, as it creeps into autumn, as the year everything died. Not people or pets, fortunately. I'm talking about stuff, as in, stuff you have around the house, or, in the case of my car, in the garage. The car d......
2007-10-14 00:03:00
MICHAEL SCHWARTZ
Sentimentality gets you into strange situations. My great-grandmother's house is my favorite place on Earth. It's my family's western-Pennsylvania Kennedy compound, and she's our matriarch, our Rose. From Christmas to Trivial Pursuit, I love when we all get together. Incidentally, my ......
2007-09-30 00:01:00
ANNE KOENIG
Some very-high-end campgrounds feature on-site restaurants, butlers serving s'mores, bathhouses with heated slate floors and "tents" with artwork on the walls. "Glamping" — or glamorous camping — is gaining in popularity, according to a recent Washington Post report. When frien......
2007-09-16 00:01:00
STEPHEN KOPFINGER
To a certain element of American society, the 1960s ruined everything. Say "The Sixties" to those of this persuasion, and dark looks cross their faces. That terrible decade, when Moral America was overthrown by sex, drugs and rock 'n' roll. Such things never happened when Ike was in charge....
2007-09-02 00:01:00
PATRICIA POIST
When I first heard the common saying "Life is a series of goodbyes," it sounded so depressing. Like most people, I find it hard saying farewell. Leaving the warm gaze of a loved one you won't see for awhile or, perhaps, never, is wrenching. Leaving a place that you have become accustomed to for......
2007-08-19 00:01:00
ANNE KOENIG
"Who's that lady, John? What's her name? Why is she here, John?" I was "that lady" and clearly I'd upset the bus rider's sense of routine. Her rapid-fire questions to the Red Rose Transit Authority driver let me know I was an outsider, an intruder. I hadn't taken a bus to work since I was ......
2007-08-05 00:01:00
STEPHEN KOPFINGER
I don't know why this is crossing my mind at the moment, but I'll be hitting the big 4-5 in October. As in, 45 years old. Now, why am I even contemplating this? October is a long way off. Or is it? Time flies when you're ... approaching half of age 90. Sigh. But really, it's just a nu......
2007-07-22 00:01:00
PATRICIA POIST
My old pal Gail Trost, from Potomac, Md., left a message on my voice mail the other week. "You are not going to believe this, but Sharon has a rock 'n' roll band in Seattle. ..." She was speaking about our mutual friend Sharon Lord. "You have to go to her Web site; it is ...
2007-07-08 00:01:00
ANNE KOENIG
Barnyard swine don't know any better. People should. An event was held here recently that had me wondering: What kind of culture lifts piggishness to a level worthy of awards and accolades? And why did officials for a local shopping center allow themselves to be bitten by the notion that p......
2007-06-24 00:01:00
STEPHEN KOPFINGER
According to the New York Observer, somebody shelled out $50 million — that's five-oh million — for private digs at Manhattan's Plaza Hotel. The legendary hostelry is undergoing a multimillion-dollar conversion into a palace of exclusivity that will be part hotel (for mere visiting ......
2007-06-10 00:01:00
PATRICIA POIST
I cringe when I hear people say things like "he's got the manners of a trucker" or "she swears like a truck driver." I get mad when I see someone behind the wheel of a car honking at a truck driver who is blocking traffic, but who is painstakingly backing his or her rig into a tight loading are......
2007-05-27 00:01:00
ANNE KOENIG
Wow. They're old. That was my initial thought after meeting my husband's parents for the first time in the mid-1970s. Tim's mom and dad were about the age of my grandparents. From my then-19-year-old perspective, that was ancient. But, the more I got to know Earl Koenig, in particular......
2007-05-13 00:01:00
STEPHEN KOPFINGER
As one who has always been somewhat interested in buildings and construction, I've been treated to something like theater — or perhaps the word "concert" is more fitting — in downtown Lancaster the last few months. I walk to and from work; and, each day, I've been watching the futur......
2007-04-29 00:01:00
PATRICIA POIST
Many people have had at least one teacher in their lives who made all the difference in their outlook about learning. I was blessed with two. And for a kid whose family life fell apart at a very young age, and who had tenuous confidence and lack of direction, they were lifelines. I so......
2007-04-15 00:01:00
ANNE KOENIG
We tattled on one another. We boasted about one another. We pitched balls; we pitched encouragement; we pitched insults; we pitched advice; we pitched in. Although my relationship with each of them is different, these people are among the "bestest" of my best friends: Kathy, Meryl, Mu......
2007-04-01 00:01:00
STEPHEN KOPFINGER
I am not what you call a sunny person. I'm not misanthropic, but I'm just not one of those people who greets every new day like Julie Andrews singing "the hills are alive with the sound of music" and never will be. Don't get me wrong; I like to think of myself as a nice guy. But, rea......
2007-03-18 00:01:00
PATRICIA POIST
I love faces. I love to study them. Men's, women's, children's, babies'. I am sure people think I am weird when I go up to them and say stuff like: "Look at that jaw line. Such cheekbones. "Your nose is a marvel. "Those eyes." I guess, ......
2007-03-04 00:10:00
ANNE KOENIG
Just got back yesterday from a fantastic, all-inclusive resort vacation in Mexico with a group of friends. I'm feeling refreshed, tanned and still giggling at ... Oh, wait! That's right. I didn't just get back from vacation. I'm right here doing what I've been doing ......
2007-02-18 00:00:00
STEPHEN KOPFINGERr
Miss Garbo, I know exactly how you felt. Sometimes, I, too, want to be left alone. The film goddess, who departed the movies in 1941 and died in 1990, retained her fame by avoiding it, by becoming the world's most famous enigma. For decades, stories circulated about her intensely private......
