Columns
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In the Year 2525, or 2025?
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Welcome to the year 2025. For those of us old enough to remember the summer of ’69 – maybe we got our first real six-string – we know we only have exactly five centuries to go until the year 2525 – the prophetic first year in the one-hit wonder song by Zager & Evans, “In…
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A 12-Team Playoff History: What Might Have Been for Penn State Through the Years
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With the end of Penn State’s 16-game season amid a 12-team College Football Playoff run, it’s a good time to look back and play with what might have been for Penn State if the 12-team playoff had been the norm in the modern post-World War II era of college football. First let’s start with setting…
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Now What Do I Do?
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It’s been a tough few days in my sports world, folks. Last Thursday, with our Penn State flag proudly flying outside our home, our Nittany Lions lost a heartbreaker against the Notre Dame Fighting Irish in the semifinals of the College Football Playoff (CFP) at the Orange Bowl in Miami. On Saturday, with our Pittsburgh…
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There’s Nothing Funny About a Censored Cartoon
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One of the joys of teaching journalism is that I can count on the news itself to provide made-to-order lesson plans. Take what happened at the Washington Post last week. Ann Telnaes, a Pulitzer Prize-winning cartoonist, presented a draft of a drawing to her editor that depicted four men and a certain cartoon mouse in…
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January Is a Call to Action to Respond to Stalking
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This column by Centre Safe Executive Director Jennifer Pencek originally appeared in The Centre County Gazette. When we talk about acts of interpersonal violence, oftentimes people will focus on sexual assault or domestic violence, both of which are horrendous, traumatic crimes. But one crime that often gets lumped onto the end of lists of crimes…
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17 Ideas and Questions Inspired by a Bombardment of Holiday Season TV Ads
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My extended holiday season TV watching meant seeing more commercials than usual. The results of which are the following 17 random thoughts, ideas, suggestions and questions about the televised advertising I was bombarded with in late December and early January.
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How Quarterback Drew Allar Led Penn State to the Orange Bowl and a CFP Semifinal vs. Notre Dame
in College Football Playoffs, Columns, Local & Penn State Sports, Local News, Penn State Football, Penn State Sports—
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The Drew Allar of 2024 is not exactly like the Drew Allar who quarterbacked Penn State in 2023. That’s a good thing. And the result is that the older Drew, the more mature, the more emotional Drew has the Nittany Lions in the CFP Final Four, set to play Notre Dame Thursday night in the…
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The 12-Year War: When Penn State vs. Notre Dame Was the World
in College Football Playoffs, Columns, Local & Penn State Sports, Local News, Penn State Football, Penn State Sports—
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Penn State vs. Notre Dame in the Orange Bowl national semifinal game… the words alone send chills along the spine of any college football fan. But for Penn State fans of a certain age, the match-up between Penn State and Notre Dame in the Orange Bowl has an extra meaning, a mystique and a nostalgia…
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Herndon: Setting the Record Straight on ‘Misleading Statements’ About Solar Power Agreement
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The author of this op-ed is a member of State College Borough Council. President Jimmy Carter passed away this week. I’ve long respected him as a politician with true integrity and will always try to serve with the same honor and honesty that he did. Part of this honesty requires exposing the misleading statements that…
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For Penn State and the Road to No. 1, the Final Four Has a Nice Ring to It
in College Football Playoffs, Columns, Local & Penn State Sports, Local News, Penn State Football, Penn State Sports—
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GLENDALE, ARIZ. — Penn State is in The Final Four. Hold on, Nittany Lion basketball fans. Mike has hoops on a pretty successful Rhoades, but we’re talking football here. And, The Road to No. 1. Around Happy Valley, that’s a term popularized decades ago by the late great Ridge Riley in his Penn State football history…