Recent News Nuggets

Will Knight is the son of a first-generation Latina immigrant and an American expat who met and married in Popayan, Colombia, where Will was born. From early in life, Will has known the value of a criminal justice system responsive to the needs and concerns of individual victims as well as the community at large.

I never attended college. I earned just one-half credit for attending a course on Overcoming the Fear of Computers at our Community College. 

Many years ago in Michigan I was a member of the Battle Creek chapter of the Lions organization. We had an annual meeting where each of us was assigned a blind person in our community to bring as a guest to dinner at the hotel where we met.  Instead of bringing a guest I made arrangements with my blind buddy, Harold Rowley to participate in a little experiment. Harold had lost his sight when he was a very young child. 

There are many people that have words of optimism …

Little did I know that evening at Bryant,Ohio when I stood in front of that audience some fifty years ago that I was embarking on a great adventure that would require travel to 50 of our United States, 7 Canadian Provinces and Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, Hong Kong to the Arctic Circle and hither and yon.

…

North Carolina. When I was widowed in 1993 I buried myself in work and it was several years before I took to courtin’. One thing I knew though was that I was tired of the cold Michigan winter weather and snow.

Did you ever try to locate something and you just couldn’t find it, but you found something much better? Well that happened and I found a little book my daughter Nancy presented to me on my birthday ten years ago. It is precious. What a perfect thing to read for Father’s Day. There is no title on it but the last words of the dedication say, “Oh my Papa, to me you are so wonderful.” There are eleven stories, each one more special to me than the last.

The Dancin’ Rag The story behind “The …

Younger Next Year: Live Strong, Fit, Sexy, and …

…

God, how the world needs a good shot of happiness and positive thinking right now, this minute, if not sooner.  Enough gloom. Let’s think about sunshine and happiness and smiling too. Let’s think about that greatness that is in you.

Are you staying home as you read this because of the coronavirus? Well for folks married or otherwise this can be quite a challenge. It might be quite a strain. I’ve read that the sales of alcohol, illegal drugs and porno are soaring. Mental health problems, suicide and spouse abuse are skyrocketing. Oh where is the relief we seek?

A conservative group’s protest called …

When I was a student at the University of Detroit High School my English teacher in the eleventh grade was named Father Skiffington.

Reckless and irresponsible. [efn_note]CBS News, Jason …

Is there anybody out there still reading this?  I hope a few will respond. After watching the news one wonders. Leave your comments below near the bottom of the page. 

Trump “Fiddled” while People Died How can …

Several steps have been outlined by the experts. File …

Wash your hands. That is the mantra we are hearing …

In this time of turmoil let us pray.. I believe that right now this might be the greatest crisis that we have faced as a nation.  Fear appears to have overcome this whole world and it is a time for prayer. Early in my life I discovered this Prayer of St. Francis and only recently have I realized that the prayer itself  is a menu of ways that we might individually serve as an instrument of the Lord’s Peace. Examine the words of this prayer yourself and see if one particular mission might call out to you.

Instead of Orange-Faced, Trump Should Be Red-Faced A …

Who cares about ethics? Assets held by President …

My academic career left a lot to be desired.  Not only was I a poor student but I was a troublesome one too.  My graduation yearbook lists my achievement as spending the most time in the jug (after school detention) than anyone in the history of the University of Detroit High School; a dubious distinction indeed.

Follow The Money $5,600, the maximum allowed for the …

In 1975 then President of the United States, Gerald Ford had to cancel his speech for the Michigan Petroleum Association’s Annual meeting at the Grand Hotel,  Mackinac Island, Michigan. The Petroleum Association President  called me and hired me to speak as the replacement for President Ford.

God Grant me the serenity to accept the things I cannot change, courage to change those things I can, and the wisdom to know the difference. 

Do Your Research BallotPedia.org United States …

The impeached President’s supporters Senator …

The National Prayer Breakfast is a thing that is not …

End Citizens United There’s no way around it: The …

It looks Trump is starting a war with Iran. Hundreds …

It is just January 2nd as I write this but this is my third day of high productivity. I cheated and started early. First thing I did was weigh myself.

Do Be Fooled by Trump’s Lies Voo-doo Magic So …

The following article was received via email shortly …

Here I go again! I don’t know about you but it seems like every year, a few days after Christmas I get all antsy and I feel compelled to write down a whole bunch of impossible resolutions.

We came across an interesting article by Vince Wade …

Until a year ago, I rarely dealt with the bank branch that handled my business account. Those transactions were always handled by an associate.

Have you ever gone into an ethnic restaurant here in the U.S. and pretended to yourself that you were back in time visiting a foreign land? Jean wanted to find something different for me on Veteran’s Day and so after driving around for a bit we arrived at the Hong Kong restaurant in Durham, NC.

