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Be Concerned But Calm Down

There has been concern, and for good reason, at some of the President-elects’ recent nominations for high office in Washington. As a veteran, I have been specially concerned about the announced pick for Secretary of Defense—a person known more for being a Fox News celebrity than for his understanding of how the Pentagon works. I believe it is a legitimate concern as this is the largest and, likely, most important post in the government—next to being the President and Commander-in-Chief. Bad decisions at Defense can have catastrophic consequences. Nevertheless, I thought that ...

The Golden Age Of Advertising

I’m very fortunate to have grown up during the Golden Age of Advertising. That was a time from the mid 1950s until the mid 70s when ad agencies on Madison Avenue were riding high, and promotional messages were based on sound conceptual thinking. Who could forget Mikey who sold us Life cereal by the carload over 50 years ago? Or Mr. Whipple who made toilet paper a desirable commodity? Effective slogans were common back then, and “Please don’t squeeze the Charmin” became household words. In 1971, the TV ad with “The Crying Indian” opened our eyes to the damage done by ...

Dedicated Public Servants And Bad Medicine

The Hippocratic Oath, taken by doctors, says “First, do no harm.” The government version says: “First, do not harm Big Pharma’a huge profits.” We must never forget the damage done to Americans by deliberate government disinformation and censorship of valid science around COVID, as divulged in the U.S. House of Representatives report issued in October. This investigation confirmed that President Joe Biden coordinated a massive campaign to spread disinformation to benefit Big Pharma, and to silence those who challenged the official narrative around vaccines and ...

Wife Lives Earthly Life Extraordinarily Well

Today’s Thanksgiving column, which first ran in 2021, has excerpts from my 2021 eulogy for Mrs. Elf and is in thankfulness for our marriage: ♦♦♦ Once when you, My HilaryLove, came to visit, you shared strategy for five-card draw. Including this: When you have nothing in your hand, keep your highest card and draw four. So for one hand, I drew four. You drew one card and had a straight. I had four kings. In utter astonishment, you said, “But you drew four cards.” Yes, you dealt me one king, and I drew three. ♦♦♦ In the way that brings everyone here ...

May The Good Lord Bless And Keep You!

Next week we celebrate Thanksgiving. At this point I have no plans but it will all come together. How Thanksgiving has changed down through the years. We used to go to Grandma Swanson’s but when she no longer could do it, we went to my sister-in-law’s. I always worked right up through Wednesday, so I had little time to prepare. One year we had a Peterson reunion. That year I had Dick’s cousin, his wife, and two children at my house. I made pies. Of course, I used lard for the crust. Laurie wondered how I got it so flaky. I hesitated to tell her it was the lard. I even made some ...

The Latest On The Bridge

Every day I go over the Chautauqua Lake Bridge at least two or three times. You can see that a lot is going on there, and good weather has obviously helped construction activities move along. Last week, as I entered the expressway and bridge eastbound at Stow—I followed a huge semi-truck hauling what looked like something you would see in the oil or gas fields. It was a combination of pumps, holding tanks, pipes, hoses and gadgets of all kinds. It slowed down and pulled over into the construction area on the south side of the bridge. Apparently, it is a sophisticated sand-blasting ...