Serving proudly since 1873 as the beautiful Nebraska Panhandle's first newspaper
Serving proudly since 1873 as the beautiful Nebraska Panhandle's first newspaper
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Universal truths are hard to come by, when you think about it. We can all agree on “thou shalt not kill,” for example—until war, hoodies, bad guys with guns or the right to choose muddy the issue. Same with that “give unto Caesar” bit, which we pummel every year with jabs about just how much really belongs to government. Even more modern bits of advice, such as “don’t do drugs,” fail scrutiny when you consider the handfuls of behavioral modification pills we pump down teenage throats every month. But I would argue the case for one sage univer...
Next week some five hundred visitors will convene at the Real Bird Ranch, adjacent to the Little Bighorn Battle site, near Hardin, Montana, to watch the 21st Annual Battle of the Little Bighorn Re-enactment. For four days men will dress in cavalry soldier uniforms and ride their horses in the 7th U.S. Cavalry, under the command of Brevet Major General George Armstrong Custer, played by Steve Alexander of Monroe, Michigan. Also, young Indians from the Crow, Sioux, Cheyenne, and Arapahoe tribes...
Many of the Americans I encounter seem to think they know a lot about geography. Most of them are wrong. When I lived in Denver and told anyone there that I was from Indiana, they would ask if I grew up in South Bend or Indianapolis. I had to reply, no, that I grew up about two hours from Indianapolis and five from South Bend. These people would often regale me of stories about relatives that lived in Indianapolis, like I somehow knew them or of the trip they took to South Bend. I really don’t understand this practice. I have never even been t...
I first heard of O.J. Simpson on television—black and white television, to be precise. During some long ago bowl game, the announcers kept referring to “Old Jay” Simpson, or at least that’s what I heard. I imagined a grizzled veteran named Jay, his hair dusted by age, slipping through the line of scrimmage. College kids looked old to a tyke like me, anyway. His college career was legendary, as was his time in the NFL. But those of us once forced to dial up friends from fixed positions or stop them on street corners to pass along the most re...
Big flags are symbolic of one thing, for the most part—used car sales. Just about every large auto dealership across the country unfurls one of those eye catching linens, measuring half a football field or thereabout, waving over a shining sea of polished metal and plastic. Perhaps some of these vehicles are liveried in amber or majestic purple, who knows. Of course, there were large flags of greater consequence. I have no idea exactly when Baltimore seamstress Mary Pickersgill finished the most famous of these. It was 200 years ago and it w...
Floyd Landis rode his bicycle for the United States Postal Team for three years, from 2002-2004, alongside his teammate, Lance Armstrong, who won the Tour de France each of those years. Floyd admits now that during those three years, he cowered to Lance. It was known that “Lance called the shots on the team,” and “what Lance said went.” “He ran his team like a high-powered corporation.” Lance wanted to win big, and he did so by doping himself and his teammates. In 1995, Lance had lost a race...
When I went the Cabela’s shareholder meeting last year, a few days after I moved to Sidney, I can’t tell you how surprised I was at how devoted Cabela’s employees were to their company. Some of the workers’ emotional attachment to Cabela’s and its founders astonished me. This observation of Cabela’s employees’ dedication to their employer continued through my time here. At the shareholder meeting yesterday, as I milled through the crowd and spoke to a few people I heard nothing but positive comments. I’m sure everyone who works there isn’t hap...
Does a bucket list consist of dreams or goals? I suppose it depends upon the person creating said list. I might reasonably say that one day I hope to see another 1970 Plymouth Roadrunner Superbird in passing on some rural highway. The last time it happened was a surprise—a big shark-nosed, big winged hemi-powered beast parked at a gas station in the wilds of a Chesapeake Bay peninsula. On the other hand, for me to jot “own a Superbird” on my bucket list … well, that defies reality. First I would have to claim several million in lottery winning...
During the past week, the internet blew up with posts followed by #notallmen and #yesallwomen. These were both inspired by the shooting that took place at the University of California at Santa Barbara ended in the death of six students as well as the shooter. The shooter was reportedly angry enough that women weren’t attracted to him and rejected him that he went on a shooting rampage. In an answer to the shooter’s misogynistic views of women, the #notallmen campaign began arguing that not all men see women as objects and not all men exp...
Most of us understand, deep down, that the presidency could hardly be called a cushy job. Most also know that national problems are never as easy to solve as television noisemakers would have us believe. Consider the intricacies of foreign policy, the personalities one must deal with across the globe, the various flash points, the unforeseen threats, the many worries on the domestic front, all that blather coming from Congress, the endless accusations from partisans ... To wrest command over all of this requires a rare combination of inner...
A caveman lives in a cave, carries a wooden club with a stone head, dresses in animal skins, pats his pet dinosaur, and then drags women around by their hair. This stereotype originated in the comics. There is Alley Oop, who carried a mean-looking war club, lived in the kingdom of Moo, had a pretty girlfriend named Oola and a pet dinosaur named Dinny. Then, there is Fred and Wilma Flintstone, Barney and Betty Rubble, Pebbles, Bam-Bam, and Dino, Fred and Wilma’s dinosaur. Comics devoted to p...
Earlier this week I heard news of the jerky gun that Cabela’s recalled due to overheating issues that could cause a fire hazard. As of last week there was only one report of a jerky gun battery pack overheating, with no injuries, according to the Associated Press. This news made me think about all the inventions out there that no one really needs. Of course Cabela’s sells a plethora of equipment that is useful, practical and even necessary for many outdoor adventures. I do not think that the jerky gun is one of them. The gun, which rep...
