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Ready or not, spring weather is coming

Most days here in Eastern Ohio, Mother Nature doesn’t bring anything terribly unexpected — temperatures are usually seasonal or even more mild, winds may be strong and gusty but are more often gentle and breezy, and precipitation keeps our plants green and healthy without causing major slides, flooding or other hazards. But severe weather can happen at anytime, anywhere — even right here at home. Our own memories should provide enough evidence of this to make us exercise caution when appropriate. Within just the last few decades, we have experienced derecho conditions that ...

Encouraging young people to reach potential

What year did this take place? Alcatraz Prison is closed, Aretha Franklin releases “Laughing on the Outside,” Congress passes the Equal Pay Act, and Kellogg’s Froot Loops is introduced. Have you figured it out yet? Here are some more hints in the same year. Stevie Wonder releases “Recorded Live: The 12 Year Old Genius,” Gateway Arch is built, Michael Jeffrey Jordan is born in Brooklyn, NY, Loyola (Chicago) Beats Cincinnati in the Final Four, “The Birds” Alfred Hitchock suspense film is released, Jack Nicklaus wins the 27th Masters Tournament, Toronto Maple Leafs ...

Don’t rely on others, start thinking for yourself

A little bird was flying south for the winter and got caught in an ice storm. The rain on his wings began to freeze to where he could no longer fly and crashed to the ground. Lying on the ground frozen he thought, “I will surely freeze to death.” A dog came by and picked up the bird. The little bird thought. “Will he eat me or just play with me till I die.” The dog dropped the bird into a pile of cow manure. The little bird thought, “Can it get any worse? Now I shall die a slow death in this pile of smelly manure.” To the little bird’s surprise, the manure was warm. ...

Laugh, cry or learn, courtesy of your newspaper

Every once in a while, something silly just tickles my funny bone. On Friday, it was Snoopy. Each weekday, I check our comics page to make sure the correct strips, with the correct dates, will be found on that page the following day. While I was doing that Friday, I read the “Peanuts” comic strip and found myself laughing out loud. On Friday, Charles Schulz’s classic cartoon featured a couple of frames in which Snoopy and Marcie were “mooing” at Peppermint Patty. It reminded me of the animated Christmas special in which Snoopy gets caught “booing” Charlie Brown, and I ...

Forgiving others and letting things go

The Ukraine war is a year old. Interesting that the USA is financing both countries. U.S. taxpayers are paying for weapons and aid to Ukraine. U.S. consumers are financing Russia’s weapons through high gasoline and diesel prices. In the USA when oil prices go to $100 per barrel we hear about obscene profits for oil and gas companies. When oil went from $40 to $100 what did Russia do with the windfall profits they received without drilling any new wells? Was it used to finance weapons for a war with Ukraine? Based on web sources, the USA is still the world’s leading oil ...

Fun ways to get outside when weather warms

Spring fever is officially here. Between glimpses of warm, sunny weather intertwined with moody, cooler days, most of us are itching to get back outdoors in some way or another. After the winter weather has kept us all inside more than we like, it is time to get outside again. And Belmont County offers an activity that will do just that … geocaching! What is Geocaching? It is an outdoor scavenger hunt using GPS-enabled devices to locate hidden treasures in plain sight. Participants navigate to a specific set of GPS coordinates and then attempt to find the geocache hidden at ...