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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In 1890, a young Danish immigrant named Jacob Riis published his book, How the Other Half Lives: Studies Among the Tenements of New York. He began his introduction, “Long ago it was said that ‘One half of the world does not know how the other half lives.’ That was true then. It did not know because it did not care.” Riis went where few other investigative reporters would dare to go. He visited the Italian ghettoes, Chinatown, the Jewish sweat shops, the Bohemian slums, and the black neighborhoods. In each, the tenements’ owners told their age...
All last week, I heard from coworkers and people around the community about the possible snow that was coming. Not being from this area, snow in late April or early May just sounds ridiculous to my southern ears. Still, I heeded the warnings and dusted off my winter coat. I had planned on working Saturday as that was the day the Sidney Regional Medical Center was set to hold their health fair at the Cheyenne County Community Center. And then Friday afternoon, I learned the health fair was cancel...
The adventure writer Edgar Rice Burroughs wrote some eighty novels based upon two characters: Tarzan and John Carter. Tarzan lived among the apes in Africa, and John Carter transported himself from Earth to Mars, where he fought and conquered the Martians. In my younger years, I read several of Burroughs's books, as did thousands of other American kids of the twentieth century. The science fiction writer, Ray Bradbury, said this of Burroughs, "I have been astonished to discover how often a...
In my last column, I wrote about how I used to weigh north of 250 lbs. and was diagnosed with Type 2 Diabetes by the time I turned 30 years old. During a rough period in my life, I decided to take charge of my physical health, one of the few things that I had any control over at that time, and lost 85 lbs. in less than a year. With my weight goals reached, I didn't want to slide back into my old habits. I began to search for a new venture, something that would keep me engaged in diet and exercis...
One of my favorite pastimes, at least in recent years, is walking. I'm sure some of you have seen me walking up and down the streets of Sidney as I make my way to the county courthouse, city hall, public schools and other stops as I "beat the bushes" for potential leads. If I don't have to drive my truck, I don't. Which is probably why I always have the best parking space outside my apartment, come to think of it. I even try to enter walking events when I can, such as the "Walk Across Texas" com...
After 15 days on the job as publisher of the Sidney Sun-Telegraph it’s time to say hello. I was named publisher of the Sun-Telegraph on April 1. No foolin’. While it’s not monumental news, I wanted to take some time before introducing myself to you, our readers. I have owned and or published newspapers since Reagan was president. My career has taken me from my home state of Minnesota (home of Ole and Lena) to the mountains of San Diego County, to the northwestern reaches of Wisconsin, the Ozarks of Oklahoma, to the Front Range of Colorado, and...
On August 22, 1939, Nazi Germany's troops, tanks, and aircraft stood poised and prepared to attack Poland, its neighbor to the east, and on that day the Nazi's dictator, Adolf Hitler, spoke. "Our strength," he said, "consists in our speed and in our brutality." Already he had instructed his generals "to send to death mercilessly and without compassion, men, women, and children of Polish derivation and language." And the reason for his assault upon the Polish people? "Only then," he said, "shall...
Coming from South Texas, this week's snowstorm is definitely not something that I have experienced many times in my life. Sure, as a military brat, I've seen my share of snowfall when my father was stationed at Ramstein Air Force Base in Germany back in my early days of grade school, but in that case the weather was more constant than sudden. I was also not yet in double digits, so the memories aren't as vivid as they once were. As you can imagine, snow in South Texas is as rare as a winter...
The NCAA basketball games are upon us, and March Madness has arrived. The team to watch in recent years has been the University of Connecticut, where basketball is king. The men won their last national championship, their fourth, in 2014, but the women point with pride to their ten national championships, the most recent one last year, in 2015. In first round play this year, the Uconn women decimated the Robert Morris Colonials 101 to 49, and played Duquesne on Sunday, March 21. Uconn’s men d...
Even just three months in, 2016 has been a year of new experiences for this South Texan. When I made the move to Nebraska, I made a decision that I would throw myself into any experiences that came with it. I didn't move here to remain set in sedentary ways. I want to drive the roads and see the sights. I want to meet the people and hear their stories. I want to experience the midwest and all it offers. That, of course, includes the cuisine. Last night, I covered the Peetz FFA annual oyster...
If somebody had asked me at the beginning of this year if I saw myself leaving my hometown of more than 20 years and move 1,000-plus miles north to the Nebraska panhandle, I would have thought they were crazy. But here I am, and now that I've been in Sidney for the past couple of weeks I am starting to think I was crazy for staying in one place so many years. But maybe I'm getting ahead of myself. My name is Anthony Ruiz, and I am the newest addition to the Sidney Sun-Telegraph. I grew up a...
The United States has had two father-son presidencies. The first was John Adams and his son, John Quincy Adams, and the second was George Bush and his son, George W. Bush. Because Jeb Bush withdrew from the current race three weeks ago, we will not have a third, anytime soon. The Bush dynasty has ended, at least for the next four years. “The man responsible for Jeb’s demise” is Donald Trump. A journalist said, “From the moment he entered the race, the real estate mogul made Jeb his primary...
Scientists want to quantify. First, they observe a phenomenon, record their observations, arrive at a set of numbers, and then build a hypothesis. This procedure — the scientific method — works well in the sciences, such as in chemistry, biology and physics, but is less certain in the arts, such as in history. A writer who wishes to quantify events from the past calls herself or himself a “social scientist,” rather than a historian. This type of scientist observes a population’s demograph...
