Columnists

Starting in July, most families with kids will start getting monthly payments of up to $300 per child as part of the American Rescue Plan’s expansion of the child tax credit. Read more

The English language is nutty. It can be understood through tough, thorough thought, though. I wanted to find a way to add the word “trough” to the last sentence, but I feared being thrown out throughout the touted trout throat. See? I knew it wouldn’t work. Read more

Did you know there are approximately 100 different idioms, if not more, using body parts? Just the other day I started humming “Heart of My Heart, I Love That Melody,” an oldie but goodie sung by The Four Aces. True, many of you may not be old enough to remember that song, but it surely stands out in my mind. Read more

At some point, you learned the word “antidisestablishmentarianism.” You may not know what it means, but at least you know it. Never mind that it has to do with people who wanted to maintain the Anglican Church’s status as the official Church of England in the 1800s — it has 12 syllables! That’s a word worth knowing! Read more

May is my favorite month. It’s the heart of spring, a time when we can watch growth, hear vitality. Read more

We hear about it daily on the news. Every television station carries the same stories so much that we’ve almost grown numb to the subjects. But how many of you can actually say you were held at gunpoint while sitting in your car? Read more

You hit a lot of milestone birthdays when you’re young. There’s your first birthday, of course, and also the one where you turn 10 (finally, double digits!). At 13, you’re a teenager. At 16, you’re probably thinking about driving. At 18, you can vote; at 21, you can get into bars. Read more

A few years ago my friend Kristen and I created a podcast called “The Exotic Fruit Review.” In it, we sampled exotic fruits, discussed them and interviewed people who were leading extraordinary lives. While we enjoyed having a quirky podcast, Kristen and I had to do all the scheduling, producing and editing work ourselves. Read more

Now overgrown, the ballfield brought back memories of the times my son had played baseball and flag football there. All that remained of the backstop was a jumbled pile of pipe and chain link, soon to be removed for the construction of an entertainment stage. Read more

Something just occurred to me recently. Upon hearing the phrase, “Hey Pee Vee, act your age.” I was not acting but being myself. So many times, in the course of events of our lives, we react to statements made, ways we are treated or occurrences that are about to happen. I really believe that if we are brought up a certain way, our overall response will be according to the patterns set before us by our parents. Read more

As vaccination rates inch upward , Americans are beginning to travel again. More than 10 times as many passengers passed through Transportation Security Administration screenings in the first week of April compared with the same period last year, a sign that some degree of normalcy is returning. Read more

Have you ever heard or uttered a sentence and then thought, “I’ll bet no one’s ever said that before”? For instance, yesterday I was playing with my daughter, Maeve, who is three-and-a-half. She has some stretchy, colorful toys called Monkey Noodles. Maeve has a vivid imagination, but I’ll spare the details of the game she invented only to say the game ended with me exclaiming, “We don’t put Monkey Noodles in our mouths after we bake them in our tummy ovens!” I doubt the same words had ever been put together in the same order in the same sentence before, and I doubt they’ll ever need to be uttered again. Read more

Diane Luedtke’s Groupon for TSA PreCheck doesn’t work. Can she persuade the company to refund it? Read more

It’s a good time to be a home seller — homes are selling fast and for a premium — but that doesn’t mean you can jump into the market ill-prepared. Knowing what to expect can position you to make the most of this seller’s market. Read more

While it was the sky — not the water — that was blue, the reflection was warm and inviting. Sunshine made the air feel warmer than its actual temperature in the low-60s. Read more

While talking to a gent on the telephone, he happened to bring up what he considered the reason for the high divorce rate. Plainly put, he pointed out, “The reason June Eman decided to split up with her husband was due to the fact that she fell out of love with Jim.” He went on to state that he felt that they were married quite a long time anyway — eight years. Read more

It’s that time of year: is it spring yet? Or is it summer? Wait, is it going to get cold again? What? There’s snow in the forecast this week? Maypril in Central Indiana is like a box of chocolates, assuming that box of chocolates was insane and had a personal vendetta against you and your garden. Read more

The seat belts on Richard Johnson’s Lexus RX350 won’t release. But his dealership can’t help him. How do you fix this? Read more

Great achievements can have humble beginnings. Read more

It’s amazing how two words, “made to,” have fit into our vocabulary ever since we were small children. Rather than using those two words, we may have substituted “enforce” instead. After all, when we were younger, “compel” was a grown-up word and usually not one children would be prone to use. Read more

I took my son Miles to get his hair cut this past weekend. Miles’ barber has recently moved into a new salon down the road. The new spot is inside a larger salon called Phenix Salon Suites, a national chain of salons. Although California-based Phenix Salon Suites has a growing nationwide presence, I can’t help but cringe at the business’ spelling: Phenix. It should be “Phoenix,” shouldn’t it? Read more

The first impact of the impending pandemic – for me personally – came about 13 months ago and affected this column. Read more

A number of years ago, I was talking to the choir director of the church I attend when all of a sudden, she blurted out, “My bad!” Ever since then, I hear more people using that expression. What she was trying to tell me was that she had erred or made a mistake. Other people may have called it a wrong or even a sin. Whatever word one uses, they all mean the same thing, at least as I see it. Read more

Do you ever have a hard time coming up with the right word? You get stuck and pause in the middle of a sentence, grasping to remember the name of that type of knife technique where you dice vegetables until they’re incredibly small. By the way, the term you’re looking for is “brunoise,” but you can’t quite retrieve it from the place in your brain where that word lives. Read more

When the console on Suzanne Kailey’s NordicTrack stops working, the company tries to fix it. But it can’t. Is a refund in order? Read more

