Posts By: occh4@comcast.net

One Word

We live in a world of short attention spans. Even texts have been reduced to emojis. Get to the point. But you wouldn’t know that if you listen to broadcast news on radio and television. Remember those? The digital generation isn’t listening. Having grown up watching and working in boardcast journalism, I even get impatient

Read on »

Guns at State and Main

It was a beautiful spring day. My wife Maureen and I went up to the borough of Doylestown, Pennsylvania for an outdoor lunch and some shopping. Doylestown is a typical suburban small town with many restaurants, bars, shops and a long history. Before heading home, we stopped at our favorite coffee shop. As we settled

Read on »

Right To Bear Arms

On December 14, 2012 we started to get reports into our newsroom that there was a shooting at an elementary school in Newtown, Connecticut. First reports were unclear about how many people were shot. Newtown was close enough to Philadelphia for us to send a reporter and camera crew if this was developing into a

Read on »

Redemption

  When Tom pulled into Bernie’s driveway, he knew he would have to wait. Bernie was never ready. Tom tapped the horn twice, and waited. After a few minutes, the double garage door opened. Bernie walked between the two shiny black SUVs struggling to carry his golf bag and his small suitcase. It was overcast and

Read on »

Heartbeat

It started when I happen to look down and notice my left ankle was swollen. I hadn’t fallen or twisted it. There was no pain. I had range of motion. There was no redness or rash or heat. I showed my wife Maureen, a registered nurse, the next night. She asked if I could breathe

Read on »

Rescue

  Jack knew he had to go slowly down the steep, winding road. The wet leaves made it even slicker. It was only seven o’clock in the morning, and the sun was trying to break through the morning fog. He was riding the break as he eased around the tight curves. He and his wife had

Read on »

Foul Ball

It was a 96 mile an hour fastball Tyson Chambers had seen many times. He was just a split second late. The ball went slicing down the right field foul line curving past the extended protective screen. Frank Miller was watching the ball the whole way. His wife Helen was sitting to his right. Frank

Read on »

Seventy

Five years ago I wrote that sixty-five was everyone’s last birthday. You enter the 65+ category and you’re just one of the millions of baby boomers who are parents of adult children and grandparents. Your adult children will eventually start treating you like a child and your grandchildren will grow bored rather than excited when

Read on »

Vaccine

For people of a certain age, meaning older people, the question that is asked with every new encounter with a friend is, “Did you get the vaccine yet?” It is like waiting for acceptance into an exclusive club. When just about all your friends say, “Oh, yes we got our shot”, very casually as if

Read on »

Political Hack

It’s hard to imagine, but I’m about to agree with Donald Trump. He has gone after Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell as he has many others who dared criticize him and failed to show unwavering loyalty. In a blistering attack on McConnell, Trump called him, “a dour, sullen, and unsmiling political hack”. Trump called on

Read on »