A perceptive, smart-ass newspaper columnist named H.L. Mencken made that prediction in 1920, nearly a century ago.

What a wonderful fall day here in Hillsborough, North Carolina. Just a bit of nip in the air and the leaves on the trees in our yard are like a rainbow. The air is so fresh and crisp and I slept like an angel last night. Certainly, all is well with the world.

One day a schoolteacher wrote on the board the following: 

Jean and I innocently walked into a local Target Store and at the front of the store they had a table with three young ladies recruiting new employees to work this Christmas season.

I’d flown in to Halifax and after two aborted landings we finally gotten on the ground.

On the morning of February 14th, 1961 I became a writer. First thing, I answered a want ad offering a used Underwood typewriter for sale.

For the past few weeks, I have been endeavoring to sort out the books and booklets I’ve written by date. Then I want to make a second collection sorted by topic. I thought it would be a simple project but now I am suffering from the result of a lifetime practice of sloppy bookkeeping.

Have you ever been scolded and told “You just better straighten yourself out.”  Well I caught myself saying that to myself yesterday.

H. L. Hunt, who in his time was one of the richest men in the United States, once said that “You must decide what it is you want and decide what you will give up to get it.” Persistence falls into that category. The reason my poem titled “Pay Attention Brother” has been an inspiration to new writers is that many of them never had a hint of the price they must pay to succeed as a writer.

Twenty women who have faced extraordinary challenges and have overcome hardships are profiled in a new documentary-style exhibit at Flagstaff’s Pioneer Museum. It’s called “Resilience: Women in Flagstaff’s Past and Present.”

I was listening to the news this morning, really trying to keep up with the reporters but they were just a tiny bit too fast for my comprehension. It wasn’t that I couldn’t hear, keeping up was my problem. 

A dynamic speaker named Bill Sanders invited me to join him one day when he was visiting Jackson prison. That would be around 1980. We went into the maximum security section and visited with prisoners serving life sentences and then we would each gave a little speech and talked with prisoners privately.

James Brown, the old Blues singer, wrote and sang a song titled “Papa’s got a brand new bag”. I sort of associated that song with the different brands I have had in my career.

Did you ever get to laughing so hard that you had to get down on the floor and get into a fetal position just to survive?

From February of 1997 to February 2001 I wrote a total of 57 songs which we recorded with Greg Brayton at his studio in Coldwater, Michigan.

Hot has been the topic of conversation these recent days and my memory went back to 1951 when I was a G.I. at Fort Bliss, El Paso, Texas.

The Final Minutes of President Obama’s Farewell …

Oh the stuff I find around our house when I am looking for something else. Did you ever do that.? The same is true with my computer.

Something happened as I was approaching my ninetieth birthday. I began to look back upon my life as nine decades old so far. The first thought I had was that ten years ago on my birthday I decided to take a comedy classes and that lead to my adventures as Almost Andy.

In 1975 I wrote this poem for a Bicentennial speech I was preparing. It was published in the United State Congressional Record and in Success Unlimited Magazine.

A precious little porcelain doll dressed in a pretty dress and seated in an aged wooden snow sled, a tiny classic car set, a little stuffed pillow saying “You’re A Very Special Neighbor” A Norman Rockwell Saturday Evening Post Book, A framed print of a Norman Rockwell print, A book celebrating the hundredth anniversary of the city Auburn, Maine published fifty years ago.

Just the other day I asked myself, “What do you want to be when you grow up, Art?”  Here I am almost 90 and I still don’t have a good answer to that question.

What with Memorial Day and D Day recently, my thoughts drifted back to a man named Glen Miller. He had a band in the late 1930;s and early 40’s that was #1 in the nation.

When someone asked Thomas Edison where he got all of his ideas from he replied something like “They are all around us in the ether of the air and all we have to do is capture them.”

Back when we used pay phones every now and then when we stepped into a phone booth we discovered that there was a sign hung over the phone that read “Out of Order”, well,we got rid of the phones and the booths and the signs too, I guess, but every now and then I get the feeling that we ought to have saved those signs so we could take them to Washington, DC and hang them around the neck of some of the folks who are allegedly working for us there.

The first time, in the early seventies, Jim Pickens, a speaker and graphic artist, asked me what my brand was I might have told him “Lucky Strike.” That was a cigarette brand. What Jim was asking was what was my brand as a professional speaker.

Going in for a haircut this morning sure took me back a long ways. My barber was a lady from Thailand and as I sat watching her cut my hair my mind went back sixty nine years and I was in a barber shop in Kobe, Japan fresh out of combat in Korea.

In the fall of 1975 I received a call from the Michigan Petroleum Association. President Gerald Ford had promised when he was a Michigan Senator that he would be their banquet speaker at their upcoming meeting.

