columns

This week’s Hudson Star-Observer is being distributed communitywide. It’s a chance for all of Hudson to get a taste of the paper, so this is as good a time as any to make a brief introduction. Consider this the dime tour. Page 1 features contributions from our entire news staff....

It's time for me to ramble along. To quote Ernest Hemingway, it happened two ways. “Gradually, then suddenly.” I've written for the Hudson Star-Observer since the day after Labor Day 1997. A lot has happened in that time. Truthfully, it doesn't feel like the years passed gradually....

I think by now that anyone who reads this column knows how I feel about change. ...I don’t like it, not usually anyway. While I have been thinking about my own retirement in about a year, I hadn’t given much thought to the fact that my friends and colleagues around my age might...

Seriously, I know about a dozen guys who won't call their moms this Sunday. Not only that, some of them seem to wear it on their sleeves. A Mother's Day Facebook post, for example, from one such dude a few years ago: "No, I am not calling my mom today. She knows how much I love her...

I might be getting up there in years, but I'm still a bit naive on some subjects. One of those is counterfeiting. Growing up, when anybody talked about counterfeiting, I assumed they were talking about the guy printing $20 bills in the basement of his home. I seldom get sucked into...

Despite my penchant for vacation disasters, our recent trip to Boston to see our son and his wife and dogsit the precious Penny, their 10-year-old Old English bulldog, went pretty well. Of course, we did have our rental car towed and weathered some gale force winds on Cape Cod, but...

The April 5 election is over and everyone is probably breathing a sigh of relief -- I know I am! There are people happy with the results and people who are unhappy. I am always intrigued with the April elections because they determine who will hold office in our own city, village,...

As I write this on Election Day morning, I have absolutely no idea how Hudson's school referendum will shake out. Will all three referendum questions pass? Will just one pass? Two out of three? Or will they all fail? I do know this, though, 15 hours or so before all the ballots are...

It’s funny how small the world can get some days. That occurred to me after bombs went off in Brussels. Mind you, I’ve never been to Belgium. Not even close. Yet I couldn’t help but wonder if some guys I encountered a couple years ago might have been victim to the horror. A...

The bad news, this is the first time in close to 20 years that I didn’t get to Florida for spring training. The good news -- I did get to Florida, but instead of Fort Myers, my wife and I went with my oldest son Donovan and his wife Michele and two children (Connor and John) to...

You have the right to know. Much like your right to speak freely without fear of government intervention, or your right to worship whatever deity you choose, or for the more sordid of us, your right to face due process in legal battles and have a jury decide your fate, you have the...

Should I write today about the upcoming schools referendum? Or should I write about baseball instead? Maybe I should write about something else. Maybe Friday the 13th, which arrives on Sunday this month? How about presidential politics? Nah, that would only make people depressed....

There are plenty of people of Scandinavian descent in our readership area -- I’m one of them. In fact, all four of my grandparents found their way to this country from Sweden in the late 1800s. I’ve always considered myself an American and haven’t taken the time to look into...

I remember when conservatives were the defenders of local control. That was when Democrats had some power in Madison. Now, with Republicans in charge of the Legislature and Scott Walker in the governor’s office the tables have turned. State Rep. Katrina Shankland, a Democrat from...

Well I’m back after having had a little work done -- not that kind of work -- don’t know where I’d start if it were that kind of work. No, I had rotator cuff surgery and survived it. I didn’t know anything about it before the pain in my shoulder just wouldn’t go away. Losing...