Columns

Hungry For More

Over these many years that I have been writing this column, I’m still amazed at what topics garner the most responses from readers. Maybe it shouldn’t surprise me. After all, we all have to eat. Yes, it’s food. Whether it was a story about what people were cooking and baking while stuck at home during the pandemic or the most recent column on popular places to dine in Wheeling from previous decades, I received comments from far and wide. Perhaps it’s because we are a food-rich country. We have more than we need but not everyone has the means to obtain proper nourishment. The ...

What’s For Dinner?

Slow down! I’ve often been told this but not for the reason you may think. When well-meaning family members tell me to slow down, they are talking about my eating habits, not my driving. Admittedly I do eat faster than most people. It’s not a great habit, but when you grew up at a crowded dinner table of 10 or so people, you learned to eat quickly or lose out, especially to my seven brothers. They could polish off a loaf of bread at one sitting, not to mention two huge meatloaves and fixings. I eat to live, not live to eat like some folks who savor each and every bite of food. ...

Finding A Bright Spot

I don’t know about you, but this has been a very difficult week. The war that has been ongoing for a week now between Israel and the Palestinian terrorists has dominated our thoughts, our visuals on the TV and our prayers in church and synagogues throughout this country. Not since I was a child and saw the nightly news flashes from the Vietnam War have I been so disturbed by the scenes playing out in the Middle East. The brutality and heinous acts of the terrorists are something not seen before by current generations. It has been compared to our Sept. 11 terror attacks. As such, ...

Choose Your Comfort Zone

There are three kinds of people. There are those who chose to sleep under a fluffy comforter. Then there are those who prefer the feel of a quilt as they hit the sheets. Finally, there are those who would rather snuggle under a traditional bedspread. You can tell a lot about a person based on his or her choice of bed coverings. Comforters are usually the choice of those who enjoy a soft, fluffy experience under the sheets. Comforters often come with matching pillow covers and can be a good buy; or you can choose the more expensive down-filled styles. As for quilts, they are for ...

Landmark Gone But Never Forgotten

Move on, they say. Forget the past. Get with the modern times. Well, sometimes that’s easier said than done. In the nearly 69 years living here in the Ohio Valley, I have rolled with a lot of the punches of “moving on.” I watched the landscape of my hometown of Wheeling change many times over. I was part of the retail center in Wheeling for several years and witnessed its demise. I made the trek to the Ohio Valley Mall as retailers moved one state over from downtown to St. Clairsville. The shopping mall concept was rather new to me other than an occasional trip to the South ...

Straighten Your Tie

Every morning of my grade school years, I would don a navy blue jumper with a crisp, freshly ironed white blouse. Blue knee socks and a gold and blue felt beanie completed my wardrobe for the day. The look could get monotonous, so my mother was clever enough to buy white blouses that were not just button down collars. Once in a while my sisters would provide me with one of the more unique hand-me-down blouses that featured a Peter Pan collar. That would make the outfit look and feel a little special. Then in high school (this was in the early 1970s), the Catholic school dress code ...