Category: Grounds for Insanity column

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Nov 12, 2013

Tricks and treats a fact of life on The Three

It wasn’t a holiday we celebrated, exactly. After all, life here was a succession of their tricks and my treats. It was just how we rolled on The Three. With

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Oct 29, 2013

Keep running, boys–they’re right behind you

It was the annual open house at the school up the road. For days, the 7-year-old whose blue jeans I launder had been buzzing. For days, the book fair had

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Oct 22, 2013

Changing of seasons brings renewal, transformation

Driving into town on a bright, clear day, I see it. To the left, a tall maple with color aflame shouts “glory” from its spot by the road. Turning onto

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Oct 15, 2013

Local crickets make racket, model simple faith in complicated world

“Dear Resident Cricket.” That’s how the note began. “After weeks of your cheerful little ‘songs of praise’ down there in the hinterlands (i.e., the basement), I can hardly remember my

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Oct 08, 2013

“Accidentally” running a marathon, performing surgery, pulling teeth are out

It may be one of the strangest stories of the year. In Amherst, Ontario, recently, a 34-year-old woman accidentally ran a marathon. A Canadian wire service, Postmedia News, reported that

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Oct 01, 2013

It’s a parade, not a three-ring circus, for the Queen Mother

It comes on a crisp, fall day. There we are, perched on a sidewalk just before that famous pie. Peering through the plate glass window, it stretches as far as

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Sep 17, 2013

Mother draws red line of her own, says ‘no’ to chemical weapons

The headlines have been full of it. With things heating up in what some call “the big sandbox over there,” the nation is looking to President Obama, his minions and

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Sep 10, 2013

Mr. GPS finds girl with “funny eyes,” looks for solace in chocolate cake

Mr. Schrock came wired with it. In an odd twist of fate, genetics or some inexplicable cosmic mutation, he was born with a unit in place. Why he showed up

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Sep 03, 2013

I can’t find your transmission, but I can spell that one word

He’d awakened, miserable. “I couldn’t get to sleep,” he said, scratching an arm. It’s so itchy.” Sure enough. On legs, arms and chest, red blotches had broken out. “That’s not

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Aug 27, 2013

“Encouragement” technology would sell–housewife offers ideas

When it happens, it’s a crisis. No, I mean it. Look up the word “crisis” in any dictionary, and there’ll be a picture of a microwave oven, black smoke rising,

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