Columns

“The worst thing,” I told my mother, “was when you made us eat venison sausages for lunch. That sausage lasted forever!”

“What is past is prologue.” Those words are engraved on the National Archives building in Washington, D.C., just a few minutes’ walk from the Martin Luther King, Jr. Monument and the National Museum of African American History and Culture on the National Mall. Each of these landmarks reminds us of the decisive role that history plays in shaping our lives today, tomorrow and well into the future.

In Greek mythology, the “Sirens” were three enchanting sisters who lured men with their songs to their death. An interesting preface to this story is that the god Zeus created these friendly Sirens to be playmates for his daughter. But as the myth narrative advances and Hades kidnaps Zeus’s daughter the Sirens eventually become evil; the progression from promise to fear.

It was snowing hard, the way it almost never does anymore, and I decided I needed to go for my walk, heedless of the weather.

I was having lunch with a friend and she asked me why I moved back to Hillsboro after living all around the world. I hesitated, since we’d been talking about various dog breeds before she suddenly threw out that query, and in that hesitant moment she went on, “What’s your favorite place that you’ve lived?”

Here’s a quick one to start us off. Amazon has a page of coupons just for Prime members. It’s at Amazon.com/coupons. You’re not gonna find anything surprising here. It’s just a page of all the coupons that are currently available at Amazon. If you went directly to one of the products you would see the same coupon you see on the coupons page. This page just gathers them all together in one place. You can search by brand or view the coupons available in a given category by selecting the category on the left side of the page.

Editor’s note — This following column is an updated article originally written by contributing columnist Bill Sims and published by Education Week on April 2, 2014.

“I have to say, that is a very nice hat!” I told the man as he passed me on the sidewalk.

Quick update: Last week I asked what was so special about Damar Hamlin. Damar, Damar, Damar! That’s all I heard on all media. He did, in fact, suffer a grievous injury to his heart. OK, I said. Football is a violent sport, it will abide. Monday night, Russel Gage, who plays for Tampa Bay, was hit in the back of his head and hurt his spine. He may never play football again, but it looks like he will recover. The media is not touching this story. Most of you have never heard of this incident. Go back and look at what I wrote.

When our kids were small we took a few vacations, but not many. It was just way too difficult for several reasons. The first and obvious one was the amount of money it took. Then there was the planning involved. Things like pets, ball games, reservations, where to go, and the list goes on. Being an age of a higher number has its drawbacks. But it also has many privileges not offered to us in our younger years.