I was out and about this past weekend, and I met someone new. Now, this isn't odd in itself as I do not know the world's population over; however, the conversation that transpired is what was truly the oddity. In fact, it was one thing that the person said in particular that has stuck with ...
Being an impatient kid, my mother often said, “Mike, keep your shirt on!” This didn’t compel me to wait, but it gave me an idea about gifts for my uncle, Archie. At Christmastime and birthdays, I started buying him gifts of dress shirts, because I didn’t know what to get him! He ...
If you've ventured around Toledo for any sort of time or frankly just haven't been spending your days under a rock, then you'll have heard of, or at least seen, our Mayor Brian Sokol. A six foot man usually cruising around town in his massive black pickup, Sokol has been the Mayor of Toledo ...
Finally, the opportunity to relieve all those little and mild irritations that bug us so much. Pet Peeves! Those actions of others that just simply annoy us, (er, I mean, me). Now to be fair, they're not like "root canal" sufferings but just those tiny little disturbances that get on that ...
What’s fascinating about ladders is that you can make them out of anything and into anything! My neighbor in Newton leaned his ladder against his two-story house for years. When he sold the house, the new neighbors leaned their ladder against the house for several more years! The more ...
I've read books. I've written books. I love books, but I haven't always. I grew up in a family of readers, in a house where if you trip, often enough, it was a paperback underfoot. My ma read many subjects while mainly focusing on crime. If there’s any piece of literature that has a ...
The track team in high school practiced daily on an oval cinder track. As usual, the runners paced themselves and the same ones would place first, second and third each time with the same stragglers lagging. At one of the meets, the competing team was highly favored to win. As the starting ...
It's gonna be here real soon! Real Soon! Sheda's annual "Pet Peeve'' column. Once a year, I get all those nerve-racking little disturbances off my chest, and the older I get, the more pet peeves I seem to have. It just bothers me that the world just can't get along with me better. I'm ...
Some ads live on in infamy. On Feb. 21, 1931, the famous Alka-Seltzer advertisement emerged to miraculously claim relieve from no less than aching heads, feverish aches, a cold, upset gut, stomach jumps, discomforts, muscular aches, acid indigestion and heartburn! Simply a mixture of ...
I amazingly received many calls, emails and even a few texts about my comments on our Iowa Hawkeye Basketball Coach, Fran McCaffery. I mentioned that (to me), he is an embarrassment to the University of Iowa and should be fired from coaching the Hawkeyes. But, hey, that's just my opinion. ...