I knew one of the two men. There was no way for me to have met the other. They were friends from grade school. They played together on the Esther, Missouri, high school basketball team—although, technically, both lived in a town then known as Flat River, a rough lead mining community, where Norman Rockwell images butted up against the reality of fistfights between teens from rival cities. They graduated into a world emerging from the Great Depression. Both men joined the Marines. One was my uncle, Harold Thomas. Unable to find steady work, h...
Nothing bothers me more than uninformed people angrily spouting political beliefs. Don’t get me wrong, if you’re knowledgeable about the issues and you have different opinions that I do, I could listen to you talk all day. I enjoy a good debate as long as both sides can keep cool and remain respectful. One of the things that bothers me most is when someone says that legislation is being crammed down peoples’ throats. First of all, if you’re one of the people saying this, you’re being dramatic. Calm down. Whenever legislation is passed wi...
During the primary campaign a steady stream of Republican candidates turned our front door into something like a turnstile. We lost track of the number as visits increased toward the end. It was just a blur of future governors, Senators and attorney generals. To be honest, we were quite happy to meet with them and share their message with readers. A newspaper is, after all, a way for the people to learn of candidates and their ideas from snippets notably longer than the modern day television sound bite. Yet it is difficult for politicians to...
On Tuesday, April Fools’ Day, several dozen Dartmouth students gathered in the office belonging to the university’s president, Philip J. Hanlon, and insisted that he respond to each of the items listed on their Freedom Budget. The students demanded a faculty that included more women and minorities, gender-neutral housing and restrooms, and harsher penalties for sexual assaults. In their Freedom Budget, they wrote, “We seek to eradicate the systems of oppression” that exist on the Dartmou...
I think we place a little too much pressure on our mothers to be perfect. Especially as children, we look to our moms as a source of not only basic care so we can survive into adulthood, but also to nurture every facet of our being so we can grow into well rounded, successful individuals. As children we expect the world from our mothers. They can make everything better with a kiss and are the main source of comfort to our small lives. And even though our mothers obviously brought this burden upon themselves, that’s a lot of pressure to put o...
I’m not sure what to make of commencement addresses. In the imagination of those hopeful for words that inspire a lifetime of achievement, they might equal John F. Kennedy’s “New Generation” speech, Ronald Reagan exhorting the Soviets to “tear down this wall” or—at the very least—a good old fashioned rousing halftime talk by the likes of Knute Rockne. Of course, I have no memory of my high school graduation address. I don’t even know who stood behind the microphone that day. The words presented at the end of my undergraduate years, from none...
On April 28, Holocaust Remembrance Day, Jewish communities around the world paused to remember all those who died during this tragic era of the world’s history. This day’s observance in the midst of a crisis in South Sudan makes me wonder why Americans are so aware of the horrible atrocities that occurred during the Holocaust, but not so about other more recent incidences of genocide around the world. In the same way that many Americans during WWII didn’t want to believe the harsh reality of the Jewish Holocaust, it’s unseemly and unpleas...
Oh, how I wish that I could begin this with a nonchalant “once upon a time.” It was many years ago, to be sure. In Erie, Pennsylvania, for some project during my television days, I read that the city’s minor league baseball team had a game that evening and headed to the ballpark. Every time one of the home nine who happened to be of African-American heritage stepped to the plate an old couple behind me couldn’t help but comment. “Black as the ace of spades,” they said about one. “All you see is teeth,” they mentioned when another cracked...
We know so little of William Shakespeare’s life. We know that he was christened on April 26, 1564, and that his father, John Shakespeare, made gloves in Stratford and served as an alderman on the town council. We know that in November of 1582, when Will was eighteen, he married Anne Hathaway, then twenty-six; that six months later Anne gave birth to a daughter, Susannah; and that in February of 1585, Anne gave birth to a set of twins, Hamnet and Judith. We know that in 1592, Will was a noted L...
I’m not sure the good old days were really that good. Quite often I hear people around town talking about how much better things were back in the day. Kids were more respectful, teachers could paddle students to make them behave and no one had to deal with constant texting at dinner. I submit to you that Sidney was a much wilder place way back in the day than it is now, although I supposed citizens don’t really reminisce about the late 1800s. However, I’m sure this sort of thinking has gone on for centuries. We always idealize the past. Everyon...
Two instances—one gleaned recently in a headline the other experienced personally--say a lot about America’s perception of the vast swath in the middle. The headline asked “heartlanders” not to fret over the selection of Stephen Colbert to replace David Letterman in the latter’s late night television slot. The one experienced personally occurred years before, when a colleague from California informed me during a conversation over the 2008 election that “middle America” would never vote for a black man like Barack Obama. Now, I’m not interested...
We’re all liars. Some of you out there might disagree with me, but I’d say if you do, you’re just lying to yourself. I know that most Sidney residents take pride in the community’s high moral standards. Dishonesty probably goes against that. However, sometimes politeness requires a lie. Dealing with children requires a fair amount of lies as well, simply because sometimes kids can’t handle the truth. I challenge you to consider how many lies, small and large you tell your friends, co-workers, children and loved ones each day. I think at the end...
I’ve never been inside a Ford Mustang—never driven one, never caught a ride in the passenger seat. It hardly seems possible, I know. The iconic muscle car turns 50 on Thursday, the anniversary of its appearance at the New York World’s Fair. Ford sold an astonishing 400,000 plus of the pony when the half year model debuted back in 1964 and more than 9 million in all. My sister owned one, but tumbled it down an embankment before I had a chance to slide in. A friend also had one, but he gutted it for use on the track. About a decade ago I knew...
