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Orchids & onions

ORCHID: To Nancy Sampson, the home economics teacher at Bloomfield-Mespo High School for the past 55 years, for her enduring and impressive leadership over the decades of a community cookie drive that helps fund her program’s needs. Since its inception in 1977, the holiday cookie drive has raised about $50,000 for home ec supplies and operations. That’s $50,000 saved from the wallets of school district taxpayers. What’s more, the cookies, made and baked with heaping helpings of TLC by her students, have more than satisfied the sweet tooths of Bloomfield-Mesopotamia residents, with ...

Use America 250 as opportunity for renewed unity

As our community, our state and our country stand at the starting gate to 2026, the 250th anniversary of the founding of this great nation, myriad opportunities abound. There are opportunities for deep reflection on the bedrock documents and principles that gave rise to the ongoing “great American experiment.” There are opportunities to support and join in joyous patriotic celebrations at a cornucopia of inspiring local, state and national semiquincentennial observances and special events. And, perhaps most importantly, there is a plethora of opportunities to forge a renewed ...

Thank you to my readers

As 2025 comes to an end, I want to thank my readers who have emailed me throughout the year with encouraging and kind words. I truly appreciate the thoughtfulness put into every message. Due to my teaching and grading load, I am not able to respond to every email, but I am deeply moved that people would take the time to write me. I’m also grateful to those who shared their dissenting opinions. I think we can all agree that we need more civil and polite discussions in online spaces. Three recent columns that particularly resonated with readers were my Thanksgiving commentary on ...

Wrong predictions? Never mind

End of the year predictions about the future have been around at least since the days of Nostradamus, but what about past predictions? There were plenty of predictions that electing Donald Trump the first time and then re-electing him would cause economic Armageddon. Democrats and their media mouthpieces have consistently predicted monetary collapse from President Trump’s policies. This year alone, editorials in The New York Times, The Washington Post and most “reporting” by mainstream networks have claimed with absolute certainty that the president’s tariffs would tank the ...

To drink or not to drink: Wrong question

For anyone aiming to cut back drinking, January’s arrival times perfectly. Some may have simply overdone it through the long holiday stretch, when alcohol seemed piped into any vaguely celebratory event. Some may worry that they’re beginning to forget the last drink they accepted. Recovering alcoholics or others who don’t drink at all have it easier, in one small way. Their intimates get to know that they do not imbibe — not beer, not wine, not liquor — and so don’t push alcohol in their direction. Those who want a drink now and then — in some cases, every night ...

Taking Christmas seriously

We all know that God works in mysterious ways. Recently, I was deeply moved at a theatrical production of Charles Dickens’ “A Christmas Carol.” This is the famous and popular tale of the transformation and redemption of Ebenezer Scrooge from a rasping, grasping old miser into a lovable, generous old man who, late in life, becomes determined to make amends for all his extreme selfishness and his public denunciations of charity. After tossing and turning in bed on Christmas Eve night, during which he has dreams showing self-imposed loneliness in his youth and present-day ...