My eighth grade American history teacher, Mr. Simpson, gave his students three nonsense sentences so that we could memorize all 36 U.S. presidents in the order they served. The first nonsensical sentence, coming in the form of a question, goes like this: “Will a jolly man make a jolly visitor?” The first letter of each […]
Prior to the 2008 presidential election, I had attended only one political rally. That rally took place during the fall of 1968 when Minnesota’s Democratic Senator Hubert Humphrey, running against Republican Richard Nixon, spoke at a high school gymnasium in Lorain. The rally was not well attended, and in my opinion, Humphrey lacked charisma. In […]
I don’t mean to start off by bragging, but I got a B minus in professor Mark Siebert’s Introduction to Music Appreciation class at Oberlin College. Not too bad for a young lad who couldn’t read a note of music, if I do say so myself. My enjoyment of music reached beyond the classroom, however. […]
“Freshman grope and flounder in a new environment.” (1966 A.U. Talon): I was born and raised in Oberlin. The 1965-66 academic year at American University in Washington, D.C., was my first (and last) real time away from home. I lived in room 420 Letts Hall, a floor made up of freshmen and sophomores. The room was […]
When the Lord spoke to Noah, Noah took heed. He built an ark following the Lord’s instructions, which is to say, he used cypress wood to make it 300 cubits long, 50 cubits wide and 30 cubits high. Unlike Bill Cosby’s comedy routine about Noah, he would not have needed to ask the Lord the […]
Talk radio is a format that emphasized talk and discussion instead of music. Over the years, I have been a talk radio listener — mostly NPR — as well as an occasional participant. My first experience as a talk radio participant occurred in the summer of 1958 when I was 10. My boyhood friend Jimmy […]
“No one after lighting a lamp put it under the bushel basket, but on a lampstand, and it gives light to all in the house.” Matthew 5:15 The thing I like about Oberlin High School art teacher Lorna Kretchmar and her art students is that they put their artwork out where it can be seen […]
You won’t find this passage in Proverbs, but it has a good ring to it: “A son who occasionally acts silly makes his father smile.”