Opinions, Commentaries and Editorials by Wayne Engle
Madison’s Birthday We all have birthdays once a year. Cities do, too. But seldom is notice taken of municipal birthdays, unless they’re especially notable. Like an observance of two centuries of existence. None of us humans will celebrate 200 years…
The Boys in Blue “The Boys in Blue” couldn’t get a break in America this past week. One week ago today three policemen were killed and a fourth left critically wounded and brain-dead by a sub-human thug named Lovelle Mixon…
Abbey Road The Beatles, the greatest rock band in history, began recording their swan song, “Abbey Road,” almost exactly 40 years ago this month. Any of you who reply, “So what?” obviously didn’t live through the Beatles era like I…
What Next! Wonder what else could go wrong for us here in dear old Madison, IN? Factories closing or laying people off; the local hospital announcing a move to a costly new hilltop facility that will devastate the downtown —…
City messes up Maintenance is something you have to do from time to time. If you don’t put a new roof on your house every so many years, leaks may ruin personal property worth much more than the re-roofing job.…
The oldest (taxable) profession Has anyone now living and under 70 years old seen the U.S. in such a turmoil before as it is now? Soaring layoffs, budget deficits high as the sky, tons upon tons of debt for our…
Just the Facts You’ve seen the Brink’s Home Security commercials on TV. A mother and her young children, or a teenage girl, are “home alone” at night, doing at-home things, and suddenly a “bad guy” tries to break in (he’s…
Music, maestro! Music has always fascinated me, ever since I was a kid. My mom was a wonderful singer, I’ve been told I’m fair to middling, and I played saxophone in the high school band. An aunt of mine has…
What’s the best-known state nickname out of all the 50? I’ll bet if you polled a good sampling of Americans, they’d say, “Hoosiers.” It was the name of a first-run, and first-rate, movie about our state’s first love — basketball.…
Turn out the Lights Will the last employer to leave Madison please turn out the lights? Yeah, you’re right; it’s NOT funny — especially if you’re one of those who has just become unemployed. IKE project put on hold; 740…
Good Samaritans Good Samaritans are supposed to assist the injured, right? Rescue people from wrecked, burning automobiles, or out of flaming houses? Well, of course. Remember the original Good Samaritan bathed and bandaged a man of another ethnicity who had…
When you’re a bachelor who doesn’t cook, you’re going to spend a lot of time eating in restaurants. And I have. Over 40 years of it, in practically every diner in Madison. Remember some of the ones everyone used to…
Bell Ringers With Christmastime upon us again, a familiar sound, that of the Salvation Army bells, fills the air outside many stores in malls and also downtown. Old Corporal has volunteered to be among the bellringers this year, as with…
Musicmen Our area is poorer today, because in the last week we’ve lost two local musicians who brought worlds of pleasure to so many of us for many years: Harold Kinman and Don “Duck” Youngblood. Say “Madison, Indiana” and “music”…
Old Madisonians Several years ago I got what I thought was a good idea: Form a local club or organization to be called The Old Madisonians. I don’t know just what we would have done, had it actually been formed,…
Post Mortem After 21 long months of often maddening campaigning, we finally have a new president-elect in Barack Hussein Obama. Hopefully the tears of joy — and of disappointment, depending on your point of view — have all been shed…
SHORT AND SWEET The election will finally be held Tuesday (let’s pause to say in unison, “Thank God!”) As a poll worker, I’m not going to make any partisan statements here, because I agreed not to. But I think there’s…
Mundt’s A lot of you folks who are too young to know, or who moved here from somewhere else, probably aren’t aware that a downtown institution is three quarters of a century old this year. Betty Mundt’s Candies opened for…
Writing Those of you who aren’t professional writers probably think the hardest part of writing a column is — well, WRITING. You probably imagine the ink-stained wretch sitting in front of his typewriter — make that PC nowadays — clacking…
Storm Aftermath The sound of the chainsaw has been heard in our town for the past week as people removed downed trees from their yards, sidewalks and, unfortunately, often their houses. The unprecedented windstorm of last Sunday thankfully didn’t cause…
DRINKING AGE part II Remember my first Corporal’s Corner column in mid-March, when I advocated the lowering of the U.S. drinking age from 21 to 18, which is what it is in most of the world? Looks like some other…
Mr. Change So Mr. “Change, Change, Change” will have as his running mate Mr. “Senator For Ever.” Bad move, Barack! Whatever Sen. Joe Biden’s good points, and there’s no doubt he has many, you passed up the “right guy:” Sen.…
House of The Rising Sun As a master mason might gaze in wonder at the Taj Mahal; as a first-rate popular song writer might listen enthralled to Beethoven or Tchaikovsky; I found by accident one day in 2000 while working…
——————————————————————————————— If we of the MCHS Class of 1963 had known Harold Kinman was going to become a Living Legend, we’d have treated him better! That’s a joke, folks. Harold was one of the best-liked kids in our class. And…
Consolidation You folks may remember that a couple of weeks ago I wrote on the possibility that one or more of the Madison Consolidated elementary schools may have to be closed down due to financial problems. This week I want…
Susan Atkins Susan Atkins is 60 years old, and she’s dying of brain cancer. But she won’t get to spend her last weeks or months with loving family and friends, and a group of people in California are glad. You…
School Board Dr. Tom Patterson, Madison Consolidated Schools superintendent, asked the school board last week to do something governmental bodies nationwide seldom do: Plan ahead. Actually try to figure out how to handle a crisis before it’s staring them right…
’08 Regatta O Boy Oberto-Miss Madison didn’t make the winners’ circle at the Madison Regatta, but she and driver Steve David did their darndest against formulaboats.com in the championship heat, besides winning two preliminary heats leading up to it. Old…
Noise Ordinance With a new, proposed anti-noise ordinance having been drafted for the Madison City Council, the question of noise pollution has drawn a number of comments on the Old Madison website recently. During the same time period, I received…
POLITICAL HUMOR Political humor is as American as apple pie. As American as — well, Will Rogers, who if he didn’t originate it, gave it its first great popularity. But Rogers’ humor was designed to make us think as well…
THE CHIEF When John Wallace accepted Mayor Tim Armstrong’s appointment of him as Madison’s chief of police, he knew it would be a multi-tasking job. But he didn’t know it would include having to help his department recover from a…
FATHERS DAY How sad and ironic that Tim Russert, NBC news show host who wrote two best-selling books about his father, died suddenly and unexpectedly on the eve of Father’s Day. It was always good to know that Russert loved…
Barber Shop If you had just moved to Madison; or Seymour, or Bedford, or any town about our size; and you wanted to find out about local politics, likes and dislikes, the economy, who the leading citizens are (or THINK…