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…
Huge mistake, 400 years ago
Author: Wayne Engle
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,…
Hey, leftist liberals: Better watch your backs!
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…
‘The World Turned Upside Down’
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.…
Here’s how it all started, folks …
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…
Here’s our Hoosier Hysteria!
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 and the “Critters’ Christmas”
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…
Will, Adi, Macca: Yes, he did; No, he didn’t; No, he isn’t.
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…
Guns are in our American history — and our DNA
“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…
The Mormons don’t ‘sweat the small stuff’
” ‘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,…
The Left is heading for a very nasty fall
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,…
Hustle right into that Hall, Charlie!
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…
Big families: Hey, folks, we need MORE of them!
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…
‘Equality’? It’s just another liberal lie
“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…
A coming U.S. firestorm? Very possible …
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 it a divine signal to believers?
“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…
Remembering the Rascals — and Pete
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…
Assert your authority, President Trump!
“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”…
‘Hatred’ can be directed many ways
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…
A Christmas NamVet reunion
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…
Trump presidency will be a different one
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…
Election day, don’t make a big mistake
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…
The conspiracy to ‘Dump Trump’
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…
Kaepernick the ass, and a new anthem
This column is about a childish, spoiled football player who doesn’t know how wonderful he’s got it; and about the song that has inspired his nonsensical raving and disrespect of a national symbol. Colin Kaepernick, did you feel that you…
The ‘highest office’? Hillary’s not up to it
Hackin’ Hillary (cough, cough!) did a nose dive into her limousine during the 9/11 memorial services in New York City Sunday. “Over-heated,” her minions told the press. Yeah, those 75-degree, 39 percent humidity days are murder, aren’t they? Then, after…