Original Leisure & Entertainment

You have to hand it to Windy. When Alphonse “Windy” Wilson chooses to speak, it is a bombastic sampling of creativity. Windy has yet to find a word he can’t make better through his own unique methods.

Well, what got him fired up the . . . 

The best gifts are not always in the prettiest packages.

Bitchy
Some mornings,
I wake up bitchy.
If I’m hungry,
And want something to eat.

Other mornings,
If I’m not hungry,
I get up quietly,
And let bitchy sleep.
Jim Schindler

A Bunch
I’m . . . 

It was the early 1980s. It was Texas. It was December. It was a Southern Baptist church. It is customary in Southern Baptist churches to take up an offering during the Advent season to support missionaries overseas. This collection is called the “Lottie . . . 

Here is an ironclad prescription for personal misery: Attempt to keep everything, every person, every detail, and every moving part of your life, family, job, health, or schedule in precise working order as you would have it, without modification. . . . 

I had ordered all sorts of food in Peru. I had tried chicken with a side of beans, beef with a side of beans, alpaca with a side of beans, and beans with a side of beans. I was starting to feel like a human bean and decided it was time to see if I . . . 

Summer is dwindling down, with midsummer wild flowers holding court now. Yellow seems to be the dominant color, from the pale shade of the evening primrose to the tall stalk of the mullein. The small aster-like heads of fleabane, looking just like . . . 

One of the sweetest compliments I have ever received since I began writing came in the form of a poem written by a new-found friend. It warms my heart, and makes me more thankful for my circle of friendship.

WRITE (for Alyce Faye Bragg)
By Ross . . . 

There is an old story about a monastery that fell on hard times. Once it had thrived, but over the years it had become so decimated that only a few old monks were left living in an even older house. People no longer came there to be nourished spiritually . . . 

“Sanctimonious siphons, it’s hot!” said Dud, sitting at the philosophy counter and turning over his coffee cup for action with a single smooth move. Dud is a regular at the Mule Barn truck stop’s legendary world dilemma think . . . 

I had always said I could never be fond of a cat because cats are annoying animals. Around our farm, as I grew up, the cats were wild and pesky. To make matters worse, when I married, my mother-in-law owned a cat; or, to be more specific, the cat owned . . . 

If you buy just what you need and not what you want, you’d have a lot less needs.

Lifers
The Ohio prosecutor, who jokingly filed a criminal indictment against the groundhog, Punxsutawaney Phil, for fraudulently predicting an early spring, . . . 

Years ago my Dad, known as Darvis or “Bill” to friends, joined me on an afternoon hike along the White River in Indiana. Colorful autumn leaves lined the trail making the walk pleasant. Smells and sounds of everything around us had a golden . . . 

One of the nicest pleasures in the summer is to sit on the porch swing in the early morning coolness and watch the day unfold. The sun has yet to peep out over Pilot Knob, and mist covers the deep hollows on the mountain. The songbirds are tuning up . . . 

The 122nd Fighter Wing unveiled two historical paintings by renowned artist and aviator Peter Westacott, July 20, 2013. He is a highly acclaimed internationally known artist, a member of the prestigious US Air Force Art Program and qualified pilot, . . . 

“Bert looks good this morning, Doc,” Dud said, quietly. Three stools down the counter, Bert smiled and said, “Yes, I certainly do!”

We turned toward our old pal. “You heard that?”
“Sure did, guys,” . . . 

In American literature, the biggest religious pretender of all time is probably Sinclair Lewis’ Elmer Gantry. While most of us have not read the book, we may remember the movie. The film was a 1960 masterpiece starring Burt Lancaster in an Emmy-winning . . . 

Why do those who understand not what they say, say so much?

On a Roll
Did you read about the team of students, at Purdue University, who won a $20,000 prize for creating a biodegradable fireworks casing out of corn that is lighter and less expensive . . . 

My wife attended Lutheran Catechism. My neighbor went to an Adventist Sabbath class. My college friend was enrolled in a Yeshiva. And I attended Sunday School. I suppose these are all different names for a similar religious rite of passage: The formalized . . . 

Heat simmers through our hills as the last week of June makes its exit. Mom always used the expression, “Hotter than the Fourth of July” so perhaps July sent her heat in advance. Gardens are flourishing however, with the first fruits being . . . 

“From the cow to the plow, Dewey,” Windy said, leaning on a shovel. Windy Wilson was on another of his “helper days” and today it was Dewey Decker’s turn to be helped.
“What do you mean, Windy?”

“You know . . . 

For the last several months I have been keeping a regular appointment with an oncologist. I’m not the one receiving care, however. My friend has lung cancer, and I have been accompanying her as she receives weekly doses of chemotherapy.

These . . . 

Each year I am hired to go to Washington, D.C. with the eighth grade class from Clinton, WI where I grew up, to videotape their trip. I greatly enjoy visiting our nation’s capitol, and each year I take some special memories back with me. This . . . 

It was now or never! Tony Kanaan had wanted it all his life. He’d been in the lead on 221 laps in previous Indianapolis 500’s, and never won. They were all on the yellow flag caution. Three laps left. If he didn’t make a move, and . . . 

“There is something rotten in the state of Denmark.” That is a centuries old phrase from William Shakespeare’s masterpiece, “Hamlet.” Going back to your high school English class, you might remember that strange things . . .