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Ocassionally we publish columns written by, award-winning, syndicated columnist, playwright, and author named Daris Howard. He sends us two columns a week with the hope our readers will enjoy them so much they will decide to order one of the books he had for sale on his website. Most weeks we get an email late Monday night or early Tuesday morning with his offerings for the week. Usually, but not always I open the email to see what his topic is for that week. Ones I find well suited for this area are processed and put into what we call the...
Thanksgiving! Thanks Living! Thanks Giving! So many ways! Another most special holiday, yet so rushed and squeezed by the approaching Black Friday and Monday! On forming thoughts, they wandered toward sarcasm. Pondering the issues for a day, it was decided there is too much sarcasm in the world and erased those notes for more positive thoughts for Thanksgiving. Friendship and family are utmost important. We connect by phone, on Facebook with email and yes, even by the written and mailed letters. We connect because we care. We salute the...
What a spider web of interconnected events we do travel. In the newspaper business one story leads to another and another with unexpected connections along the way. While reading a daily newspaper story about the unfortunate incidents that happened last month at the Agrex elevator, an Omaha resident learned of my long association with the local news business and wrote asking if I knew anything about a murder which happened at the new Superior cement plant in 1914. I’ll admit to being old but I’m not old enough to have reported that story. But...
This week is a special patriotic week for me as it is every year. November 10 is the birthday of the United States Marine Corps and this year it is their 246th birthday. As I’ve shared many times in Country Roads, my father went into the service during WWII. He signed up for the Navy and was later transferred to serve as a Marine medic corpsman. He was a true Marine and was proud of it. The Second Continental Congress passed a resolution establishing two battalions of Continental Marines on Nov. 10, 1775. Years later, my son would also serve i...
Presenting Biblical answers to tough questions Q: Does the bible mention anything about transgender people? A: The most important verse to remember in regards to transgender people or anyone else is John 3:16. God has proven his love to the entire world by sending his Son to take the full penalty for our sins and offer us eternal life as a free gift. Other verses to consider are Psalm 16:11 and John 10:10, which tell us God wants to bless us with abundant life. The guidelines for life we find in the Bible are designed to free us and enable us t...
Have you been keeping track of the summer baseball programs like the one in Hastings that started just a few years back? They are called The Hastings Sodbusters. I know nothing of their organization and expectations, but there was a little note in the Hastings paper last week I found interesting. The Hastings team “Sodbusters” is joining a new league along with six other teams. What caught my eye was the names of the other teams and I’d like to pass them on to you: Badlands Big Sticks (Dickinson, N.D.); Canyon County Spuds (Caldwell, Idaho...
Last Tuesday morning Jacob and I loaded the car and set off to pick up Robert. We were headed to Satanta, Kan., for the funeral of my ex-mother-in-law, Grammy Swift. Thankfully, Robbie was able to find a ride with the wife of one of his enlisted buddies. We picked him up without much backtracking. I love my children but being confined in a small space with them for seven hours is a challenge. By the time we arrived at my daughter’s house, my car smelled like a boys’ locker room. We immediately unpacked the car, and all of us loaded back up for...
I’m responsible for monitoring a number of email accounts. At work I have one computer on my desk used exclusively for internet related tasks including monitoring email. During the work day, at least four email accounts are open, sometimes more. I haven’t counted but I suspect most days, hundreds of email messages are received. This morning one prolific sender sent the same message to four accounts. I responded to one and threw the other three away. In my haste to skim through the messages, I sometimes regretfully overlook an important one...
Within the past few weeks my hometown area lost three women who were considered to be roll models for many my age as we were growing up. Those in the older generation sometimes don’t realize how much influence they can be for the younger generation. One of these women was never afraid to show her strong faith in God and her strong love for her husband. She also had a love for her husband’s family as they all lived in the same rural area and were all attached in the family’s farming operations. She and her sister-in-laws and her husba...
Presenting Biblical answers to tough questions Q: Is it sinful to have doubts or questions about God? If so, how can I get rid of them? A: It is not sinful to have doubts or questions about God. There are far too many examples in Scripture of godly believers sharing their struggles with God and other mature believers to think that. Some examples include a man named Asaph who felt God was being unfair in allowing evil people to prosper (Ps. 73), as well as the prophet Habakkuk who decided he was going to sit on a watchtower until God answered...
OK folks . . . now I’ve seen enough to really make me wonder. If you watch any TV at all, you have seen the Presidential motorcades going around Washington, D.C. A short parade of big, black autos with men to protect the president. Thursday morning, I happened to be home and was watching the president leaving Congress after trying to convince them to pass legislation that would further increase or debt and lead to more inflation. Maybe I just haven’t been watching enough TV lately, but I was surprised by what is now included in that Pre...
Friday morning a crew gathered in a supermarket parking lot at Plattsmouth to assemble what they hoped would be a record breaking ice cream sandwich which would weigh as much as a small automobile. The completed dessert weighed in at 2,960 pounds and broke the Guinness World Record for the biggest ice cream sandwich. The previous record was set in 1998 when an Iowa supermarket assembled a 2,460 pound dessert. The Nebraska sandwich took a crew of 30 people five hours to complete. Built in a...
