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Today's Opinions

  • New year brings new list of chores

    Well, next up is New Year’s. As in the ancient holiday, we should celebrate the old year’s successes, and plan our new hopes for the new year. Write them down and place the list someplace you’ll see every day. Work toward those goals.
    The list doesn’t have to be big or logical. It’s your list. Just motivate yourself to get it done. Now, with that in mind, doing something with the Christmas tree may be on your list. If you decorated with a real tree, you get to choose what to do with it. later.

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  • Working with CASA proves rewarding

    To the editor:
    A few years ago you wrote an article about Court Appointed Special Advocates for Children (CASA), a national nonprofit organization which trains and supports volunteers to serve as advocates for the best interest of children in the foster care and child welfare systems.

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  • Revenge on friend will be sweet

    The burly guy with a hammer on his belt told me he was going to whoop my you-know-what.
    It wasn’t the first time someone who recognizes me from my day job has given me the stink eye, and most certainly won’t be the last.
    I’ve been f-bombed clean out of stores — once while buying potato chips for my kid’s youth baseball picnic — by people whose family members were listed in crime reports or court dockets.

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  • Send your Christmas photos to the News

    Perhaps the morning begins with the soft shuffling of socks tip-toeing down the stairs, drawn like pajama-clad moths to the Christmas tree glow.
    Your Christmas morning may erupt with a bang, not a whimper, with excited screams and noisy rustle of wrapping paper torn and hastily set aside.
    The holidays in the Downs family are more sedate these days, what with all of the formerly excitable children now grown-up and mature.  
    We resign ourselves to making silly faces during our annual dreaded photo shoot in front of the Christmas tree.

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  • A sure-fire way to get kids to eat spinach

    The children at Head Start were eating spinach and enjoying it this week.
    At least most of them tried it and most of those who tried it, liked it.
    I prepared spinach salad with fruit. The recipe is below. The secret to getting them to eat the spinach is the strawberries. The surprise taste is the orange juice.
    Here are some tips for handling your child who is a choosy eater.  
    Don’t be a short order cook. Instead offer the same food for the entire family. Offer nutritious foods. Serve at least one food that your child will eat.

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  • Carlson’s ‘knee-jerk’ reaction to shootings was in ‘poor taste’

    To the editor:
    Although only two weeks ago I was happy to see someone defend Mr. Carlson’s right to use the editorial column as a platform for his personal views, I think his recent self-styled rant regarding guns was in poor taste; it sounded like a hastily written knee-jerk reaction from the NRA rather than a sympathetic expression of a compassionate human being in the company of those dealing with a national tragedy.

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  • Finding lasting peace when asking “Why?”

    Heinous. Vicious. Atrocious.
    None of those adjectives come close to describing the murder of 20 defenseless first-graders and six adults at Sandy Hook Elementary School in Connecticut.
    Incomprehensible.
    We simply can’t fathom how someone could be so sick, so deranged to force his way into an elementary school, the home of bright eyes, toothless smiles and looks of wonder.
    Just why?
    How could anyone methodically aim a gun at such innocence and pull a trigger? Not just once, but, according to reports, multiple times.

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  • Recipes for healthier holiday breakfast

    Holiday breakfasts can be healthier. It is possible to eat well and feel satisfied with less fat and sodium.
    The recipes below are healthier versions of holiday favorites because they are lower in fat, sugar and sodium and higher in fiber.

    Breakfast Bake
    Serves 8            
    8 slices bread (white or whole wheat), crust trimmed, buttered with a low fat spread
    1/2 pound sausage, cooked thoroughly and crumbled, rinsing with hot water to remove more fat

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