Guest Column | The Impact of Medicare on the Health and Wellbeing of Rural Americans
In rural America, hospitals are more than healthcare providers ā they are pillars of their communities. They deliver essential medical services, create jobs and support the overall wellbeing of thousands of residents who might otherwise face insurmountable barriers to care.
As the CEO of Mee...
Worthy to Print Column | Mysterious Ways
You know, when you write a little story each week and try to keep the subjects fresh, there are times when you really have to sit back for a while so you can bring forth ā through the keys on a computer keyboard ā...
Window on the World Column | Sally Comes Home
It has been a long time since we had a pig in the family. You read that correctly. Back in 2011, when my daughter was young, she raised an award-winning pig for the Salinas Valley Fair through the high school 4-H Club. For rookies...
Funny Papers Again Column | Taking the Easy Way Out Aināt Always Easy
It is easy to sit down at the keyboard and churn out a thousand words when the subject has some local interest, which I can do for no other reason than I have some very vivid memories of life here in the Valley that...
Funny Papers Again Column | From Loop to Loop: Roads We Once Drove
Funny how the mind works. Today I was blankly sitting in front of my laptop with no idea what to write about, tuned to KCBX, the local NPR radio station, when a report from Chicago mentioned the famous circular downtown roadway known as the...
Funny Papers Again Column | Keeping up the Image and Miscellaneous Bits of Pieces
It has been mentioned before how I always felt, and had support of some readers, that the photo that accompanied this column just was not how I appear to the world. I wore a mustache without beard for only about five weeks and with...
Funny Papers Again Column | To Me This Pet Is All Peeve
I had to do it, the time had come, so I walked stoutly to the middle of the Oak Avenue overcrossing and stepped over the rail, took a long look around me at my hometown of Greenfield, California, then jumped to the dirt below.
That...
Funny Papers Again Column | Do Svidaniya, Priyatyl, Do Svidaniya
For those of us who are now in our seventh decade, and those of decades more, there are certain times in history that may influence us in often-profound ways. It stands to reason, then, that any news story which gobbled up precious air time...




















