Author: Wayne Engle

Getting a new look on this life

I’m seeing the world through new eyes these days — almost literally. Yes, Old Corporal had his second and final cataract surgery last Monday. For the first time since I was about 12 years old, I can see things clearly,…

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Happy New Year? Well, maybe …

With New Year’s Eve fast upon us, I hope you’ll indulge Old Corporal as he takes stock of 2010 in the Madison area, and offers some opinions with which some people obviously will not agree. —— OK, folks, everybody who…

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Joey and the Christmas pledge

Joey Romano glanced around at the Christmas decorations in Stanford’s Fine Dining, the priciest restaurant the town of 12,000 offered. Pretty nice, he thought; kind of old-fashioned. Old-fashioned St. Nicholas on the mantle; real Christmas tree with all colors of…

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Assange must be silenced!

Julian Assange, the smarty-pants ultra-liberal who has been thumbing his nose at the U.S. on his WikiLeaks website by making public hundreds of thousands of confidential government communications, now is threatening that if he is arrested by anyone or his…

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Paying for your own mistakes

A young American woman with more high ideals than sense opted to attend a trendy, “leading” university, and now, having graduated, finds that she owes $200,000 in student loan repayments — $891 per month, which she says she “can’t afford.”…

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Dems’ courthouse lease ran out

Zounds! There are actually elected Republicans who will be running offices, instead of just running for offices,  in the Jefferson County Courthouse, come Jan. 1! How long has it been since that happened? Let’s see: Auditor’s office, 1976, as near…

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Bix was simply ‘the best’

Who was the greatest jazz trumpeter or cornetist of all time? Louis Armstrong? Harry James? Maybe Dizzy Gillespie? Wrong. Try Bix Beiderbecke. Who? Leon Bismarck “Bix” Beiderbecke was a legend in his own time for his all-too-brief career, playing his…

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Could KDH become VA?

Two years from now, give or take a few months, the King’s Daughters’ Hospital & Health Services will be moving from its century-plus location in downtown Madison to its new campus in the middle of a field on East S.R.…

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My dog days

You could probably say that, from ages 11 to 18, Ginger was my best friend. She was certainly more consistently friendly, more consistently accessible, and less judgemental, than any of my other friends. And she never tried to borrow money…

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Our politically tone-deaf leader

Memo to President Barack Obama: The American people DO NOT want a Muslim mosque built just 600 feet from Ground Zero in New York City, where almost 3,000 people died because of Muslim fanatics. And, Mr. President, your party’s chances…

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Two monsters, two enablers, 10 dead

A paranoid, delusional American black man; a lying, controlling Egyptian immigrant obsessed by his patriarchal family religion and by some of its more bizarre, even murderous, “commandments.” And two very foolish American White women who allowed themselves to become involved…

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How about a library ombudsman?

Last Wednesday’s contentious meeting of the Jefferson County Public Library Board did not appear to solve any problems, despite verbal statements made to the board by eight members of the community, including Old Corporal. The seven-member board and the library…

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Honoring ‘The Duckster’

Here in Madison we’ve named streets, buildings, etc., in honor of people who played a big part in our history. Lanier Drive; John Paul Park; E.O. Muncie School; the Drusilla Medical Building … They’ve been the city’s founder, a banker…

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Arizona takes the first step

Arizona has taken a draconian — but quite possibly constitutional — step to try to control the explosive flow of illegal, mostly Mexican, immigrants across its borders. The new law signed by Gov. Jan Brewer last Friday puts the burden…

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Basketball greatness, 1970s style

Butler came within an eyelash of inspiring another “Hoosiers” movie — of completing a roundball holy trinity with the Milan Indians and the Hickory Huskers. It didn’t quite make it — Duke was just too tough, too big — but…

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“Marzi Pan”: Baking up a dream

“A dream is a wish your heart makes …” — From Walt Disney’s Cinderella (Photos by Stephanie Hellmann, Nice Shots) Since he was a 12-year-old boy washing dishes in Madison’s Dieken’s Bakery, Rob Youngblood has had such a dream, in…

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