2007-02-04 00:01:00
PATRICIA POIST
At Christmas, I received a very lovely gift of oil paints and a canvas. I love to paint; I think about it quite often, but I don't do it enough. I have a lot of projects around the house, all in various stages of completion, most collecting dust. I often ask myself, is this attentio......
2007-01-20 23:27:00
ANNE KOENIG
Are you the one who put the black paper dolls in the newspaper? Well, that's not cute! That's not cute! You hurt a lot of people. That's not cute!" scolded the woman on the telephone, identifying herself as African-American, but not sharing her name.
"Those paper dolls were offensive,......
2007-01-06 23:21:08
Stephen Kopfinger
Well over a year ago, I wrote about replacing a dead cellular phone with a newer “improved” model, one that had enough features to fill an instruction manual the size of a small novel. After hopelessly trying to program the thing, I threw in the towel and handed it over to a friend’s 15-year-old...
2006-12-23 23:03:59
Patricia Poist
You see, in the mad rush of life, I never got a chance to let either of them know how much they meant to me.
That’s something I will always regret.
Sandy was a vibrant 58-year-old who looked 15 years her junior. She was bright, sophisticated, a talented writer and, ...
2006-12-09 23:30:18
Anne Koenig
As you’ve been collecting those boxes, have you noticed the symbol hidden in the FedEx logo?
It’s an arrow.
Between the capital “E” and the “x.”
Do you see it?
Cool, huh?
And now that you know it’s there, I have a suspicion the arrow...
2006-11-25 23:54:45
Stephen Kopfinger
The little Italian restaurant on New York’s 50th Street has passed on, replaced by something else. Just like so many other things lately.
I used to chuckle at aging folks who lamented the departure of some old institution —!\qa venerable store, a favorite restaurant, even a TV...
2006-11-11 23:31:14
Patricia Poist
As planned, Lisa and I had breakfast at one of her favorite haunts. She asked me if I wanted to go with her to make homemade applesauce at the home of her Amish neighbor Mary.
For many years, making and canning applesauce had been an autumn tradition for Lisa and for Mary’s mother, who pa...
2006-10-28 23:30:30
Anne Koenig
Make your way to Airport Hill and watch as the sun sets behind that community’s magnificent red rocks.
An orange sun is seemingly perched on the outline of the ridge; a hush overtakes the crowd. In a split second, the fiery orb slips out of sight; and, at that moment, the “audience” w...
2006-10-21 23:25:36
Stephen Kopfinger
Last December, I lost Chota Peg, my 9½-year-old cocker spaniel who died unexpectedly right after Christmas. What followed was the usual litany of questions for any dog owner — get another right away or wait a while; get the same kind of dog or something different; what does one do with all o...
2006-10-14 23:28:48
Patricia Poist
I always have been and I always will be.
As a little girl, I was shy and my feelings were easily hurt. I remember many times trying to hold the tears in and how how my throat would tighten, how my eyes would sting and then I just couldn’t hold it back anymore.
It is...
2006-10-07 23:25:49
Anne Koenig
“Just like the captain wears his Speedo.” Bahdumbum.
Anyone who flies frequently, or even infrequently, knows how easy it is to tune-out the robotic recitation of in-flight safety lessons given on most airplanes.
So, whenever my husband and I fly with Southwest Airlines, we ......
2006-10-03 10:01:06
Stephen Kopfinger
Or so it hit me as I sat one recent morning in the waiting room outside a hospital laboratory. Twice a year, for the past three or four years, I had been coming to this place to have blood drawn for a cholesterol test to monitor the effects of medication designed to keep my “numbers”...
2006-09-23 23:14:40
Patricia Poist
Yes, I am one of those people who removes spiders from her home by taking them outside.
I cringe when I see dead animals on the road and sometimes even say a little prayer of hope that they are frolicking in some bucolic heaven where they are loved and there are no cars to hit...
2006-09-16 23:49:29
Anne Koenig
A Wall Street Journal report published that “jarring” finding last year, based on several research studies.
The concept has since been re-examined repeatedly by others; and, as much as some might be tempted to dance around that conclusion, the data seems to support it.
...
2006-09-09 23:36:52
Stephen Kopfinger
So spoke the late, great Gilda Radner, as befuddled news commentator Emily Litella, on “Saturday Night Live” way-back-when.
Poor Emily, always getting worked up over some topic of the day and always getting it wrong with her hilarious malapropisms (the plight of Soviet “jewelry” instead o...
2006-09-02 23:26:52
Patricia Poist
Drivers are supposed to yield to one another and I have never seen so many nice people than I have in the five years I have driven on that road.
More often than not, and for whatever reason, motorists are quick to yield the road to a driver on the other side by flashing his or her headlig...
2006-08-26 23:38:50
Jo-ann Greene
This struck me as I compared two invitations.
My husband’s mid-’60s suburban high-school class scheduled a dinner-dance at an exclusive country club. Cocktail hour (cash bar, of course) buffet dinner, PowerPoint slide show, music, dancing and conversation, $58. Tasteful recollection of th...
2006-08-19 23:42:31
Anne Koenig
That’s where they’ve been throughout our marriage.
He doesn’t need to show them off to remember the thrill of winning them, I suppose. But it has always surprised me, just a little, that my husband is so humble about his achievements.
We are, after all, a culture that p...
2006-08-12 23:34:43
Stephen Kopfinger
For if you turn to page 93 of an issue of “Cosmopolitan” magazine from that month and year, you’ll find the following tidbit of TMI:
“Jim adored her when they married. But now — so soon — he almost ignores her. Unfortunately, this wife was not even aware of her one fault which cau...
