Maryland falling into big-time athletics trappings
When I read the other day in The (Baltimore) Sun that a University of Maryland commission recently recommended that the school cut eight sports, I was a little sad.
Coastal Point
The sports in question — men’s tennis, men’s track...
Thursday, November 17, 2011 - 4:41am
Penn State situation an absolute nightmare for all
I really should be happy.
The Baltimore Ravens finished off a satisfying sweep of their rival Pittsburgh Steelers on Sunday night, and I could not believe my eyes at the time. Much-maligned quarterback Joe Flacco put the team on his...
Thursday, November 10, 2011 - 3:34am
It's the time of the season for ... what seaons?
My ever-graying beard and creaky joints partner perfectly with this new conversation-starter I’ve been using more and more frequently as of late: I remember back when ...
For the record, I hate it. It used to really raise my hackles...
Thursday, November 3, 2011 - 9:58am
There is an easy solution for upset protesters
I’ve been somewhat fascinated by the Occupy Wall Street demonstrations.
Coastal Point • File photo
I get the frustration felt by those collaborating across the nation to get out their feelings in public demonstrations against big...
Thursday, October 27, 2011 - 8:29am
A daring dog escape and a bill to remember
Those of you who regularly read my column (Hi, Mom!) know that I absolutely love my dogs, Guinness and Bailey.
Coastal Point
Guinness is an overly-playful mixture of shar-pei and boxer who loves nothing more in life than getting...
Thursday, October 20, 2011 - 10:21am
Sometimes, the exciting story is not so much fun
Before I moved back to our little coastal oasis of Delaware in 2003, I was the editor of two weekly newspapers in the Atlanta area — the Rockdale Neighbor and the DeKalb Neighbor.
Coastal PointThe Rockdale paper was in a more rural region...
Friday, October 14, 2011 - 5:18am
There’s another drug for parents to worry about
Gov. Jack Markell announced at a news conference last Friday that Delaware has banned “bath salts,” making them illegal in the state. The bath salts have been added to Delaware’s Schedule I of Controlled Substances, following a recommendation by...
Wednesday, October 5, 2011 - 4:27pm
Turning over a whole new leaf with my column
This might be hard for some of you to accept, but there are times I upset people in this office for how I talk about them on this page. Be it the ever-changing job description of Bob Bertram in our masthead every week, or little comments I...
Thursday, September 22, 2011 - 4:41am
Keep your heads up, Steelers fans. It’s not so bad
Dear Steelers fans,
If you recall, a certain challenge I had with a friend last year resulted in me writing an open letter to all of you after your team dismantled my beloved Baltimore Ravens in the playoffs. It was no picnic to...
Thursday, September 15, 2011 - 4:31am
You can say one thing about us. We are cool.
America is a lot of things, to a lot of different people.
Coastal Point
We are an industrious nation that has provided advancement after advancement in nearly every field on Earth. We are divided, by political affiliation, race,...
Wednesday, September 7, 2011 - 2:55pm
Irene claims the life of my rival, and I'm sad
I got the call on Sunday, at approximately the same time I was letting out a huge sigh of relief that the wrath of Hurricane Irene did little more than knock down a few branches at my house. It was our publisher, Susan Lyons, who called, and she...
Thursday, September 1, 2011 - 6:10am
Mankinis and jeggings are cool. Tapes are not
We evolve.
Now, wait a minute. I’m not diving into the quagmire that is evolution versus creationism. No, no, no. This is more about what we do as a civilization in general.
We build homes to withstand hurricanes and...
Wednesday, August 24, 2011 - 2:55pm
Man’s best friend doesn’t have to be a talker
There’s an ongoing one-sided dialogue between myself and my dogs. The reason I say this is one-sided is because it’s, well, one-sided. My dogs can’t speak. Well, not English, anyway.
I get whining noises from them on a fairly...
Thursday, August 18, 2011 - 6:45am
World Series once again an event to behold
There are a few certainties in my life every August.
For starters, I will age. This has been happening every August for as long as I can remember, as it happens to contain my birthday. As a kid, this was a truly beautiful thing. As a...
Thursday, August 11, 2011 - 6:04am
National leadership failing constituents badly
Through selfless compromise and a keen eye toward the welfare of our citizenry, our national leaders reached a deal to raise the nation’s debt ceiling on Tuesday. This prevented our proud nation from going into default and showed once again that...
Wednesday, August 3, 2011 - 3:22pm
Lockout comes to end, and summer is great again
Ah, summer.
When I was 10, this was undeniably the most wonderful time of the year for me. Christmas was great — don’t get me wrong. But it was fleeting. There was a day of receiving presents, and then, well, a hurried rush to see family...
Thursday, July 28, 2011 - 10:42am
Community waring: Leviathan is back in town
He’s back.
