Columns
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The Recession Debate
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The official verdict is the U.S. is not in a recession. The traditional, standard definition of a recession has been met. Textbooks define a recession as two consecutive quarters of negative GDP growth. GDP is Gross Domestic Product and is the total monetary or market value of finished goods and services produced within a country’s…
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First Impressions? State College Captures Kudos from New International Students
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I make it a point each August to interview many of Penn State’s newly arrived international students. For a few good reasons. First, they are the hidden treasure of Happy Valley, ignored by many despite their brilliant minds and fascinating backgrounds. Second, they represent the greatest untold drama of our community: overcoming remarkable barriers of…
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Grange Brings Families Back Together
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By Mike Frazier CENTRE HALL — There are many state fairs across the country. One, the New York State Fair, happens to be near where my wife grew up. She could not wait to show me “her fair” after I had talked about “my fair.” Her brother had worked as an employee of the state…
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On the Return of Students, the Worth of College and Penn Staters in Congress
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The great annual migration has occurred! Like the historic return of the swallows to Capistrano, tens of thousands of young people have migrated back to Penn State. Except, unknown to most people, many of the swallows stopped returning to the Mission San Juan Capistrano because remodeling to the Mission affected their habitat. Fortunately or unfortunately,…
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Penn State, James Franklin and Going 1-0 vs. the Bigger Goals of 2022
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1-0. 1-0. 1-0. Purdue, Purdue, Purdue. If form holds in the coming days, we will see a Tweet from @coachjfranklin featuring some permutation of one of those messages. Maybe both. It has been a constant in James Geoffrey Franklin’s 3,144 days in Happy Valley. Through three university presidents and three athletic directors and five offensive…
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Fall Semester Returns, Welcoming the Latest Chapter of Storied Legacy
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The quiet of summertime in State College is but a few hours from being jetted into hyperspeed as the students return for the fall semester. After two long years of COVID protocols, social distancing and hybrid/remote learning there is a desire for a full return to normalcy. But this fall is a time of continuing…
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One Morning at the DMV
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When you go to the DMV, you’ve got to bring your “A” game. I didn’t. It had been a while. Driving east on College Avenue, I blanked at the McDonald’s fork. Left toward Bellefonte or right toward Pleasant Gap? I chose wrong. No biggie. I came back around, via Axemann. I got to the entrance…
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It’s Transition Time: Embrace It!
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Excitement. Anxiety. Laughter. Panic. Old friends. New friends. Stress. School shopping. Frantic schedules. New teachers. Music lessons. Sport practices. New teammates. Buying books. Finding Classrooms. Drop/Add. Ah, the emotions of the transition to a new academic year, whether K-12 or college. Late August and early September have always been a time of a “natural” transition…
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Penn State’s Manny Diaz to Kraft, Stubblefield: So, We Meet Again
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Manny Diaz, Penn State’s new defensive coordinator, worked for Dr. Patrick Kraft, Penn State’s new VP for intercollegiate athletics, for 18 days. At Temple. Kraft was the Owls’ AD at the time and Diaz was the head football coach, from Dec. 12 to Dec. 30, 2018.
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Joined by Cappelletti and a Not-So-Old Nold, I Feel Better About Going Over the Hill
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They say that misery loves company. And with my 70th birthday approaching on Saturday, I’ve been at risk for feeling miserable. Fortunately, I’ve found some support—my wife, whose age shall go unstated, and other wonderful people who are going over the hill along with me. John Cappelletti, for example. Who could be a better choice…