2006-08-05 23:34:30
Patricia Poist
They punish us by dying before we do, he said, explaining the anguish he and his wife endured when they had to put their dog of 15 years to sleep.
Two weekends ago, my beloved 10-year-old basset hound, Barney, couldn’t use his back legs. He got around by dragging them. He look...
2006-07-29 23:28:07
Anne Koenig
The passengers could have made a real stink.
In fact, though, there was not one angry boar in the bunch.
After a delay caused by another flight’s holdup, followed by a further delay caused by a “little mechanical problem” — yikes, that smell! — followed by an ensuin...
2006-07-22 23:32:36
Stephen Kopfinger
It’s a mixed blessing. On the one hand, it’s great to have instant access to helpful information before I select my next home-away-from-home.
On the other hand, I’ve found myself spending way too much time on something that, really, should be more spontaneous — isn’t that what...
2006-07-15 23:08:03
Patricia Poist
My nephew Jeffrey, 8, looked up at her with those big blue eyes of his and said: “Momma, my hair is sad.”
She asked him what he meant.
“It’s crying,” he explained.
A non-autistic child probably would have said it this way: “Mom, I am hot, my head is sw......
2006-07-08 23:39:47
Anne Koenig
That cell-phone yak.
I do not like that yak, yak, yak.
I do not like it in a store.
I do not like it at the shore.
I do not like it at the wheel.
I do not like it at a meal.
I do not like to hear you scream
at Mr. Jerk who dashed y...
2006-07-01 23:46:50
Stephen Kopfinger
That could be the motto of downtown Lancaster these days, where construction crews have been tearing down their share of buildings in order to make way for new projects.
Oblender’s Furniture on South Queen Street, gone. The old AAA building on North Prince Street, gone. The ad...
2006-06-24 22:54:00
Patricia Poist
“I am Popeye the sailor man. ...,” he sang. My brother Bobby doesn’t remember him singing, but he does recall Uncle Jack drawing something for him on a napkin.
“I wish I would have kept it,’’ Bobby lamented recently.
You see, Uncle Jack was the voice of Popeye, as w......
2006-06-16 10:45:59
Anne Koenig
We changed the name because 1) the Living staff was reduced from four to three; and 2) one of the staff was on the verge of no longer qualifying to represent someone in his or her 40s.
Yes, I am now a member of the Half-Century Club.
Admittedly, I have not achieved ever...
2006-06-09 10:37:05
Stephen Kopfinger
Well, it’s no longer just movies that have that familiar feeling. It seems anymore that everything in our culture is either a remake, a repeat or a sequel of some kind.
The White House is occupied by a another president named George Bush. We are at war with Iraq a second t...
2006-06-02 11:47:22
Patricia Poist
I was grocery shopping the other night thinking about all the stuff I should have done earlier: write out the bills, vacuum the carpet. And, oh my gosh, I forgot to order my basset hound Barney’s flea meds.
My mind floated to the fact that Barney is 10 and oh, what am I going ...
2006-05-26 12:19:49
Anne Koenig
Dear Valerie,
You were a second-grader sprawled on our kitchen floor, surrounded by white paper doilies, red and pink heart-shaped sheets of construction paper, a pen and a bag of miniature York Peppermint Patties.
“Wouldn’t it be nice, Mommy,” you said as ...
2006-05-22 18:38:29
Jo-ann Greene
Who knew my computer, telephone and even Associated Press Stylebook were entitled to more time off than I was?
Oh sure, my e-mail was pretending to work while I was away. It insisted it had replied faithfully to all correspondents with an “out-of-office” message advising them ...
2006-05-12 15:03:48
Stephen Kopfinger
The place had an open kitchen, where you could watch the chef and staff prepare your meal as you listened to the requisite “old Italy” music on the ceiling speakers and soaked up the faux-Tuscan atmosphere. Any resemblence to la bella Italia stopped at the kitchen entrance, however. ......
2006-05-05 11:25:33
Patricia Poist
A clerk behind the counter was looking down, fiddling with something. She didn’t look up, but said something I couldn’t quite decipher. Because she didn’t look at me, I didn’t think she was talking to me. She said more loudly and quite rudely: “Over here.”
“Uh. OK,” I said, ca...
2006-04-28 10:36:21
Anne Koenig
She wanted to share a story, she wrote, that “shows the genuine kindheartedness of him, even at that young age and stage of his life.” He was about 28.
What struck me is that Tim’s small act of kindness — something he can barely recall — was one this woman held on to for more ...
2006-04-21 16:53:25
Stephen Kopfinger
Though, some dreams, we hope, will never fit that category.
Recently, some of my co-workers and I were discussing the kind of dreams that everyone seems to have, but nobody wants to see manifest in real life.
And you all know what I’m talking about the minute I say ...
2006-04-14 11:07:13
Patricia Poist
We went to Dallas for a day and I remember walking with him in that city’s massive Galleria mall.
“I have absolutely no use for anything here,” Noddy announced.
He sounded awfully superior at the time, and that inherently snobby-sounding accent didn’t help. Was he m...
2006-04-10 09:24:15
Anne Koenig
A new pay-for-performance program for Florida’s teachers will tie raises and bonuses directly to pupils’ standardized-test scores beginning next year, marking the first time a state has so closely linked the wages of individual school personnel to their students’ exam results, the Washin...
2006-03-31 14:02:09
Stephen Kopfinger
A picture, indeed, is worth a thousand words.
