Columns

Past Prescott-area councils and CYMPO (Central Yavapai Metropolitan Planning Organization) boards somehow overlooked the connection between unplanned rapid development in Prescott and Prescott Valley and our current traffic congestion.

I’m not seeking sympathy, but I’m writing this on the eve of my annual physical exam.

The upper Verde River is in danger of extinction. If groundwater pumping from the Big Chino basin is not controlled, this section of the live, free flowing river will eventually be lost for all time.

When it became obvious that the Titanic was not going to survive its tragic collision with the iceberg in the North Atlantic, those in positions of authority started to do the human triage necessary in emergencies

You may have no idea who Chino Valley residents Barbara Jean and Keith Meeker are. By the end of this column, however, you will know them well since I’m going to reveal some family secrets.

My Sunday night TV viewing has recently begun to include The Best of the Ed Sullivan Show on MeTV, and it’s a really nice trip down Memory Lane to a much simpler time.

An anti-diet movement is afoot? Where can I sign up!

Journalists have been debating how to most effectively cover a defeated ex-president who lies as he breathes and aspires to restore his reign by any means necessary.

A dozen years ago, when people were publishing books about cooking every recipe in Julia Child’s cookbook or the life-changing results of writing a thank you note a day for a solid year, I decided it would be a great time to start a blog about learning something new.

If you get into an argument with a Republican about the GOP’s lamentable support for voting rights and its fractured relationship with Black Americans, it won’t be long before your rhetorical sparring partner bellows “Robert Byrd” at you and declares the argument over.

’TIS THE SEASON — We are getting a lot of inquiries this year: “What’s that smoke from?”

Glenn Youngkin recently was elected Virginia’s governor partly because he promised to ban teaching of CRT. CRT stands for critical race theory, which argues that every American institution upholds white supremacy.

In my Dec. 27 Talk of the Town article, “Younger, sicker, dying quicker,” on COVID awareness, I discussed COVID testing including rapid home testing. I provide additional guidance here.

OK, it’s high time I unburdened myself. I’m at last willing to confess that I’ve been carrying a crippling chip on my shoulder since 1956.

The other night, after spending an evening watching a few episodes of Family Feud, I decided to check out the new ABC show Judge Steve Harvey. Yes, I am a Steve Harvey fan, but the timing was strictly coincidental.

I was recently invited to speak at a local women’s organization meeting in my hometown. Apparently, I was pretty much their last option, right behind the auto-warranty telemarketer and the tax auditor.

I distinctly remember in high school plowing through various literary classics authored by Coleridge, Houseman, Byron, Wordsworth, Whitman, Dickens and Poe. The most challenging were Paradise Lost by John Milton, the general works of Shakespeare and, God help me, Beowulf.

It boggles my mind that there is a good handful of longtime Arizonans who have never visited the Grand Canyon. Tourists from all across the globe travel long ways to see our state’s crown jewel in person and if you have yet to see it for yourself, I highly recommend you do.

Build Back Better, the centerpiece of President Biden’s ambitious domestic legislative agenda, has become Build Back Later … maybe.

On Jan. 6, 2021, Democratic Rep. Brendan Boyle was at his desk at the Longworth House Office Building, near the U.S. Capitol, when he heard an enraged mob, fueled by a former president’s claims of fraud, making its way up Independence Avenue.

Amid COVID, tax initiatives and political battles, how seriously must we take life or ourselves nowadays?

Have you noticed the spate of new ads for online gambling that started a couple of months ago?

The pastiche of new state laws taking effect as the New Year begins underscores how different we are — at least in the eyes of legislators — on matters small and large.

As some readers of the Courier have noted lately, yes, fatalities in the Quad Cities seem to be increasing.

Independents are now America’s largest group of voters. After George Bush’s presidency, fewer people called themselves Republicans. After Obama’s, fewer called themselves Democrats. How will these independents vote?