It’s the sign of the times. Some of the sayings and words we used years ago might get a blank look if used today. Here are a few of those back-in-time sayings and words that have given way to the modern times. The word “baloney” or “hogwash” were used to describe something thought to be false or misspoken. Today some like to say it’s “fake news.” What was once thought of as being an “icebox” is now a refrigerator. A “pocket book” is now a purse. Going “courting” is now a couple going out on a date. Years ago a person was thought to be a...
Presenting Biblical answers to tough questions Q: Why does the Catholic Bible have more books than the NIV Bible? Why aren’t they the same? Which set of books is actually the complete word of God? A: The process of identifying which writings make up God’s Word was far more organic than many people realize. The Church over the first and second centuries published several lists of books they considered authentic. While the church consistently condemned several non-authentic documents, there was some variation on exactly which books were app...
Recently I saw a 1950s era Ford stationwagon fully restored to “as new” condition. As a part of the restoration, the stationwagon had white sidewall tires. When I was growing up in Superior, white sidewall tires were popular. These tires cost more than the standard blackwall tires and their presence on a car would indicate an owner who was (1) able to afford the special tires and (2) wanted to indicate his vehicle was above the typical vehicle on the streets. The 1950s white sidewall tires had a broad white sidewall. All was fine with them unt...
I mentioned earlier that I was reading a book about Harry Truman and I have now finished all 1,000 pages and greatly enjoyed the book. I learned a number of things I did not know about the man. In general, he was a much more of a liberal than what I knew. (Although by today’s standards, he was a conservative liberal.) He also tried to do the “Right” thing. He often was in the minority on some programs as he fought against ‘trends’ he thought were wrong. He did not win everything, by a long shot, but he never stopped trying to do what he though...
It seems like everything I’ve tried to do this week has gone completely wrong. We had a water leak at the money pit, a valve to be exact. I wanted to replace it and couldn’t. Jacob tried, then George tried, and notta. We couldn’t get any leverage, so I cut the Pex and took the whole assembly to a couple of friends who put it in a clamp and made taking it apart look so easy! Jerks! LOL! After that, I put it all back together, lost the washers, didn’t get my fittings in tight enough, a complete disaster. To top it off, another water line I had j...
Babies are a sure sign of positivity and gives one a deep hearted good feeling about the future. I received such a feeling when I got to hold my great-great niece recently. My great niece and her husband live a distance away so we don’t get to see them often but whenever they come this way to make a family visit, I hopefully get to see them and their dear baby. The first time getting to hold her was when she was only a month old. On this visit she is now five-months-old. With a green and gold polka dotted dress on, little white socks with gold...
In my early years at The Express, I wrote a story telling our readers about a Kansas businessman’s plans to open a Pizza Hut at the north edge of Superior. For me the story had special meaning as the location he picked for the new business was where a house my grandfather built in the 1920s had been located for about 30 years. My grandparents house was originally located on the Kansas state line, just east of where Highway 14 entered Kansas and turned west. My father was about 10 years old when the family moved to that Kansas farm. I r...
Presenting Biblical answers to tough questions. Q: Is it possible that hell is just a reference to the struggles of this life? A: Believers must constantly be on guard against the urge to shy away from truths that make us uncomfortable. It is tempting to explain away the Bible passages which discuss hell and eternal torment, and there are a variety of ways people have attempted it. The problem is that all of these attempts are the theological equivalent of sticking our heads in the sand. It really must come back to the simple message of...
Decisions . . . Just when does it get done ? ? ? A lot of folks are making the decision to turn the furnace on at this time of year. With the temperatures dipping to the low 50s or 40s, or lower, I’ve heard a number of folks trying to decide if they should turn on a little more heat in their homes. It seems the decision to turn on the heat was the most popular decisions. A O More decisions . . . Another observation on aging. You can add it to last week’s comment. Going to the doctors as you get older is familiar to all of us who have rea...
What a week! I feel like I have accomplished nothing! I’ve been running around like a chicken with my head cut off and making no progress with anything. Yesterday I had planned on getting the house cleaned up, and between work, errands, and my lack of organization, I managed to make a bigger mess of things. I found time to do my nails last night, which makes me feel ever so much better about my lot in life. It’s funny how something so simple as painting your nails or getting a haircut can make you feel so much better about yourself. No mat...
1-14-21 Over the weekend I heard a man, who finds the current time challenging, comment he would prefer the quieter, less stressful time of the 1960s. I suspect his statement reveals his age. With the Great Depression, Dust Bowl and WWII in their past, I never knew anyone who longed for the less stressful 1930s and 1940s if they were adults during those two decades. I could long for the quieter, less stressful 1950s of but I must acknowledge I was a child in the 1950s and my parents provided a stable home with all the necessities. The 1960s...
House designers these days say having a “mud room” in the house is a must. On a farm, what some today would term as being a “mud room” could be called a “catch all room” and to all farmwives, it is a must have room. It is entered when a family member comes inside the house. At the farm home where I grew up, my parents didn’t have a catch all room. Instead we had a screened in back porch which served as one. As in most farmhouses, the most used entrance led into the kitchen so the screened in porch was where we would place our overshoes, wi...
Q: How could a loving God command genocide? God told Israel to kill all of the Canaanites: men, women, and children! Part Two: Last week we addressed this question by recalling God’s absolute authority over creation and the fact we are all deserving of judgment even before we are born. There are a couple more points that pertain to this discussion: these are the differences between man and God, as well as the nature of the value of human life. Actions such as genocide are forbidden to human beings because our wisdom, perspective and c...