What prompted this cliché? Strangely enough, an item I heard on the radio, about a certain senator who was planning a fund-raiser in a private home, safely shut away from prying cameras.
Which got me to thinking about We...
2006-03-25 13:46:01
Patricia Poist
I know her well enough to know that she is a very hard worker. She frets if the hotel laundry room is not in order to her standards. Sheets have to be folded a certain way. Tubs must be spotless. She gets upset if someone forgets to vacuum under the beds.
And she still is thri...
2006-03-17 11:45:41
Anne Koenig
There it is: an exposed-log home with a cedar-shake awning, flower boxes under its second-story windows and flower- pot sentries at the front entrance.
The house, which is along a downtown Lancaster street looks “nurtured,” and I just love it. For all these years, though, I ne...
2006-03-11 09:23:49
Stephen Kopfinger
All was resolved in a couple of minutes, but it struck me that my neighbor has an alarm, I have an alarm, and the apartment building on my block has one of those doors where you have to buzz somebody to be granted access.
When, exactly, did we become Fortress America?
...
2006-03-03 11:17:38
Patty Poist
“This is a race of people for whom psychoanalysis is of no use whatsoever,’’ said brain-shrink pioneer Sigmund Freud.
“ This one from poet Marianne Moore: “I’m troubled, I’m dissatisfied. I’m Irish.”
“ And then I recalled how someone once told me that an Irish person is n......
2006-02-20 10:06:42
Stephen Kopfinger
Crabby Philadelphians. In-your-face New Yorkers. And what better to bring out their worst than the snowstorm of the year, right?
Wrong. But let’s back up a little.
Personally, I’ve never held onto the image of urban rudeness, encountering lots of friendly New Yorker...
2006-02-10 14:41:43
Patty Poist
The brown-eyed 6-year-old with dark, curly hair and two missing front teeth had just finished painting for me a pond with goldfish.
What a gift that smile was.
I was never blessed with children biologically. After all sorts of costly tests and two failed pregnancies...
2006-02-10 10:12:53
Anne Koenig
They expelled sighs so melodramatic they could have launched a sailboat regatta.
“Geez, there she goes again. Going for another candid shot, mom?”
That’s the kind of reaction I get from my family when I pull out the camera.
There’s a difference between a ...
2006-02-03 12:43:32
Anne Koenig
Cyberspace, however, was amazingly silent. Except for Lisa (who gracefully declined without mockery), no one else replied.
I wasn’t all that surprised. Even before clicking the “send” button, I suspected my e-note would be received with reactions that ranged from incredulity t...
2006-01-27 10:43:01
Stephen Kopfinger
This, after running down a squadron of nuns while on a cocaine-fueled rampage in a stolen Porche. After I beat the owner’s head in with a crowbar. After I spent all year defrauding him and his wife online in a phony stock deal.
It’s all true.
Got your attention, didn’t I?
...
2006-01-20 15:29:07
Patty Poist
My high school gal pals Brenda, Ellen, Jill and Lori, all from the Hanover area, last month took a 36-hour trip to remember.
Ellen, the alpha female, read somewhere that one of the 100 things a woman should do before she dies is to drive in New York. I guess that means even if...
2006-01-07 23:42:34
Stephen Kopfinger
Chota Peg died three days after Christmas. Some of you might remember the 30-pound brown-and-white cocker spaniel I wrote about in this column two years ago, the companion I called “the center of my life.”
I chronicled how our home — yes, our home — was really her house, and I...
2005-12-24 15:53:00
Anne Koenig
Kiwi will jump onto the bed at about 6 a.m. He’ll give me a head-butt, plop against my side and he’ll start to purr.
Absentmindedly, I’ll pet him; but I’ll be thinking about how beautiful the church looked last night with the poinsettias at the altar, the swags of green tied u...
2005-12-17 23:29:52
Stephen Kopfinger
As I write this, it was a quarter of a century — a quarter of a century — ago that music legend John Lennon was shot and killed in New York City by a deranged stranger.
That was Dec. 8, 1980. I was a freshman in college (Millersville University) and living at home (commuting)...
2005-12-10 23:42:51
Anne Koenig
“Let it snow. Let it snow. Let it snow.”
Even the family meals.
While those are all part of our Thanksgiving tradition, it seemed just a little bogus to me.
Why weren’t the windows steamy from the warmth created by a turkey-roasting oven and crackling log...
2005-12-03 23:36:52
Stephen Kopfinger
•It used to be “wear clean underwear in case you’re taken to the hospital.” Now it’s “wear good socks because you’ll have to take off your shoes at the airport.”
•There is nothing more sobering than dealing with a doctor, nurse, lawyer, teacher or state trooper who is young en...
2005-11-26 23:35:02
Anne Koenig
- Another woman and I were standing at the food-wrap section of the grocery store recently when we simultaneously reached for a box of nonstick aluminum foil. “Don’t you just love this?!” she gushed.
I had to admit I was tickled to learn there are others out there who think......
2005-11-11 16:15:47
Anne Koenig
You are not even born yet; but, by the time you are old enough to read this, you will already know what I’m about to write:
You are fully and wondrously loved.
From the moment your Mom and Dad learned they were “expectant” parents, you were loved. By them, and by yo...
2005-11-05 11:59:54
Barbara Hough Roda
I proved that point on a recent Thursday night as I battled rain, road construction, conflicting directions and rush-hour traffic to get my daughter to “The Princess Classics’’ at the Sovereign Center in Reading. Once inside the kingdom to our north and with no fairy godmother to guide me, I spot......