There was no doubt I had dropped my guard, and was caught woefully unprepared when I first saw him. After more than two years of not seeing that bully’s face, I had gone under the assumption that my nemesis was no longer...
Thursday, July 21, 2011 - 2:35am
New advancements are (usually) pretty cool
There have been some mind-boggling inventions throughout the course of my lifetime. No, I wasn’t around for the dawn of the automotive industry, though Bob Bertram tells me they were indeed exciting times. And airplanes were already a standard...
Wednesday, July 13, 2011 - 4:44pm
Verdict brings back memories of Simpson
Verdict brings back memories of Simpson
Floored.
Shocked.
Angry.
Frustrated.
Incredulous.
Those were just a few of the emotions running through my head when I first heard the verdict in the Casey...
Wednesday, July 6, 2011 - 4:10pm
Reality can sometimes slap you in the face
There are times when acceptance of an inevitable truth comes to one slowly — a steady progression of experiences that leads to an unmistakeable reality that something has indeed happened.
This can happen with people’s finances,...
Wednesday, June 29, 2011 - 4:00pm
Exploring golf tournaments, water and...
So, I went to Sunday’s final round of the U.S. Open at Congressional Country Club in Bethesda, Md.
Yeah, there was no Tiger Woods. And, yes, there was no real intrigue to the tournament at this time because Northern Ireland’s Rory...
Thursday, June 23, 2011 - 5:50am
We really do need to look at our gun laws
According to a report released by three Democratic U.S. Senators earlier this week, a significant number of weapons used by Mexican drug gangs come from within our country.
The Mexican government reportedly sent 29,284 firearms...
Thursday, June 16, 2011 - 7:31am
Bullying is an old tradition, but getting worse
When I was a kid, there was a certain classmate who delighted in bullying me.
Now, to be fair, I only really got on his radar because I had a tendency to be a bit of a smart aleck on occasion, and he was one of my favorite targets....
Thursday, June 9, 2011 - 7:12am
The family that jails together, fails together
There is nothing like a good old family connection story that truly touches the heart.
For instance, I stumbled acros a story on allweirdnews.com the other day that touched on a young man’s desire to spend more quality time with his...
Wednesday, June 1, 2011 - 3:54pm
Everyone gets a new lease on life--for now
I thought I was all set for doomsday. Huddled beneath my kitchen table with a helmet strapped tightly to my head and a flyswatter in my tightly-clenched fist, I kept a keen eye on the digital clock by my side.
5:57 p.m. — I...
Thursday, May 26, 2011 - 11:26am
Let's make this summer special for our guests
Well, that was a fairly quick offseason, wasn’t it?
A quick glance at your calendar will inform you that Memorial Day weekend is indeed next week, and with that comes the start to another summer season for our quiet little corner...
Friday, May 20, 2011 - 6:35am
Rough couple of weeks, could have been worse
It’s been a couple interesting weeks for me.
Coastal Point
I spent last week down in the Outer Banks, relaxing in 80-degree weather and basically recharging my mental and physical batteries for the coming dog days of summer. It was...
Thursday, May 12, 2011 - 11:22am
Happy Mother's Day to all, especially mine
So, it’s been pretty-well documented that I love my Mommy.
I’ve heard the taunts — the “mommy’s boy,” “go tell your mother,” etc. — and I don’t really care. I love my Mommy, and my Mommy loves me. It works for us.
With...
Thursday, May 5, 2011 - 5:05am
Freedom of speech can be a slippery slope
We’re big proponents of free speech around here.
The right to express ourselves freely and without governmental retribution allows us to share information with our readers that might not always be popular with elected officials, and the...
Thursday, April 28, 2011 - 6:25am
Black Friday was indeed a dark day for me
I’m a poker player.
Casino, home game, poker room or online site, I love to play the game. There is something about check-raising somebody out of a pot when you don’t have a hand, or laying down top two pairs because you just know in your...
Thursday, April 21, 2011 - 6:29am
Yet another journey into the world's obstuse
Have you ever pulled into your driveway after a long day of work, opened the door and been hit with the smell of a steak grilling that just completely overtook your central nervous system and erased all other thoughts that might have been...
Thursday, April 14, 2011 - 6:21am
Truly enjoying a hot start by the Orioles
As I write this column, the Baltimore Orioles are 4-0 and on top of the American League East standings.
As you read this column, the Baltimore Orioles could be 4-2 and I might be done looking at the American League East standings for a...
Thursday, April 7, 2011 - 8:04am
Our language just continues to morph
English is a mutt of a language.
It has long been a living, breathing organism that is a conglomeration of older languages and new terms, brought together to formulate a means of communication that is spoken, read and written by people...
Wednesday, March 30, 2011 - 4:51pm
The Civil War is coming-- in tweet form
Every now and then I stumble across something that is both interesting and a little dorky. No, no, no ... I’m not talking about our advertising rep, Susan Mutz. But I completely understand why you’d think that.
