Did you ever hear that Indiana is kind of an odd state? Because South Bend is in the north; North Vernon is in the south; and French Lick doesn’t mean what you think it does! And besides that, Indiana has…
Where is our Hoosier president?
Author: Wayne Engle
Who killed those eight people?
The news media in the U.S. nowadays is fascinated by murder cases in which several people are found dead — especially if it’s in their own home — with some question as to who the murderer might be. The first…
They witnessed a miracle!
“Wonder who those people are that are going into the little out-building over there?” asked Luther, young son of a farmer near Bethlehem. “They look like people from somewhere else.” Bradford, his friend helping him round up their fathers’ sheep…
Save our country! Vote GOP!
Does the number “1984” mean anything to you, my friends? Oh, you might say, “Why, that was the year I was born!” Or, “That’s the year my mom passed away! Sob! …” Or, “That’s when President Ronald Reagan won re-election,…
Costa Rica: It’s a hidden gem in the New World
The illegal immigrants continue to stream across the Rio Grande border — uh, make that FORMER border — between Mexico and the Greatest Nation in History. While many of them have come from as far away as Africa, Korea, Russia,…
George Fruits: The first REAL last veteran
Identifying the last surviving veteran of each of America’s numerous wars, starting with the American Revolution, has long been a fascinating chore for our historians, veterans’ organizations, and, most important, for the descendants of those men who served their country.…
We must stop this war — NOW!
Ukraine is currently in a heckuva mess. Oh, I forgot — you all knew that before, didn’t you? Vladimir Putin did what many believed he wouldn’t actually dare to do, and sent his more than 150,000 Russian Army troops across…
Is the Ukraine worth yet another U.S. war?
So we’re still fighting this Corona Virus epidemic, after two years of doing so. Our shutdowns, mandates, school closings, yadda, yadda, have put our economy, the world’s largest, into really scary territory in a number of ways. Tens of thousands…
Christmas: What if Jesus returned this year?
Christmas is getting nearer … nearer … the holiday that all we Christians and many others, too, in this world, look forward to most, each year. And this world is in a god-awful mess. Not just the United States, but…
Religion: Is it true, or just ‘made up’?
Are all religions true, provable, genuine? Or, as atheists, agnostics, and other scoffers might put it, “If you can’t see it, touch it, or spit on it, it doesn’t exist.” That is a difficult question to answer, isn’t it? We…
White slaves? Yes, they were here!
“All the slaves in U.S. history were black! They built this entire country, while suffering under the burden of slavery! All you White people had it easy compared to these poor, put-upon African-Americans! And it was all your fault!” And…
Three American wise men
Who do you think were the three most intelligent Americans of all time? No! Please don’t mention me! I’m trying to keep it a secret! A little levity to start a column that’s partly very serious. Anyway, there were three…
Derek Chauvin was railroaded!
Now that the mainstream media, the left-wing Democrats, the street blacks, and a bunch of other people have managed to get Derek Chauvin convicted on all three “murder” charges he was facing up in Minneapolis, and he has been locked…
‘White privilege’? What the hell’s that?
Give the leftist Democrats a few minutes, and they’ll come up with yet another name to call the “horrible, heartless” way they say we American White people treat the black people who live among us. “Racism;” “systemic racism;” “White privilege;”…
Christmas! The Reason for the Season
This world has gone through one of the worst years in history in 2020. The Covid 19 pandemic, raging all over the globe; rioting in the streets, from the United States, to Europe, to South America — virtually everywhere in…
The American ’empire’: Don’t let it crumble
Empires have carried a high, magnificent reputation through recorded history. Millions of people under the rule of a single, all-powerful monarch, call him/her king, queen, emperor, sultan, or whatever the predominant language prescribes. An economy that, at least as the…
The media’s selective ‘outrage’ on race
A black drug addict with a long criminal record is killed — accidentally — while resisting arrest. Another black man, with a history of sexual molestation, is shot (but not killed) by police after resisting arrest and after he lunged…
A new anthem — and let’s ALL sing it!
So. The radical left, and their allies in the mainstream media, are now telling us that we MUST change the national anthem, get a new one that isn’t so … uh, “racist,” and “sexist,” and so many other horrible things…
Please think hard about this election, folks
Are we coming to the end of our 231-year-old, best in the world federal republic, my fellow Americans? Like most of you, I sincerely hope not. But things are not looking well. And I’m sure that any sane American who…
Don’t White lives matter, too?
So we’ve lost another towering, irreplaceable entertainer, as the news media has been telling us for the past two or three days. Who was it? Why, Little Richard, of course! Many younger people will be saying, “Who?” He hadn’t exactly…
My book needs more sales, please!
My title character of my novel, “Whizzer” McCall, is finding the sales of my book to be as slow as his years-long pursuit of the largest lottery prize in history was. But, as he says on the cover of “Whizzer…
Christmas at Lanier
The Lanier Mansion — a sweeping, majestic memorial to Hoosier multi-millionaire James F.D. Lanier, who, back in the 19th Century, rescued the Indiana state government from an inability to continue funding its support of the federal government in its participation…
My long-awaited novel is here!
I told you, my faithful readers, some time ago that I was working on getting a book that I’d written years ago, published. Well, it’s finally in print! “Whizzer Wins It All” went up on Amazon.com Monday, while it became…
Huge mistake, 400 years ago
This is a big, important anniversary for the United States of America, my friends. Bet you don’t know what it is, either. OK, here we go: On this day, August 20, 1619 — 400 years ago today — the first…
Madison, back in the day …
Downtown Madison, Indiana — what a history it has! It goes back to 1809, when a man named John Paul founded this town on the banks of the Ohio River, in the southeast corner of what was then the Indiana…
Hoosiers in Hollywood …
Indiana is an odd state. South Bend is in the north; North Vernon is in the south; and French Lick doesn’t mean what you think it does! Now that I’ve got your attention, I’ll add that yes, in some ways,…
Old Corporal’s novel: It’s a-comin’!
“You better start trying to get that book published, Wayne. You know, you’re not getting any younger!” Yeah, thanks a bunch, friends. Don’t remind me. I don’t even remember how long ago it was that I started writing this novel…
A pox on all bans and censorship!
CENSORSHIP! BANS! Words you can’t say in polite society! I HATE all that crap — and I always have. As a retired newspaper reporter, I always found secrecy about the facts very annoying. As a child, I was highly annoyed…
Madison Courier, we still need you!
The Madison Courier has been here with us in southeastern Indiana for 182 years. Supposedly, it has never missed an edition. But, has it started to go down for the third time? Newspapers, like humans, often have lifespans. They’re born,…
Christmas is the greatest holiday!
CHRISTMAS! It’s coming, folks! As if you didn’t know that, of course. No holiday in world history has been so publicized, so widely observed, so full of divine meaning, warmth and a kindness that gushes out of people at the Yuletide…
Tony Joe, we’ll miss you so …
Tony Joe White, the “Swamp Fox,” and one of the most unique musicians in American history, died quietly and unexpectedly last Wednesday, at his home in Tennessee, apparently with family members present. I think it’s the way he would have…
GOP must stand up to ‘clever, slick’ Dems
So the conniving, totally unprincipled Democrats on the Senate Judiciary Committee have finally gotten what they’ve been saying they wanted: A seventh FBI investigation into Judge Brett Kavanaugh’s background to see if somehow, they don’t care how, some piece of…
The Madison, Indiana of my youth
“Hey, Wayne, like I told you last year, you know so much about the history of Madison and people who lived here, and if you don’t write it all down on your website, one of these days you’ll be gone,…