Blue Shutters By Kathy Koches   She heard them banging, blown by the wind and driving rain. The sound had awakened her from a deep sleep as the storm outside intensified.  She slipped from her bed quietly to check that the windows were all securely fastened.  Satisfied that all was well, she quickly returned to […]

Preparation & Recovery from Hip Replacement By Ron Krayewski   *Don’t settle for your family doctor’s referral, but interview (over the internet) several orthopaedic surgeons, and choose one that performs 100+ hip replacements per year. *Find out where the site of the incision is to be. Each of front, side or rear entry has it’s

“The Illusive King” By Peter E. Gibbons   In the late 1950’s, Africa didn’t have Safari Parks. To see and hunt game, the services of a “White Hunter” was required. Usually he was a man with years of successful jungle experience exposing animals his clients wished to see, or in those days, kill! His stained

Huckleberry Finn: A Misunderstood Classic By Dr. Lorin Swinehart “Man is the only animal that blushes. Or needs to.”   Generations of parents, teachers and screenwriters have erroneously portrayed Mark Twain’s greatest classic as a children’s story. Containing thirteen killings and depicting the evils of slavery, racism, alcoholism, bigotry, child abuse and corruption, it hardly

THE HUMMINGBIRDS—Past and Present By Tony Burton   Pre-conquest Mexicans regarded the acrobatic hummingbird with a certain awe. In the Magliabecchiano Codex (dating from the mid-sixteenth century and now in Florence, Italy) an Indian artist depicts the god Quetzalcoatl with a feathered headdress, feeding at a tubular blossom protruding out of the headdress is a

Sunday Best By Kathy Koches   When I was a kid back in the ‘50’s, and we were going somewhere special, like out to dinner or to visit my relatives, we all dressed up in our “Sunday Best.” For my mother, sister and me, this meant pretty dresses with petticoats, black or white patent leather

The Ghosts Among Us By Fred Mittag “The Unkindest Cut of All” Farinelli (1705-1782)   Viva ilcoltello! This was a frequent cry from audiences in Italy during the 18th and 19th centuries. It means “Hurray for the knife!” and refers to castrated opera celebrities. There was a Church ban against women singing in the choir,