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JOHNSON: The Original Thanksgiving Story
Thanksgiving has become an orphan holiday sandwiched between Halloween, which has become a big deal shopping season, and Christmas, the biggest shopping season of them all. Marketers tend to overlook Thanksgiving. Good.
I’m guessing that the comparative lack of promotion for Thanksgiving has to do with the fact that the holiday does not lend itself well to retail exploitation.
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DODD: Open letter to a CFO
Dear Frank Collesano,
Pardon the obvious pun, but let me be frank with you. Please reconsider your decision to leave at the end of the year.
The students at Greater Clark County Schools need you. I can’t put my plea in any simpler terms than that. Our $100 million educational corporation has been in the hands of small town, small-minded and intellectually challenged hands for too many years in a row.
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Navy parlance for small businesses
Like a lot of people my age, I grew up watching movies about the great naval battles of WW II. The ships would emerge from the battle, battered by enemy fire, their crews tired and dazed from the fight. As soon as the ship was in the clear, the captain and crew would initiate a plan of repair known as “damage control.”
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HOWEY: Oprah, Sarah and me
ELKHART — I watched Sarah on Oprah the other day. The ex-governor of Alaska didn’t come off as bad as I thought she would, me being one of those “lamestream media” types.
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KRUEGER: The Fast Food Thinker
In today’s age with 30-second sound bites, fast food and instant gratification, I find it sad nobody seems to look at the whole picture and the details before making a decision. Who wants to read, listen and digest many details, and the overall impact on some topic. “Hey I’m in a hurry. Public option. What’s that? Restrooms? Oh the government will provide us with health insurance. Great. I’m for that!”
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STAWAR: Net worth vs. Mary Worth
Calculating your net worth is a rather sobering experience. You may only do this exercise a few times in your life — like when you’re applying for a major loan, planning for retirement or entering a nursing home. To calculate your net worth, you add up all your assets (the current value of all your possessions) and then you subtract all your liabilities (mostly money you owe). Whatever is left over is your net worth. It’s easy to look at this number and despair, wondering, “Is this all I’ve accomplished in my life?”
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NASH: It’s time to take out the trash
Last Thursday, Nov. 12, 2009, was my garbage pick-up day. Falling the day after a national holiday I wasn’t positive that we would have service on that day. When I returned home from a hard night of work that morning I didn’t feel the need to immediately move my garbage can to the end of my driveway.
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HARBESON: As always, columnist excited to hear from readers!!!
In my last letters column, “Want To Be Pen Pals?,” I mentioned one letter writer who was a bit enamored with the exclamation point. Evidently he’s not the only one, because I received several e-mails from others who feel the same.
Matt wrote this: “Just wanted to drop you a note to let you know I enjoy your column!!!!!!”
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STAWAR: Man's worst friend
I recently read with admiration about the local animal shelters and all the wonderful volunteers who work there. The animals are all so appealing. I wish I could feel as positive about our own dog, but I just finished burying the wire for the containment system for the fourth time.
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BAYLOR: On a wig and a prayer
I was watching an NBA game the other night when suddenly, in blinding and revelatory Technicolor, I had a vision recalling Rollen Stewart’s career of religious advocacy.
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DENHART: Citizens group leader questions city finances
In response to Mayor England and Kay Garry’s statements of Oct. 31, 2009:
After reading The Tribune article, “State Audit raises questions about New Albany’s bookkeeping” and going through all 73 pages of the audit, we find it laughable that Mayor Doug England said the administration may ask the council to fund a new computer system for City Controller Garry.
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McDONALD: Columnist grateful to King’s Daughter’s nurses
Last Friday, I received a call that my mother was being taken to the hospital from the nursing home where she lives. I called the emergency room to check on her status and was told that she was in critical condition with severe dehydration and a blood infection that had gone septic or spreading throughout her body.
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GESENHUES: Can I write about that?
Befriending a writer can be problematic. There is always the chance of showing up as a character in a book that will be around longer than you may be. You could spend your life committed to good deeds and clean living, and the next thing you know, you’re the inspiration for some bad guy who yells at children and writes bad checks.
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CURRAN: Government health care equals us in your business
I’m not entirely sure how I feel, generally, about artificially blocking puberty. However, hearing this young girl describe her feelings in her own words was compelling. If someone is in such anguish and wants only freedom, give it to her.
