A moment to pause

   Bright and early Saturday morning, an important tradition will take place.    On the quiet hill of the Veterans of Foreign Wars Memorial Park, volunteers will carefully place a single American flag at each marker, remembering those who have died in service to our country.

HVAC maintenance and fly fishing

   How do you feel about routine maintenance on your HVAC unit? Normally, I’m a wait-until-it-breaks kind of guy. But the home we bought a couple of years ago has a 17-year-old central heating/ac unit and I’m hoping to squeeze a few more years out of it.

Of mice and circumstance

   Warning: If you are a high school senior, do not read this column.    Principals and heads of school: I’m sorry, because we all know the exact kids who shouldn’t read this will be the ones who disobey the warning.    Graduation week is here.

Letters to the Editor

Double money To the editor:    For instance in raising due to imbalance, the trade tariff rate to 25 percent, and following through with a 25 percent corporate tax rate, you then have double avenues of monies being returned to the U.S. Treasury on decreasing the federal debt load.

Split-second timing a reminder of how fragile life is

   “Time heals,” they say. Maybe.    Maybe not.    It’s been more than 3,500 days since I watched the state trooper spray orange fluorescent paint on the black asphalt. And chills still cascade down my spine.

Enjoy some community

   Although there’s still a little bit of the school year left, summer fun is getting a major kickoff this weekend.    We have two festivals to enjoy, and one ends just in time for the other to begin.

Secretariat was the greatest of them all

By Paul Kimball      Like many folks, I enjoy watching the occasional horse race. The “occasion- al” horse race for me is the running of the Kentucky Derby.

Floating through festival history

   I’ve learned something over the years. If I need to gather historical information, I need to do it on a Friday. I get lost in it, because it’s fun to me, and it’s also fun for the history keepers, making it easier to keep going down the winding path and taking trips on its offshoots.

Seeking local experts

   Not too long ago, local newspapers often had columnists from different parts of a community sharing the various happenings — so-and-so had a dinner party, a student visited from college, or maybe a garden club had a meeting.

Letters to the Editor

The inhumanity of recent deportations To the editor:    The last time you bit into a chicken sandwich, did you think about how the chicken got there?