Actually, what I’m...
Wednesday, March 23, 2011 - 3:41pm
It's the most wonderful time of the year
There are certainly a lot of great days that come around every year.
Of course, Christmas jumps to mind immediately as the top dog. There is the religious meaning, which brings legitimacy to its status as a significant day for many. It is...
Thursday, March 17, 2011 - 12:18pm
Tossing my teeth away in Margaritaville...
By the time this week’s paper hit the streets, I was sitting on a plane heading down to Florida for a week-plus of sunshine, live music and a few cocktails.
Of course, there’s always the chance that the duration of this vacation...
Thursday, March 10, 2011 - 11:42am
Here’s hoping we all remember Mr. Buckles
A piece of American history died last Sunday.
Oh, Frank Buckles’ name might not necessarily rank up there with Paul Revere, John Adams or Charlie Sheen in the collective public consciousness of people in this nation, but he was indeed a...
Thursday, March 3, 2011 - 8:17am
Prescription drug issues leaves many questions
I recently completed a three-part series on the perils of prescription drug abuse — ranging from physical and mental dangers, to an uptick in property crimes to the damages done to friends and family members of those addicted to the pills. We...
Thursday, February 24, 2011 - 5:05am
Jeopardy! is actually elementary, my dear Watson
Great, something else that’s smarter than me.
That list has swelled over the years, ranging from my teachers to clergy to my parents to co-workers to my asthmatic pug, Bailey. Every time I start to think I’m getting a little smarter, I run...
Friday, February 18, 2011 - 6:48am
Valentine’s Day tales of romance and mirth
A police officer in Manatee County, Fla., was flagged down by a 27-year-old man last week and told that the man was robbed at gunpoint about 90 minutes earlier, according to an article in the Sarasota Herald Tribune. Apparently, police became a...
Thursday, February 10, 2011 - 3:47am
Identifying the real-life ‘dog with a bone’
It’s a term we’ve all heard over and over again throughout the course of our respective lifetimes — “Like a dog with a bone.”
It often gets attached to detectives chasing down leads on a case on television, or a reporter hunting down the...
Thursday, February 3, 2011 - 8:53am
Snow scofflaws, inflateable girls, etc.
As we were putting together the paper on Wednesday, a winter weather advisory was hanging over our heads, putting pressure on everybody to get their work done as quickly as possible, while simultaneously making all of us groan under our breaths...
Thursday, January 27, 2011 - 5:25am
It's a good week to eat a little crow
Old Bay? Cinnamon and spice? Cracked pepper?
There are just so many culinary choices for the crow I’ve been eating all week — ever since my Baltimore Ravens did a bellyflop on national television against the Pittsburgh Steelers...
Thursday, January 20, 2011 - 4:11am
It's not all car chases and firey houses
One of my favorite annual local events is the Joshua M. Freeman Valor Awards luncheon, hosted by the Bethany-Fenwick Area Chamber of Commerce. It is an event dedicated to the efforts of local responders — those firefighters, EMS personnel and...
Thursday, January 13, 2011 - 3:22am
Many broken dreams here at the Point
I’m a little late writing my column this week because I had to cancel a few things I had ordered online the other night. See, there was just no doubt in my mind that I was going to win the $355-million Mega Millions lottery Tuesday night, so I...
Thursday, January 6, 2011 - 7:03am
Another year, another list of resolutions
You just have to love a new year.
Well, once I get rid of that annual headache and stomach virus I seem to come down with every New Year’s Day (my father used to call it the “bottle flu”), I start to like the new year. See, the new year...
Thursday, December 30, 2010 - 5:53am
The big guy is everywhere this year
Christmas is a time of songs and poems, stories and tales.
Coastal Point
We hear about the holiday bringing families together, the kindness of strangers and a general mystical aura in the air that is best quantified as “The Christmas...
Wednesday, December 22, 2010 - 1:50pm
It's colder than ... well, it's pretty cold
We try to provide our readers the latest local news.
It’s cold. It’s stinking cold. See what I mean?
I was driving to work the other morning and saw a penguin standing on the corner with his hands in his pockets and running...
Thursday, December 16, 2010 - 3:27am
Surely, he was a seriously funny guy
For the record, my favorite comedy of all time is “Airplane!” — and there really is no close second.
It’s silly. It’s non-sensical. There is no underlying theme that makes you pontificate life’s many riddles, and you really wouldn’t...
Thursday, December 2, 2010 - 3:43am
So many reasons to be thankful
The highway of life can be fraught with breakneck speeding, traffic snarls and distracted drivers. We have to navigate through these potential perils to get to the place we’re trying to reach — both literally and figuratively.
...
Tuesday, November 23, 2010 - 2:17pm
Social Media