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CLERE: Short or long, session should be right for Hoosiers
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DOOD: This one’s for Judge Weber
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GALLIGAN: Sewer rate increases are a must
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CUMMINS: Before pursuing happiness do the research
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JOHNSON: Love can heal any hurt
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HOWEY: This is the best chance for health care reform
I’ve been writing about politics and public policy since 1985 and the current health care reform sequence is the most complicated issue of my career. So what I’m attempting to do with this column is to work through the many elements that have brought us to the point where the U.S. House has passed a plan and the action now shifts to the U.S. Senate.
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LETTER: Rep. Hill explains health care vote
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STAWAR: It’s time for some turkey talk
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NASH: How should we grade the President?
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BAYLOR: Downtown for a reason
It was no accident that in 2003, we bought a house on East Spring Street. Granted, there were fortuitous convergences, like being acquainted with the people who were selling the property, but the decision-making process did not occur on a whim, a prayer or a dare.
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HARBESON: Education needs a new way of thinking
I caused a near riot in an elementary school once. It happened in the late 1980s when I was a lunchtime/recess monitor. I wanted to give a present to the kids before winter break so I purchased a bunch of Hershey’s Kisses to hand out
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GESENHUES: The view from over here
My morning drive took an extra 15 minutes today as I had to deal with the lingering paranoia that I had left something running. Was my iron still plugged in? Was my oven still at 400 degrees?
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McDONALD: Faith shows the way through tragedy
Over the weekend, two events I attended had the effect of making each the more powerful and meaningful.
On Saturday morning, I drove, with a friend, to a Cross Cultural Christian Men’s breakfast in Columbus. The event is held about four times per year with guest speakers emphasizing that no matter what culture Christian men come from, we all face the same challenges.
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HARBESON: Let’s clear the rhetoric
This is a perfect example of how politicians use the layers of government to their advantage. The Floyd county taxpayers are paying plenty for this because the tax bill was simply transferred to another government entity. One much harder to control by the way.
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CLERE: Vets deserve more than just words
We could say thank you a thousand times, and it wouldn't be enough.
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CURRAN: Banking program plays favorites
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DODD: Running for angels
For anyone who wants to support Scott there are several ways to get involved. First of all you can make a donation/sponsorship of which 100 percent of the proceeds will go directly to the Salvation Army Angel Tree program. He could also use some support from people who will show up either at the command post or to line up and cheer him on along the route.
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CUMMINS: What would life be without options?
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JOHNSON: When being honest works against you
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HOWEY: Cautious Bayh could define the president who flipped a coin
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NASH: Holiday greetings from the Nash family
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GESENHUES: Where did extra hour go?
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ROKITA: Rebutting the redistricting naysayers
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CLERE: Grant will boost entire community
I got behind Georgetown’s project because I saw it as a good way to leverage stimulus money for maximum benefit to my entire district, which includes most of Floyd County and a small part of Clark County.
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CURRAN: Responding to slightly insane letter writer
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DODD: The Dodds take Manhattan
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CUMMINS: How to keep the family in their seats
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STANCZYKIEWICZ: Health insurance and Indiana children
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JOHNSON: Self-love run riot
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HOWEY: Obama weighs the Afghan abyss
INDIANAPOLIS — President Obama took a midnight trip to Dover Air Force Base and solemnly watched, then saluted, as the flag-draped coffin of Sgt. Dale R. Griffin of Terre Haute was marched off the C-17. Griffin was one of 18 Americans killed in Afghanistan earlier in the week.
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NASH: Will justice ever be served in Camm case?
Nine years ago last month an unimaginable tragedy struck a family in Georgetown.
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STAWAR: Candy, costumes and self-control
Tomorrow is officially Halloween, the holiday when Americans typically buy the most candy. Like a lot of kids, a major part of much of my childhood was essentially a quest to acquire as much candy as I could get my hands on, and Halloween was the Holy Grail.
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HAMILTON: It’s time to govern the flow of political
There was a time when I believed that the best way to curtail the impact of money flowing into our political system was to monitor it. Make sure that campaign contributions and lobbying expenditures were reported quickly and accurately, I reasoned, and journalists and the American public could determine for themselves what they could tolerate.
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BAYLOR: Someone’s in the kitchen with Chloe
A common house fly of the species Musca domestica wearily hugged the wall by the cracked window next to Councilman Cappuccino’s cluttered kitchen sink. Winter was coming, and the fly was feeling profoundly sluggish.
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CLERE: Not all my important meetings are in Indianapolis
The General Assembly is scheduled to convene Jan. 5. In the meantime, I’m around here most of the time.
GALLERY: Floyd Central and Silver Creek compete in volleyball state finals