2005-10-28 16:44:43
Stephen Kopfinger
The ubiquitous Muppet can currently be seen on television commercials, swaying to the classic 1960s song “Shout,” which itself has been co-opted as a jingle for the popular stain remover of the same name.
Where will all this cross-promoting end? Has everything and every place in America becom...
2005-10-21 14:34:58
Anne Koenig
Corny, you say?
Candy-corny, I say!
Halloween is only a week away and I just love it!
Can’t keep myself from smiling at those little white-hanky ghosts dangling from maple-tree branches.
I get a flutter of impending fun when the enormous green serpent emerges in October o...
2005-10-14 16:39:32
Barbara Hough Roda
Because I’m superstitious enough to believe that these things should be tied up after a neat round of three, I decided that I, too, would confess my compulsion — well, one of them.
It revealed itself again recently while I was in the newspaper library searching for information about “Connecti...
2005-10-07 16:33:40
Stephen Kopfinger
Netflix, for those not in the know, is a DVD rental service where you get on a Web site and order from a gazillion movies, each one delivered in a return-address envelope, which means no trips to the video store. It’s become such a success that Blockbuster Video has jumped into the act, and Netflix ...
2005-09-30 13:26:59
Anne Koenig
Really, really puzzled.
There are three books sitting on my nightstand, begging to be read.
Khalen Hosseini’s “The Kite Runner,” a loaner from a co-worker.
“The True and Outstanding Adventures of the Hunt Sisters” by Elisabeth Robinson. A bookstore indulgence. And, one my dau......
2005-09-23 09:12:22
Barbara Hough Roda
But in recent weeks I’ve become dismayed as I listen to Americans levy a moral explanation — for the benefit of the unenlightened among us — as to why Hurricane Katrina forced a major U.S. city to its knees.
Why it leveled small towns, destroyed homes and displaced hundreds of thousands of pe...
2005-09-16 14:48:48
Stephen Kopfinger
I am of that transitional generation, old enough to remember when computers were introduced to my high school, young enough to comprehend e-mail and the Internet but, too old again, to figure out text messaging and i-Pods without consulting someone under 30.
In fact, as I write this, I have j...
2005-09-09 12:48:59
Barbara Hough Roda
The first day was textbook perfection: lunch packed the night before and daughter’s clothes folded neatly on top of the dresser. She sat down to a healthful breakfast as I put dinner in the crockpot. We even read before heading to the bus stop five minutes early.
Pretty impressive, eh?......
2005-09-03 11:51:21
Anne Koenig
“Thanks, Mom and Dad, for staying married. I see how confusing life is for some of my friends, and I realize how lucky I am.”
Among the many missives our daughter has directed to us during the course of her college years, this is one I cherish.
I can think of so many ways my husband an...
2005-08-27 11:09:49
Stephen Kopfinger
Damned bloody inconvenience, I fumed, blood boiling. Does anything work?
Once or twice a week, I stop at the ATM for cash. I tap my foot if it takes more than 30 seconds for the machine to spit out a receipt.
And every weekend, I bemoan having to do two loads of laundry, which consists...
2005-08-19 10:36:55
Anne Koenig
Wasting time harassing some college coeds because the girls — gasp! — wore flip-flops to meet the President of the United States.
I’m all for decorum; but let’s be reasonable. Those champion Northwestern University lacrosse players looked adorable. The young ladies weren’t clomping around in ...
2005-08-13 10:19:58
Barbara Hough Roda
It was purchased as a gift for my sister years ago while I was a camp counselor on one of several mission trips to South Dakota.
But I couldn’t remember the exact year I got it. Or whether my sister liked it. Had she ever even used it?
Yet the memento survived, ending up in a cardboard...
2005-08-08 13:55:20
Stephen Kopfinger
I ask because, recently, a friend of mine sent me an e-mail link to a site containing various quotes from history — history being from Mark Twain to Conan O’Brien — which made light of our Gallic friends across the pond.
Tres amusant, I replied. But it prompted me to think: Wh...
2005-07-31 07:56:51
Barbara Hough Roda
I like to call them ... pedestrians.
This endangered species gets little respect, and rarely the right-of-way, from drivers — even though many of us are both.
I hear you already ... what about careless pedestrians? I’ll get to that in a few paragraphs with help from AAA.
Meanwhi...
2005-07-22 15:49:38
Anne Koenig
An elderly relative pointed directly, and insensitively, at an overweight man in a restaurant.
“Are these cookies legal?” another relative remarked with an embarassed laugh at a recent family gathering.
“Donuts are zero-calories, right?” a co-worker joked when someone brought in a trea...
2005-07-15 15:10:42
Stephen Kopfinger
Last month I had one of those epiphany moments brought on by, of all things, oversleeping.
It was one of those first-day-back-at-work-after-a-day-off-and-I-forgot-to-set-my-alarm scenarios that makes you feel so professional when you are awakened by your editor asking if you’ll be in.
...
2005-07-15 16:43:38
......
2005-07-07 16:21:46
E. A. H. Goss
Since then, we’ve gathered a half dozen times to tromp over 6 miles of busy Route 222, filling trash bags with the castoffs from our fellow man.
A typical outing nets 50 bags of snack boxes, soda bottles, used diapers and chunks of rubber from long-haul truck tires.
We’ve also unearthe...
2005-07-01 12:02:46
Anne Koenig
Who was the genious who imparted that bit of counsel so roundly accepted among parents and child-rearing experts?
I’d like to clip him in the beak!
For a while there, I thought I was handling this empty-nest thing pretty well; but I have to admit that lately I’ve been overwhelmed with ...
2005-06-25 13:37:13
Barbara Hough Roda
Yes.
“M-O-M.”
