He had failed at his job.
Let this sink in. We placed a story online late Monday afternoon and in just three hours, it had already become the third-most read story of the year.
English is weird. According to dictionary.com, the English language borrows up to 80% of its words from other languages. In fact, English words are composed of 350 other languages.
Imagine there's no graduation. It's not easy, even if you try. Yep, Class of '20, this is your year, and what a year it's been.
Have you ever put spicy mustard on a sandwich? If you inadvertently glob on too much of the good stuff, you’ll swear you just snorted wasabi. When it comes to spices that are in your face (literally and figuratively), a little bit can go a long way.
A couple of the planets in our solar system have phases similar to those we see on our own moon. These planetary phases can be observed from the earth generally with a telescope. These two planets are the two innermost to the sun.
During a former memorial season, my column carried readers back to a country cemetery where I reminisced about family members who were no longer with us.
I know in my heart that progress is good, for the most part, as is the advent of technology.
Our daughter stinks at sharing. She’s two-and-a-half. Don’t get me wrong — we’re trying to teach her tyrannical little mind how to share toys, but as soon as we try to share her unicorn figurine, she pushes us. She’s a pusher. If you see her on the playground over the next few months, don’t …
The late A.W. Tozer, whose many books are now considered Christian classics, once wrote a magazine article titled “The Great God Entertainment,” in which he described people so addicted to the need of constantly being entertained that what had been intended to enable them to relax in idle ti…
When I was the editor of a small weekly newspaper in High Springs (near Gainesville), the police chief used to always say, “Don’t say that can never happen here. Because it can.”
Where would we be without mothers? Well, obviously we wouldn't even "be," much less be someplace. Therefore, mothers are necessary, and for more reasons than you can name or even imagine.
I’ve just been told by my editor that “As You Like It” is already the title of a play written by William Shakespeare in 1599. Instead of changing the title, I want to say that it has two of the words I want to compare and contrast in it: “like” and “as.”
A longtime friend called to tell me that his wife had departed for heaven and in the course of our conversation paid her the ultimate compliment: “I never heard her say anything bad about anyone.”
Phase one starts Monday, but the crisis isn’t over yet. This is a baby step, as our governor described it.
We tend to think of Walt Disney World as the big attraction in the state of Florida.
Are we having fun yet? Or, a better question for our mutual timeout period would be what we've heard our kids ask on long road trips — "Are we there yet?"
Does it seem to you that the world, maybe even your life, keeps lurching from one crisis to another?
Let’s face it: the rules don’t matter anymore. Time is weird right now. It’s perfectly acceptable to wear sweatpants all day, every day. Tigers and household cats have better access to coronavirus tests than humans do. So, why should things be any different when it comes to the English language?
One of the few activities we get to do during this pandemic is grocery shopping. So, when we published a story about a grocery store employee testing positive for COVID-19, the story rocketed to the #1 spot.
Ready to get back to normal?
How many times over the years have you heard the question, "Anything good on TV?"
I miss sports. I caught myself watching people play video games against each other on TV the other day, and I almost found it interesting. Almost. What they should do is make the guys who are playing video games against each other play basketball against each other in real life. I’d pay good…
Now that Easter is past, some will have packed away their religious views until Christmas, but an annual nod to the literal, bodily resurrection of Jesus Christ, while not allowing this miracle to change their lives, is a far cry from what happened following the first Easter.
OK, I’m going to break the rules this week and for the next few weeks. The story we update twice a day, every day, about the latest COVID-19 stats, is by far and away the most-read story every week. But I don’t want to write the same column every week about the same #1 story.
COVID-19 has shocked us all. It’s impacting our lives terribly.
Do you carry something around with you that you like? Take me, for instance: I always have a tube of Burt’s Bees lip balm in my left pocket. I can grab it out of my pocket, take the cap off, apply it, and return it to my pocket in one swooping motion with only one hand. You’d be accurate to …
On May 6, 1934, a young minister in Charlotte, North Carolina, named Vance Havner, devoted his weekly column in the Charlotte Observer to a problem that relates to discouraged people today: how to find the source of joy in tough times.
Essentially, I don't believe the word "essential" has been on the lips and minds of this many people, ever. It has to be millions, daily, and heard or thought of nearly as much as toilet paper has been since last month.
Nobody takes a sentimental journey as seriously as I do. I say that because I admit that I come with a lot of baggage — literally and figuratively.
Every day, twice a day, we issue a report on the latest numbers regarding coronavirus in Florida and in the local counties.
If you’re celebrating Easter this weekend, I wish you and your family a Happy Easter.
SEDONA — Early Tuesday morning our moon occulted (or covered) the planet Mars. On this chilly morning of Feb. 18, our moon rose in a waning crescent phase with an illumination of 24 percent. Slender and fairly bright this moon — a remnant of the full “Snow Moon” or full “Hunger Moon” as it i…
I hope you are sheltering in place and staying healthy. I’m still not used to “shelter” as a verb, but I’m here for it.
So much for having to do only two weeks of solitary confinement, thanks to this virus pandemic. Looks like we're in it for the rest of the month now, so that means we'll either have to find new ways to pass the time, be satisfied repeating everything (like in that "Groundhog Day" movie), or …
Wow, you guys (and gals) really had a fascination with our story about what the average body temperature should be.
These days it seems to be all doom and gloom, whether you're reading a newspaper, watching TV, listening to the radio, talking to friends, or perusing social media.
Jump into your DeLorean time machine for a moment and let’s travel back to the year 1996. Tickle Me Elmo is the hot Christmas item people are fighting over. Oprah just announced her first Oprah’s Book Club book. Dolly the Sheep just became the first cloned mammal. “ER,” “Seinfeld,” “Friends,…
Fear is an enemy that stalks us all. This opponent of faith limits horizons, causes depression and robs its victims of the joy of living. Here are five faith builders to enable us to overcome fear every day, even in — especially in — these frightening days.
For most of you, we’ve been told all our lives that 98.6 is the normal temperature for a human being.
Like most folks, I’m making daily runs to the grocery store looking for ground beef for my family (I don’t touch the stuff) and toilet paper. Those are the two most requested items.
Sun Newspapers apologizes to our readers, many who were incensed about a letter to the editor in Sunday’s edition.
It looks like we might be in for the long haul with this COVID-19 pandemic that's sweeping the nation, spreading fear and precaution like a prairie fire on a windy day. And since it's basically a worldwide concern now, we've got no place to retreat to, other than home, where we stand guard o…
It seems like our whole world has been canceled in the past week. Coronavirus has changed our daily lives from school closings to large events being postponed or canceled.
Let’s make no mistake about it. The #1 story last week (and this week) is all of our local coronavirus coverage. Period.
We know that many of you — if not most of you — are tired of so many stories about the national elections and the COVID-19 coronavirus. We call it reader fatigue.
I think we can solve many of life’s problems by playing out theoretical battles between the opposing groups. For instance, when someone decides to make his March Madness picks based on theoretical mascot matchups, he usually ends up with the Michigan State Spartans as the tournament champion…
Cross Creek RV Resort on Feb. 29 held its 5th annual Pet Parade and silent auction. Twenty-five pets, 23 dogs, one Senegal parrot and one guinea pig paraded in the clubhouse; people voted for their favorite by paying $1 a vote! Following the parade, some dogs came up on stage to perform tric…