John Hook
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What’s Up with Pennsylvania High School Football?
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What is going on with high school football here in the great commonwealth of Pennsylvania? Before we get to that, let’s first acknowledge the outstanding history that Pennsylvania has played in the game of football in this country. The Pro Football Hall of Fame in Canton, Ohio, has 378 individuals enshrined as the finest the…
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Family Caregiving Is a Noble Responsibility
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Here’s a bit of old news. Old in three ways as a matter of fact. First, that it relates to the decade that ended four years ago. Second, that it was initially published nine months ago when the census data for that decade was released. And third, that it concerns those of us who are…
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Hook: How to Solve Happy Valley’s Eminent Domain Problems
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Eminent domain is not a happy phrase. According to the Merriam-Webster dictionary, eminent domain is “a right of a government to take private property for public use by virtue of the superior dominion of the sovereign power over all lands within its jurisdiction.” In other words, your land is not your land if the government…
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Time for Pa. to Reinspect Car Inspections
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Last week I took part in one of our annual mandated days of semi-lost productivity here in Pennsylvania. And because we have several vehicles in our family I get to take part in another one later this week. No, as much as I would have liked my day of semi-lost productivity to have been a…
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Back to the Cinema
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It’s the new year and this weekend my wife and I had the opportunity to do something we hadn’t done in ages. Decades actually. We decided to go out to a movie together at a real movie theater. That may sound a bit odd considering we’ve been married for 37 years and have been together…
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Year-End Column Clean-Out: A Potpourri of Thoughts on the Centre Region
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Happy Boxing Day! For those who don’t know what that is, Boxing Day was a holiday traditionally celebrated in Great Britain and a few other countries such as Australia, Canada and New Zealand. It’s held on the day after Christmas, and was an opportunity to give gifts to employees, tradespeople and other workers who would…
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The Season of Family, However You Define It
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It takes a village to raise a child. This is an old proverb with unknown origins. An NPR newsletter did some informal research in 2016 to find out if it came from Africa, as is commonly believed, and determined that, “We just don’t know.” However, regardless of where it originated, the concept behind it is…
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Creatures of Habit
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Humans are creatures of habit. This is an understanding about people, and all living creatures for that matter, that has existed for eons. In the February 1887 edition of Popular Science Monthly, Professor William James wrote a 19-page article titled, “The Laws of Habit,” which laid out the modern concept of habit. He defined it…
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Our Family’s Literal and Figurative Marathons
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The modern marathon race traces its roots to the legend of an ancient Greek messenger who, in 490 B.C., ran from Marathon to Athens with the news of a Greek victory over an invading army of Persians. After making his announcement, the exhausted messenger collapsed and died. To honor his run and sacrifice, the inaugural…
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Almost Heaven: Decades of Misconceptions Erased on a Trip to West Virginia
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I want to move to West Virginia. OK, I’ll admit, those are seven inconceivable words for me. You see, way back on the fourth weekend of October 1982, a group of close buddies and I drove my van – yes, it was a conversion van (made by “Good Times Van” by the way!) – to…