I’m right here.
“M-o-O-o-O-o-O-o-O-o-M!!”
No, the small child scream-whining for my attention is not hanging from the edge of a cliff in a remote corner of the Eastern Hemisphere. Remarkably, she is safe and a short 8 feet away in the family room. She’s clut...
2005-06-17 15:57:18
E. A. H. Goss
The license plate number on my first car, bought 25 years ago.
The phone number of my best childhood friend — from when we were 10!
My late grandparents’ address.
Important stuff is in my head, too.
My phone number, address and work extension.
My sons’ So......
2005-06-16 15:56:14
Stephen Kopfinger
Now, I’m as civic-proud as the next person when it comes to everything that supports the framework of our democracy, including the right to vote, a free press and trial by jury. As far as the first two go, it’s no problem for me to cast a vote — my polling place is a block from my house — and as far...
2005-06-04 21:54:54
Anne Koenig
“How much do you want for the mummy?” one shouted from the sporty sedan.
He was talking about the colorful, glittery, foam cutout my family was using as a gimmick to grab interest in our Relay for Life yard-sale fund-raiser. (“Don’t be in ‘de Nile.’ You can help in the fight against can- c......
2005-05-27 11:37:31
Barbara Hough Roda
Evidently I do.
Or I wouldn’t have just bought one of those I-can’t-believe-it-can-deliver-but-I’ve-got-to-have-the-faith swimsuits.
You all know what I’m talking about, those spandex transformers that promise to simultaneously maximize the chest, minimize the caboose, flatten the tumm...
2005-05-22 00:23:32
E. A. H. Goss
I often hear derogatory comments about how much of a nuisance certain animals are; how dirty, noisy, smelly, unruly ...
I read news stories of how they’re used in research, warfare, law enforcement. I see ads touting methods by which to rid ourselves of roaches and rabbits.
City reside...
2005-05-14 20:54:16
Stephen Kopfinger
How about raising some funds for me?
Seriously.
Now of course there are far worthier causes — conquering disease, supporting the arts, eradicating poverty, endowing hospitals, or helping tsunami victims, to name a few. But strolling the magnificent grounds of the suburban estate where ...
2005-05-06 14:07:49
Anne Koenig
In a panic to resurrect an impressive list of celebrities, I flash through a mental Rolodex of the thousands of people who’ve been included in my stories.
The celebrities, however, were simply that: Celebrities. Among my most memorable interviews are those that have been with moms. Some ea......
2005-05-02 13:44:45
Barbara Hough Roda
Wonderful, he said, before delving into the reasons for my choice. Would I consider becoming a doctor? he asked.
That’s for boys, I reasoned.
No, it’s for anyone who wants to help make sick people well. Whether you become either or neither, he told me that day, don’t allow others to pl...
2005-04-22 12:27:50
E. A. H. Goss
The smell of plumbers’ cement and the heady aroma of latex paint excite my senses. I get chills when I hear the squeal of a wood screw biting into a dewy 2x4 or the buzz of a Sawzall.
I’m a remodeler.
The idea of taking a building that’s teetering on the brink of demise, and turning it...
2005-04-15 12:44:23
Stephen Kopfinger
Upon getting it back after dinner, my friend — she was driving — sat down in the seat and turned rigid with a kind of bemused anger.
“He moved the seat,” she growled, on the presumption that somebody pushed some buttons, therefore wiping out the way her car seat was programmed to her liking. ...
2005-04-10 00:11:23
Anne Koenig
We finally figured out a time to get Tim and me from Pennsylvania, and our daughter Valerie from Florida, into California — for a whirlwind “family weekend.’’
Our welcome to the “City of Angels,” however, was less-than-seraphic.
Steve pulled up to a red curb, which is a no-parking spot...
2005-04-04 10:37:14
Barbara Hough Roda
Then came the confession: It had been sitting in her dryer since, she said in a whisper, Thursday.
I gasped — not out of shock — but because of the sudden wave of excited relief that washed over me.
You see, I, too, had been hiding clean laundry in the Maytag since ... Wednesday.
...
2005-03-26 10:35:17
E. A. H. Goss
In the safe deposit box, with the titles for our cars, our marriage license, the house deeds, and birth certificates, there are legal documents that will tell you all, very clearly, how I want you to conduct yourselves in the case of my questionable survival.
With those documents is a lett......
2005-03-18 10:21:03
Stephen Kopfinger
Thanks a lot. I was born in ’62.
I don’t obsess about age, and, as far as I know, I haven’t entered midlife crisis, which I define as a man of a certain age who buys a red sports car and runs off somewhere with a woman young enough to be his daughter.When Clint Eastwood wins an Oscar at a...
2005-03-11 12:05:51
Anne Koenig
Even when I was a scrawny, glasses-wearing, acne-faced teen, Dad saw me as his beautiful princess. Thus, despite what the mirror proved, when he said it, I became one.
Richard Albert Schmidt was a 21-year-old sailor, stationed aboard the USS Point Defiance, when I was born. Now, this coming M...
2005-03-11 11:24:39
E. A. H. Goss
No more crushed toes, wobbly walking, blisters, corns or calluses.
Sure, high-heels are certainly preferred over running shoes with a short skirt, but, ya know, they just weren't comfortable.
And, believe me, I've tried all makes and models: dirt cheap, cardiac-arrest expensive; manmad...
2005-03-04 14:12:00
Barbara Hough Roda
Look over there, I told her, pointing beyond the confines of our aircraft.
If skies were clear you could probably see Chicago's big, tall buildings. And Lake Michigan. And houses that look like perfect white squares from the air.
