Columns
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A Gift that Keeps on Giving: A Digital Heirloom
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Years ago, my mother had all of our family movies dubbed down to VHS video tapes. I remember seeing the movies of my childhood and special events that took place in the history of our family. My parents wedding, my aunt’s wedding, baptisms, first communions, our family trip to Disneyland and our trip to Fort…
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Op-Ed: Why Hiring Terry Smith Is the Smart Strategy for Penn State
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“The granddaddy of all [strategic] mistakes is competing to be the best, going down the same path as everybody else and thinking that somehow you can achieve better results.” – Harvard Business School Professor Michael Porter, perhaps the leading expert on business strategy “I don’t want Penn State to become the kind of a place…
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PSUPoorman’s Top 10 on Day 50 of the Penn State Coaching Search: Who Is Kalani Sitake?
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It is now Day 50 of the Penn State Head Coaching Search. And, if we are to read the smoke signals clearly, BYU coach Kalani Sitake has entered the chat. Athletic director Pat Kraft, the point person for the search and the triggerman on firing James Franklin back on Oct. 12, is the man with…
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What’s Next for Penn State Football?
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PISCATAWAY, N.J. — Penn State, after beating Rutgers here 40-36 for its third win in 15 days, is now bowl eligible. But…make that buts, plural…there’s still a lot to be figured out. To start: Which bowl, where, when and against whom? The representative from the Pinstripe Bowl at Yankee Stadium was everywhere in SHI Stadium…
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Should Penn State Hire Terry Smith Permanently as Head Coach? It’s Complicated
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PISCATAWAY, N.J. — Prior to kickoff against Rutgers, thousands of Penn State fans packed into SHI Stadium, many holding signs in support of interim head coach Terry Smith. A group in the first row wore matching sweatshirts, and a plane flew overhead displaying the same message on a banner — “Hire Terry Smith.” Hours later,…
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Gratitude With a Touch of Attitude
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Last Monday, I chanced upon an e-bike lying on its side on the strip of grass between the sidewalk and the street. Odd, I thought. I looked around, saw no one, continued on my way. The bike was still there that afternoon and the next morning and all the rest of the week. Stolen, then ditched?…
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Inside/Outside State College: Downtown (and Nearby) Architecture
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Lots of people love the look of downtown State College, me included. However, as an architecture neophyte, I’m often at a loss to say why – or to describe it accurately.
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Op-Ed: We Are in a Dangerous Climate. But We Are Far From Helpless
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In July, EPA Administrator Lee Zeldin announced the agency’s intent to undo “the endangerment finding” on greenhouse gases. While other scandals, disruptions and divisions consume our attention, we cannot lose sight of the fact that human-caused climate change is a persistent and accelerating threat and that we are far from helpless against it. We have choices and…
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Hook: Our Tree Removal Conundrum
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We recently had a conundrum in our house that involved rational, emotional and even some moral thinking. We spent weeks debating and assessing the topic before we finally arrived at a decision. A decision which ensured, like all good compromises, that everyone was not happy with the result. We cut down a tree in our…
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PSUPoorman’s Top 10: How to Prep for a Job Interview With Penn State AD Pat Kraft
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It’s been 42 days…and counting…since Penn State vice president for intercollegiate athletics Dr. Patrick Kraft fired James Franklin, after the head football coach’s Nittany Lion football squad lost three games in 15 days and did a stunning free-fall from the No. 2 team in the country to a mediocre and perplexing 3-3. The next day,…