Easter: the holiest, most joyous day of the year for Christians; the event that sets Christianity apart from every other religion. For this day celebrates the Resurrection, Jesus Christ’s victory over the grave, and what that means for believers. Read more

There is more to Easter than sharing stories about the Easter Bunny, painting eggs or going on Easter egg hunts. Instead of putting our minds around worldly things, we should embrace the words of Jesus Christ during the Last Supper and then meditate on the acts He tolerated on the way to Golgotha, where He was crucified. That should be our mindset. Read more

Remember that episode of “Seinfeld” where Jerry and Sheila (Jerry’s girlfriend for one episode) call each other “schmoopie”? This schmaltzy, saccharine show of cutesy nicknaming made the rest of the gang sick. Most people remember this episode for the “Soup Nazi” yelling “No soup for you!” I, however, can’t get the baby-talk nicknames out of my mind. Read more

Betty Barrett cancels her flight from Fort Myers, Fla., to Birmingham, Ala. at the start of the pandemic. Why won’t American Airlines refund her ticket? Read more

What’s wrong with Robin Hogue’s Acura TLX? And why won’t Acura cover her warranty repairs? Read more

Every year, the same thing happens: Eager for the first kayak outing of the new season, I drop the boats from their garage perches – only to discover that I’ve forgotten to renew my launch permits. Read more

As long as I’ve written this column have I never ever written a series of two or more stories that have the same relevancy. Last week, I wrote about the “intelligent ghosts” that frequented my parents’ house and how I personally observed them in action first-hand. I was going to tie in the story I’m writing for today but didn’t have enough space to do both. So, I decided to explain the quandary of my last meeting with Zelda today, an incident that left me awestruck. Read more

The COVID-19 outbreak cancels Mike Feehrer’s wedding. But Relics Rental, a wedding rental business, wants to keep the $3,534 he paid. Can it do that? Read more

Stepping outside onto my back porch for the morning paper, I was greeted by a full chorus of birdsong: dozens of different songs and calls woven together into a natural polyphony. Read more

Before I was introduced to the Laurel Highlands, if someone were to tell me that I would be living in a house haunted by ghosts, I’m not quite sure what my response would be. But what you are about to read is true and it did happen to me. Read more

I’ve been contemplating a new parenting tactic: pre-emptively teaching my son bad words. Miles is seven, and he will someday know all the same expletives as I do. Because of this, I surmise that he ought to learn the words in context from his dad. That’s why I’ve started a spreadsheet in which I rank bad words from the tamest to the most profane. I’ll teach him two words per year with proper context and word origins, and keep instructing him until I exhaust the list. Read more

NationalGeographic.com is commemorating Women’s History Month with articles such as “The Women Who Shaped National Geographic” and “Nine Female Adventure Photographers Who Push the Limits.” Read more

Ever since Nov. 22 of last year, I have decided that I was going to do everything I could to protect myself from getting the coronavirus (COVID-19). That meant staying in my house, spending most of my time traveling between my bedroom, kitchen, bathroom and living room. Occasionally I would go downstairs to bring up packages that either the USPS or UPS dropped off beside my door. Read more

After Michelle Crews buys a Groupon for a cleaning service, the business closes. Can she get a refund from Groupon? Read more

The Green Gables’ Tuscany Room is a unique space that manages to be at once rustic and urbane. Its culturally refined décor is framed by rough-cut hardwood and field stone. Read more

It’s so easy to get bored in our confinement of being quarantined if we don’t use our time wisely and do something with it that will pay off in the long run. Recently as I sat talking to my daughter on the phone, did I realize I got where I have in life because I followed each passion to the fullest, developing three avenues to keep me busy from day to day. Read more

Remember faces? We used to be able to see people’s noses, mouths, chins and — sometimes — glorious mustaches. In order to help stop the spread of COVID-19, we wear face coverings in everyday places including grocery stores, schools and post offices. All we can see of each other’s faces is our eyes. That’s where Tyra Banks comes in. Read more

Terry Barber orders a laptop computer from Sam’s Club. It never shows up. Two months later, her refund is also missing. What’s the problem? Read more

After a year of the stuff, it’s getting harder to generate much excitement for virtual events. We’ve all done those. Repeatedly. Read more

I’m guilty of it and most likely, so are you. As a matter of fact, very few of us don’t use idioms. “And what are they?” one may ask. “An idiom is a commonly used expression whose meaning does not relate to the literal meaning of its words.” Formally defined, “An idiom is a group of words established by usage as having a meaning not deducible from those of the individual words.” Read more

Long, long ago in a time before masks, people gathered joyfully at a large but somewhat rude shed-pavilion at the end of a rough, single-lane dirt road. Coils of white steam rose vigorously from the galvanized vent pipes atop the roof. Read more

We are living in times like no other. Never in the past, as long as I have been alive, have I had to stay locked up in my house for safety’s sake so as to not catch various strains of the coronavirus (COVID-19). And the hard thing is, since my wife passed, I have no one to cook for. Of course, when she was alive, the only time she allowed me to make her a full dinner is when I was courting her. We had spaghetti and meatballs by candlelight. Doesn’t that sound romantic? Read more

To state that Gertrude Pridgett was a trailblazing artist is more than a bit of an understatement. Better known as Ma Rainey, Pridgett has been called the “Mother of the Blues;” she was among the first generation of blues singers to record and a bridge between live-performance vaudeville and the record industry. Read more

Since I’ve been confined in my quarters, thanks to COVID, I have to admit, I’ve been watching way too much more television than I should be. Oh yes, I’ve been reminded to read some of the many books that have been piling up on my bookshelves. But if it were only that easy. It’s not that I don’t want to. My problem is when I attempt to give it a try, I find myself falling asleep not once but time after time. Read more