Over that way, I said, feeling goose pimples surface acr...
2005-02-18 15:44:30
Stephen Kopfinger
One good thing about growing older is that you have less to lose when it come to the "cool'' factor. You advance in years, you get crankier and you can pretty much say or think or do anything you darn well please, and society be hanged.
Be that as it may, here are some random ramblings, in no...
2005-02-11 10:17:36
Anne Koenig
Why? Well, that's a long, weird story that involved champagne at Lisa's mom's house; card club members who don't play cards; Dave W's "sexy catwalk'' strut; and a guy named Brad who'd rather be named Tony.
Suffice to say, we are nine couples who decided more than a year ago that we'd...
2005-02-04 14:31:28
Barbara Hough Roda
I must finally achieve the success for which I've yearned: to take on the gargantuan stash of family photos and written memories and school art projects bulging out of shopping bags and shoe boxes and kitchen drawers, and organize and categorize and compile them in books worth touting.
Whew! ...
2005-01-28 12:16:05
E. A. H. Goss
Iconic sitcom references to Mulva or the puffy shirt leave you perplexed.
And, doesn't the term reality TV make you giggle hysterically, too? You see, I've rarely watched TV in the past 15 years. I've caught a show or two the NHL all-star games, "Farscape'' episodes, Ironman championships, a...
2005-01-21 10:41:34
Stephen Kopfinger
Good ... another hour.
The buzzer next to the nightstand blares its obnoxious beeping exactly 60 minutes later, and it's still dark outside.
Go away.
Welcome to morning, a time of day for which I am seldom, if ever, grateful. Especially this time of year, when 7:30 a.m. looks li...
2005-01-14 11:55:19
Anne Koenig
Thanks to the Internet and IM opportunities, I can click onto Valerie's screen name in my "buddy list'' at any time of the day or night and I know what my daughter is doing or how she's feeling. She doesn't even have to be at the computer; her "away'' bulletins keep us near.
Many times, Valer...
2005-01-07 11:31:20
Barbara Hough Roda
Unlike so many people worldwide whose real lives are preoccupied with famine, poverty, disease, political instability and other trivial issues, we Americans enjoy the privilege of choosing disturbing entertainment as a diversion from our real lives.
When I caught a promotion for Fox televisio...
2005-01-01 16:46:05
E. A. H. Goss
Without a doubt, they were the center of many school-day complaints, but cafeteria lunches of my youth were actually good! At least in my memory.
I recall "shifter'' sandwiches, bowls of salty tomato soup, warm apple crisp, cartons of chocolate milk, and slightly melted Chief Crunchies to top...
2004-12-23 12:21:16
Stephen Kopfinger
You see, five years ago, we were all getting ready to usher in the new millennium. With trepidation. Do you remember something called "Y2K?'' That's when all of the computers running our lives were going to shut down as the clock struck midnight. The Year 2000, it was thought, could very well begin ...
2004-12-17 12:09:53
Anne Koenig
My stomach lurched when I heard those lyrics on the radio the other day on my way in to work.
And I was surprised by my reaction.
I'm not a widow. Why would I feel such a twist in my gut? Maybe it was because of regret the times, for example, that I've let differences between my husba...
2004-12-10 10:48:41
Barbara Hough Roda
No matter what the politically correct label in this new millennium, I will forever be the daughter of a minister.
Like any vocation you're born into, there's nothing you can do about it. The job comes with benefits and baggage. Together they make memories to cherish, and with which to tormen...
2004-12-03 11:25:04
E.a.h. Goss
Buttery, fresh-baked, cookies. The feeling of peace and well-being.The gathering of family.
But, as I begin to shop for holiday gifts, the treatment I receive from clerks has turned me into The Grinch, once again.
Service, dear readers, is all but dead! If it were a cartoon character, ...
2004-11-28 14:56:26
Stephen Kopfinger
I'm not talking war abroad or terrorism threats at home. No, what I'm talking about are things in the news that make the news because they are, quite frankly, so out of whack that one has to wonder, indeed, what's happening to this world.
Recently, I read that somebody in Atlanta built a scho...
2004-11-12 13:07:51
Barbara Hough Roda
I was 16 when Poppy died.
And as my family had done so many times during my grandpa's fight against emphysema and black lung, we packed the car, hitched the pop-up camper and made the trek from our Illinois home to my mother's native Lancaster County.
I dreaded the trip to my first fun...
2004-11-05 14:03:00
E.a.h. Goss
What's the fascination with viewings? And, why, when someone dies, do people bring food? What's the connection between a burial and beef roast anyway? I don't attend viewings, and rarely funerals. I'm called selfish for this practice, and, I guess, on some level, that's true, but I believe it goes d...
2004-10-29 12:12:59
Stephen Kopfinger
Emphasis was on the “OK,” in big letters, implying that the sign would flip to say that coffee was NOT OK next week.
And so it seems to be anymore with everything we eat, drink and do to find that happy balance between a life enjoyed and one spent in perpetual worry. What was once conside...
2004-10-22 12:57:34
Anne Koenig
And, she will tell you, the blessings are pouring in.
My husband's sister, who lives in Virginia, is now divorced after 40 years of marriage.
For the first time since I met Jeanne 29 years ago, I'm finally getting to know her. The real Jeanne.
First, let me state that I believe ...
2004-10-15 09:25:26
Barbara Hough Roda
OK, frantic.
The first day of school went off without a hitch. And now, well into the second month of elementary education, I feel confident about the rest of the year.
Oh ... I'm not the student.
My daughter is the one who just started kindergarten. I'm the one who entered a st...
