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.…
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…
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 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…
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…
“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…
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…
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…
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;”…
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…
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…
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…
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…
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…
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 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…
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…
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…
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…
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…
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,…
“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…
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…
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! 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 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…
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…
“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,…
OK, all you liberals, here we go, one, two, three: “WAAAAAH! BOOOHOOO! Poor little immigrant children! That nasty old monster Donald Trump is separating them from their parents! Poor little things! They’re being starved, beaten, molested, and the Republicans don’t…
There are more ways to kill a cat than choking it on buttermilk. Ever hear that old saying? What it means is, “If one thing hasn’t worked, for 65 years, then let’s try something else.” Or words to that effect.…
Well, hello there! It’s been a long, long time … How’m I doin’? Well, I guess I’m doin’ fine … In case any of my loyal readers had wondered, no, Wayne Engle, aka Old Corporal, hasn’t died, or run out…
Basketball was born in Massachusetts. But it grew up in Indiana. The fit was better here. Dr. James Naismith invented the roundball game in 1891, to give students at the Massachusetts college where he taught an indoor sport to play…
Jody Schneider fell in love twice — and just one week before Christmas. The 12-year-old New York City boy had always felt very close to animals (spiritually), and loved to be around them (although he didn’t get to be very…