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…
Myths about famous people have made it ’round the world ever since there was enough communication for myths TO travel. “Mohammed was a pedophile; and so was Joseph Smith.” “Everything great in American music was originated by brilliantly talented black…
“Bang bang! You’re dead!” If you heard or said those words, occasionally or often, when you were growing up, I’d practically guarantee you’re an American. Why? Because guns — the “bang bang” producer — are in our national DNA. And…
” ‘Hatred’? Didn’t he just write one about that a couple of months ago?” I can just hear my readers asking themselves that now. And the answer is, “Yes, I did.” But I felt the need to follow it up,…
What has happened to our once-great country, fellow Americans? Where did we go wrong? How did we get so far off the track that our land now seems to be run by millions of malcontents who never tire of protesting,…
Nobody ever accused Pete Rose of the Cincinnati Reds of being a fabulously athletic baseball player. He was of only average height, stocky in build, a good enough runner but nothing like those (mostly black) players who go from first…
Everybody should have at least one sister or brother. There. That’s the opinion of a man who grew up as an only child, so I’ve got the scars to prove the truth of what I just said. After all, the…
“We hold these truths to be self evident; that all men are created equal …” Thus spake Thomas Jefferson, probably the most brilliant of our Founding Fathers, in his preamble to the Declaration of Independence. Of course, in the next…
Wanted: Someone who can run this country efficiently, democratically, who can inspire great loyalty from his or her supporters, while also receiving grudging respect from the other side, and who, in the final result, can bring us together in the…
“The Holy Fire” is believed by Orthodox Christians to be an annual miracle performed by God on the eve of Easter, the celebration of Jesus Christ’s resurrection — and is totally unknown to most Western Christians. And it’s condemned as…
Do you remember the Little Rascals? If you grew up in the 1950s, as I did, you probably do. They were some of the favorite TV entertainment for us Baby Boomers of the Eisenhower years. The Hal Roach Studio had…
“John Marshall has given his decision. Now let him enforce it.” — That was President Andrew Jackson speaking, when the U.S. Supreme Court, led by Chief Justice John Marshall, ruled that he could not put the so-called “Trail of Tears”…
At noon Friday, Jan. 20, Donald J. Trump took the oath as the 45th president of the United States. Hundreds of thousands of Trump supporters were in Washington, D.C., for the festivities — inaugural parade, new president’s speech, the inaugural…
You Numbah One! You Numbah Ten! Choi Oi! White Mice … Victor Charlie … You buy me Saigon tea? … The “NamVet” words he’d heard every day while he was serving in the Vietnam War, 50 years before, ran randomly…
Well, our raucous presidential election, the most divisive since Hector was a pup, is over. Donald Trump has won, and will be the 45th president of the United States. Beyond that, I’ve had some random thoughts about all this. All…
OK, folks: It’s the bottom of the ninth; score tied; home team’s best slugger facing the visitors’ star pitcher. The fat lady’s putting on her girdle, getting ready to sing. It’s Christmas Eve, with visions of sugar plums dancing in…
So Donald Trump 11 years ago made a few unsavory remarks about women to a guy named Bush who he thought was the only one who could hear him. And — SOMEHOW — there just happened to be an “open…