2004-10-08 10:26:39
E.a. Harvey
Until then, the only Italian pie I'd had was Chef Boyardee, fresh from the box and assembled in mom's kitchen.
Years later, when a high school boyfriend took me to the just-opened Hong Kong Garden Chinese Restaurant, it marked the first time I tasted Asian food that wasn't Chun King on crunch...
2004-10-01 13:20:48
Stephen Kopfinger
And then something reminds you.
And you remember how good it felt.
And it hits you how fleeting that feeling is.
Which is why I'm so grateful Sky Captain swooped in to save the day and my tired old soul for one glorious afternoon.
By the time you read this, "Sky Captain...
2004-09-27 09:41:12
Anne Koenig
Just the right words, posted in just the right places, can really perk me up.
Here are some signs that made me smile in recent months.
Maybe one or two will turn your lips up, too.
On the way to visit my father-in-law in Myerstown, I see this one:
"Nice people don't litte...
2004-09-17 12:59:07
Barbara Hough Roda
Put on yer best eye patches and let out a growl of an "Arrrrrrr.'' Today is "Talk Like a Pirate Day.'' (TLAP, for the acronym-lovers among us.) Why? Why not? asks the Web site www.talklikeapirate.com.
The fact that this year's ridiculous commemoration falls on a Sunday shouldn't spoil the fun...
2004-09-10 16:02:44
E.a. Harvey
On days, when friends, families and neighbors file to places of worship, I head to the woods, the rocks, the streams to marvel at the magic of the natural world.
The juxtaposition of its simplicity and complexity is, in the truest sense of the word, awesome. It takes my breath away, this ...
2004-09-03 14:37:03
Stephen Kopfinger
Why?
So what if it's been 51 years since H.G. Wells' Martian invasion saga was adapted by Hollywood, so what that I've never seen it on the big screen, only on television and even then that was decades after it first came out. It's a darned good and still scary movie that ...
...
2004-08-27 12:10:49
Anne Koenig
My kids opted for colleges that are far away. They claim to crave a big-city's vibrancy; "here'' is boring and "there'' is not.
Steve, who is now graduated and living near Chicago, always headed north after summer breaks for the Windy City.
Valerie, who is a junior, heads south toward ...
2004-08-24 15:11:32
Barbara Hough Roda
The sand.
And rain.
Seashells. Seagulls.
And rain.
The boardwalk.
And rain.
Let's just say it rained on my Mack & Manco's pizza. Each day. Every day. For what seemed like the entire day.
I exaggerate.
There was that 2-hour Saturday stint on the...
2004-08-24 15:11:21
Anne Koenig
Well, I'm here to challenge that.
I think it's time for parents to allow their kids to get dirty.
Clean fun is fun; but messy fun is REALLY fun.
And it's dirt cheap.
I started thinking about this in earnest the other day, when I saw something that made me wonder: When did...
2004-08-24 15:11:07
Barbara Hough Roda
She wasn't thrilled and responded in-kind. You're not really the boss,'' she told me as she s-l-o-w-l-y, and we're talking s-l-o-w-l-y, climbed the steps.
"God is.'' I hate when she comes up with stuff like that because, let's face it, she's got a point. And as displeased as I was with her re...
2004-08-24 15:10:54
E.a. Harvey
A nut, right?!? Well, I wear a harness, climb with the protection of ropes and have an assistant a belayer on the ground.
It's all quite safe; yet, every time I am scaling Chickies Rock, Delaware Water Gap, or some other intimidating outcropping, a perplexed passerby, who has been watching,...
2004-07-10 23:17:16
Anne Koenig
A letter to my son:
Dear Steve,
Today is Independence Day.
But I'm thinking about you and how
independence'' feels strangely uncomfortable to me at this moment.
Up until a couple of weeks ago, you had been one of our dependents. But that's changed. You're...
2004-07-10 23:16:32
Stephen Kopfinger
They're the ones who, in an attempt to tune in to what's current, go to one of those shipboard lounge shows where Top 40 music dominates the evening and come away totally baffled, as in "I've never even heard of these songs.''
I chuckled when I first read that description many years ago. Bu...
2004-06-26 20:46:52
Barbara Hough Roda
Wouldn't it be wonderfully personal? Don't get me wrong. I relish the computer as much as the next person. It offers a quick and convenient way to reach colleagues, newspaper readers, family and friends. It gets the job done.
And that's exactly what types trouble.
I wonder whether this...
2004-06-22 10:25:12
E.a. Harvey
There's a good chance that some day my boys will become fathers, or at least father figures.
I wonder what will be expected of them in that role, and how history will view their era of fatherhood.
My dad's generation fathers of the 1950s and '60s was barred from the delivery room. Of...
2004-06-12 21:33:52
Stephen Kopfinger
Which is easier: Planning a week-long trip to Europe by yourself or planning a day trip with two buddies? Beep! Wrong! As I write this, I'm recovering from the process of planning a day-long getaway with two good friends to see the new World War II Memorial in Washington, D.C., a city just over two ...
2004-06-05 22:30:10
Anne Koenig
You might remember this day, June 6, as D-Day. Or the day Bobby Kennedy was killed.
Still, for me, it's a happy day.
Today is my sister Teri's birthday. It's mine, too.
We're twins.
Sort of.
Teri, the seventh of my eight siblings, was born on my 13th birthd...
2004-05-22 22:08:21
E. A. Harvey
After a 15-year hiatus, I began walking to work again. It's less than a mile each way, so, believe me, it's nothing heroic.
After just two months of additional exercise, I feel better, but the benefits have been mostly psychological.
I feel more alert when I arrive at my desk, my brain...
