Jottings on ‘roos, reporters and peaches

This Jottings first appeared April 16, 2014. ? It lightens my day just seeing a bunch of kangaroos bouncing across a desert in some commercial. To the geniuses behind the ‘roo marketing: Trouble is, I don’t remember what they are advertising. Sorry about that. (No, I am not) ? Print media news writers? questions often […]

Will Rogers? life; roping, quipping, acting

‘The income tax has made more liars out of people than golf.? — Will Rogers. I’ve been using comments from Will Rogers for over 20 years. It occurred to me recently that fewer and fewer people know who he was or what he did. In 1935, Rogers was killed in an airplane crash in Alaska […]

It’s only political in the middle

Lucille Ball said, ‘That stuff needs splainin.?? (Or maybe it was her Cuban husband Desi Arnaz . . . whatever.) This old guys says, ‘My people skills are just fine. It’s my tolerance to idiots that needs work.? I’ve been writing long hand since my mother taught me the rubber end of a pencil didn’t […]

Something for nearly everyone this week

? Dove, the soap maker, has a new lotion, Deep Moisture. Their commercial claims other lotions just lay on your skin, and they show a woman lathered up in a shower with her clothes on. They make that sound like that’s a bad idea, but speaking for an old single male, that kind of showering […]

Listening well sadly a lost art for most

Our guest speaker at Oxford Rotary Club recently was one of the best I’ve ever heard. Dinah Brinson’s message was primarily about listening: ‘We have been given two ears and but a single mouth in order that we may hear more and talk less.? However, she had her speech down so perfectly, and so interestingly […]

Calls from over/or under seas

Got another unwelcome call from a man with a foreign, to me, tongue wanting to talk to me about the expired warranty on my 10-year old Ford. At first I thought it good he found a calling job in America, but he might have been living off shore. Then my mind wandered: Did Ford give […]

We’re a bad news lovin? people; media knows it

The media, including this one, way too often see the glass as half empty. Bad news sells. Gossip is in and always has been. People say, ‘I don’t want to hear about it,? all the while cupping their ear. The unemployment rate in Michigan topped 15 percent, and nationally it’s over 10 percent. When is […]

News from hither and yon

I’ve been told that I have cataracts for years. For the same number of years, doctors have given me no reason to be concerned. Only recently did an eye-man tell me to get serious about it. He recommended I see Dr. Biggs in Clarkston. Turns out he reads our Clarkston News and Jim’s Jottings. Our […]

Things have changed since 1875

There’s never enough time for many of us to find the records and stuff that we promised ourselves we’d never forget. However, in doing some current looking I found stuff I think you’ll enjoy. I found an 1878 (yes the 1878) copy of the July, 12, 1878 Oxford Weekly Journal. Now don’t turn the page […]

We’re a bad news lovin? people; media knows it

The media, including this one, way too often see the glass as half empty. Bad news sells. Gossip is in and always has been. People say, ‘I don’t want to hear about it,? all the while cupping their ear. The unemployment rate in Michigan topped 15 percent, and nationally it’s over 10 percent. When is […]

1 34 35 36 37 38 64