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Panem et circenses.  The satirical poet Juvenal mocked the Roman populace for surrendering their societal ideals to the ruling class in exchange for ‘bread and circus’. Karl Marx updated Juvena’s mockery with his view that “religion is the opium of the masses”  Modern day sports have supplanted circus and religion as the ‘opium of the […]

            Arbitrary & Capricious. Webster’s Dictionary defines the word pairing as “unrestrained and unpredictable.”  See also, Tornado.     Normally, a cold front’s collision with warm humid air results in beneficial rain.  When meteorologists predict too much of both coupled with dramatic drops in temperature they warn of ‘severe weather’ and possible tornados.  But weather experts […]

GUEST COMMENTARY Reining in billboards across Missouri would preserve state’s beauty Paul Lore Published The Missourian (Columbia) Apr 16, 2025 We suffer the blight of the ubiquitous billboards that line our highways as a cost of living in a competitive world. But we now suffer “a death by a thousand cuts” from their proliferation. Indeed, […]

            Nothing like Springtime in the Ozarks when blooming redbuds and flowering dogwoods spring to life in the shadow of a rugged forest of cedar, hickory and oak.  The ornamentals’ larger hardwood kin follow thereafter, their leafy sprouts sporting varying hues of virgin green.             April rains quench Spring’s voracious thirst required to sustain renewed […]

He who wins the race to the bottom loses. In the St. Louis Post-Dispatch’s race to cut costs—and the newspaper’s size and breadth—the Post, its dwindling readership, and the St. Louis area lose. The Post-Dispatch’s Sunday issue has eroded to a modicum compared to when the Sunday paper was a three-inch slab of print.   Back […]

Mother Nature’s polar express blew into St. Louis bringing with it the return of Old Man Winter’s Prodigal Son.  A nine-inch drop of snow and sleet elicited cries of anguish from  naysayers as they shivered and shoveled the winter mix from their driveways and scraped clear  their car windshields.  Conversely, the young and the young […]