When asked for his definition of hell one brilliant, talented, fantastic achiever I encountered said, “Hell is a place where you are shown all of the awesome talents and abilities and opportunities to use what you have in opportunities and then shown your accomplishments. And then you are placed in a spot where can do no more for eternity.”

“I did not come to my fundamental understanding of the universe through my rational mind. I often think in music.” Albert Einstein

Did you ever get just so grateful about something or …

In 1976, fairly early in my creative career I had the honor of making a presentation at Buffalo University’s Creative Problem Solving Institute on the topic “Humor and Creativity.”

I was cleaning out a drawer upstairs in my music room when I came upon two boxes of Swan Safety Pins. ½ Great Gross in each box.

Some people I know collect postage stamps. Others collect rare coins. Baseball players cards were popular when I was a kid and you got them in bubble gum package.

Here’s a message I received just a few days ago. “Comment: It was about 50 years ago in Battle Creek that my mom and I went to one of your creative writing classes.

If you can read the following, you have a strange mind, like mine. Only 55 people out of 100 can.

I have been sitting here this morning asking myself why I have done some things in my lifetime? “Why did I write songs?, for instance. I started examining a booklet I have put together titled A Gathering.

Having a mind that takes you down the main road can be a burden, especially when you share your thinking in the role of the class clown.

I’ve had a couple of teeth extracted in this past year and I have been finding it more and more difficult to chew certain items such as steak.

It was 58 years ago this coming Wednesday that I snuck up the three flights of stairs to that meeting room at 55 1/2 East Michigan Avenue in Battle Creek, Michigan.

I recently found an old newspaper clipping dated February 4, 1969 which is just fifty years ago today.

With the new Mary Poppins playing in a nearby theatre my memory kicked in on one of my favorite memories.

I was having a burger at a counter and a young man with mud all over his boots sat down next to me and we had a great conversation.

Synergy is that awesome, magical force that is somehow created when two people get together for a joint endeavor. I first encountered it when I met G. Herbert True, Ph.D.

Sometimes it is a small world. Jean and I were getting our recommended weekly fish at a Seafood Restaurant in Durham and a gent sitting across the way smiled, got up and came walking over to our table.

Unless my math is on the fritz, (and this late in the year it could well be) this should be our 52nd Monday Morning Memo of 2018.

Many say Lincoln was a poet. He wrote “Four score and seventy years ago our fathers brought forth upon this continent a new nation, conceived in Liberty and dedicated to the principle that all men were created equal.”

Have you ever discovered coincidences in your life? 77 years ago last Friday I was 12 years old and already a successful independent businessman.

Whenever I suspect that my creativity is ebbing I go back to what other masters of creativity have written about their own thoughts on this topic.

I was just sitting here in my swivel chair looking at the stuff in my office. Some might call it clutter but to me it is a display of my best stuff and oh, the wonderful memories it brings back to me. I have five book cases in my office all stuffed with books and things.

I ordered some new business cards recently and they arrived in the mail yesterday and they sure brought back memories of long ago. It was in February, 1961 in Battle Creek, Michigan and I’d given up alcohol and purchased an old Underwood Typewriter.

Lately I have noticed a lot of people walking around with sour faces and what they need is Dis Surgery.

This is a song I wrote in 1999 and I just listened to my muse, that little creative spark which was spinning around in my head from 1997 thru 2001.

Nobody grows old by merely living a number of years. People grow old only by deserting their ideals. Years wrinkle the skin but to give up enthusiasm wrinkles the soul.

There’s one thing that unites everyone who works at PetSmart: we all love pets. Cats, dogs, goldfish, parakeets, hamsters – you name it, we love them. Every day, we bring our passion together to create something amazing: a place for our many best friends to be healthy, happy and to keep those tails wagging!

Over 45 years ago when I first began my career as a professional speaker I felt good when many of the members of my audiences laughed at my jokes and were moved by some of my stories. Then I learned about standing ovations and I was thrilled when I received my first one.

I had purchased postage stamps at our local Post Office counter and was waiting to pick up my back mail when I overheard a dedicated Afro-American postal service clerk as he displayed a new Commemorative Stamps Group…

Recently I watched a T.V interview with Lou Holtz, legandary football coach at Notre Dame and many other Universities by Joe Buck. It was a truly inspiring show for me. Lou Holtz said many thought provoking things but the one that stuck in my mind was when he talked about the two most important days in your life.

When I went out on the road speaking as a professional I worked hard on my introduction with whomever was given the job of introducing me to an audience.

The possibilities are endless. While dining out with …

When I retired from the Grand Trunk Western Railroad one of my fellow workers asked me who would be filling my vacancy. I told him I didn’t leave any. I figured I had done my job. Here’s a poem that’s a favorite of mine.