I never knew Mandisa, the talented and yet troubled singer who fought numerous battles before apparently succumbing to them in mid-April, when she was found dead at her Nashville home. (Her father blames it on Covid.) I was a latecomer to her fan club, only relatively recently hearing “Overcomer,” the title track of her 2014…
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Years ago, I talked with a businessman from California who had been through all kinds of agony with his daughter. After she got hooked on heroin, it took several trips through drug rehabilitation to get her free. Describing some of the challenges he had endured, he asked, “Do you know how to tell if a…
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Churches appear to be on the downslide—or that’s what recent headlines would make the public think. There is evidence to buttress such views, from a widespread decline in attendance to the stomach-turning sexual abuse cases and other scandals afflicting Christendom. Yet, it’s worth noting that even non-believers appreciate the value of churches and the attendant…
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More than a decade ago, in the midst of a periodic economic slump, a job possibility appeared, based in a state in the South. With that year beginning with the loss of freelance contracts and projects totaling $2,100 a month, I gave it serious consideration. As it turned out, the logistics of an interview fell…
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Buoyed by presidential support and the Inflation Reduction Act, sales of electric vehicles (EVs) reportedly rose last year, only to encounter a brutish dash of reality come 2024. As I watch the cascading headlines of recent months that portend a slowly gathering transportation (and economic) disaster, I wonder if there is a way to reverse…
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Despite rather chilly (50 degrees) temperatures suited more to football, on Mar. 1 Marshall University christened its new baseball stadium. The long-awaited development brought an end to 50 years of broken promises. As local newspaper columnist Chuck Landon wrote later, “I never thought it would be built. Never ever. Not going to happen. No chance.…
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No sooner had I blogged in late January about the problem of deepfakes than headlines erupted about singer Taylor Swift being victimized by users of Artificial Intelligence. The outrage from fans over the depiction of her in a pornographic production got it quickly pulled from X (forever to be known as “the site formerly called…
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While the 2024 Super Bowl is old news, I can’t help contrasting the pizzaz and excitement focused on Las Vegas last month compared to this coming weekend’s celebration of Easter. Let’s start with the hype driven by Travis Kelce’s courtship of megawatt singer Taylor Swift, which led to record viewership of the game. The 123.4…
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After gutting it out last year during the changing of the clock—the dreaded springing forward practice that should have died long before VCRs did—I decided to skip my annual grumbling about the insanity of Daylight Savings Time (DST). It isn’t the longer daylight hours that upset me, but the inane practice of observing it two-thirds…
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While by now Caitlyn Clark is a household name in many parts of America, I had never heard of her until this year. But setting a new NCAA all-time scoring record for women’s basketball and then breaking Pistol Pete Maravich’s mark brought a new awareness to everyone. So did sell-out crowds for her Iowa Hawkeyes…
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