In September of 1796, President George Washington published a remarkable document, his farewell address “to the People of the United States on his declining of the Presidency.” After two terms as president, he was exhausted, tired of public service, and eager to return to his beloved Virginia plantation at Mount Vernon. When asked to serve a third term, he refused, and six months later he would retire and turn over the president’s duties to John Adams. In his farewell address, Washington liste...
Late in 1984, the calypso singer Harry Belafonte decided to raise funds for the famine-starved Ethiopians in Africa. First, he approached Michael Jackson and Lionel Richie and asked them to write a song. Then, he asked several dozen of the biggest musical artists in the country to assemble in a studio one night and sing Jackson and Richie’s song. The resulting album and video’s sales Belafonte would turn over to United Support of Artists for Africa, or USA for Africa, a non-profit fou...
An article appeared in the New York Times two weeks ago, “Jane Austen’s Guide to Alzheimer’s.” In it, Carol J. Adams described her difficult days caring for her mother, who had lost the battle to Alzheimer’s. For solace, Carol listened to a recorded book, Jane Austen’s “most-perfect novel,” Emma. Carol identified with the novel’s main character, Emma Woodhouse, who felt trapped and housebound as she cared for an ailing parent, her father, Henry Woodhouse. “When a slight dusting of snow ala...
“What can you say about a 25 old girl who died? That she was beautiful. And brilliant. That she loved Mozart and Bach. And the Beatles. And me.” So begins Oliver Barrett IV in Erich Segal’s novel, Love Story. Oliver is a rich, white, Anglo-Saxon, Protestant, pre-law student at Harvard who plays ice hockey for the Crimson. Jennifer Cavilleri is an Italian-American Radcliffe student, who plays music. She is from Cranston, R.I., where her father, makes pastries. She works in Radcliffe’s library, wh...
In the book, The Black Swan: The Impact of the Highly Improbable, the book’s author Nassim Nicholas Taleb describes the people in Lebanon, his native country. It was, he writes, “an example of coexistence,” “a mosaic of cultures and religions,” a place where “people learned to be tolerant” of others, and where “the terms balance and equilibrium were often used.” The Lebanese people believed themselves blessed. Their climate was Mediterranean, of course, and their citizens were sophisticated, re...
The Symbionese Liberation Army kidnapped 19-year-old Patty Hearst, a sophomore at the University of California, Berkley, on Feb. 4, 1974. For the next 57 days, this small-time urban guerrilla organization detained Patty in a studio apartment’s closet, dressed only in her bathrobe. They beat her, abused her, changed her name to Tania, and brainwashed her. She helped with a bank heist. When given a chance to flee, she chose to stay. Long after the core SLA members perished in a gunfight with p...
The Chinese people felt an immediate sense of relief last Thursday when their government stated that it will permit married couples now to have two children. The government’s one-child policy has created “a demographic nightmare,” and its leaders now must address the glaring side-effects of that policy: a diminished work force, an aging population, and a shortage of marriageable women. It was on September 25, 1980, thirty-five years ago, that China’s leaders tried to rein in China’s galloping...
Hollywood just released two biographical movies. The first was on Bobby Fischer entitled Pawn Sacrifice, and the other was on Steve Jobs, entitled Steve Jobs. Fischer’s passion was chess, but Jobs’ was computers and marketing. Chess experts now consider Fischer one of the three greatest chess players ever, and Jobs revolutionized the personal computer industry. A certain level of mystery surrounds both Jobs’ and Fischer’s births. Fischer was the older, born in March 1943 in Chicago. His mother,...
Mel Blanc was known as “the man with a thousand voices” because he created voices for numerous cartoon characters. For Warner Brothers, Mel was the voice of Wile Coyote, Speedy Gonzales, Pepe LePew, Foghorn Leghorn, Yosemite Sam, Sylvester the Cat, Tweety Bird, Porky Pig, Daffy Duck and Bugs Bunny. “What’s up, doc?” Then, for Hanna Barbera, he was Barney Rubble and Cosmo Spacely. On occasion, Mel also appeared on Jack Benny’s television program.” In one classic routine, Mel would wear a wide-b...
Yogi Berra played catcher for the New York Yankees for 19 years, from 1946 until 1965. Noted for his funny expressions, such as, “It ain’t over ‘till it’s over,” and “I didn’t say everything I said,” his most quoted malapropism is the gem, “When you come to a fork in the road, take it.” Yogi said that when he was giving directions to his house during a conversation he had with Joe Garagiola. Yogi meant that from that fork in the road, either way led to his house, but his words came out funn...
Two historic events occurred on Sept. 11. The first was at Brandywine Creek, west of Philadelphia, in 1777, and the second was Sept. 11, 2001. In the first, General George Washington’s ragtag army tried to stop General William Howe’s superior troops from taking Philadelphia, the city where the Second Continental Congress convened. Washington’s army failed when Howe outflanked Washington and forced American troops to flee the battlefield. The terrified delegates to the Second Continental Congr...
“Life is a lot like jazz,” said George Gershwin. “It is best when you improvise.” During the 2004 political debates, the radio host Don Imus described the two vice presidential candidates Dick Cheney and John Edwards as “Dr. Doom and the Breck Girl,” because Cheney appeared glum, dour, like a bulldog, whereas Edwards appeared well coiffed, “like a pretty girl in a shampoo ad.” A journalist in Florida named Roy Peter Clark then riffed on Don Imus’s comment. Riff is a jazz term that describes im...
