Just after a private Gulfstream jet took off from the Santa Barbara, California, airport, a bird collided with its windshield, forcing the metal bird to return to the airport. It’s a pretty common event, according to the Santa Barbara fire department spokesman, John Ahlman, said.
The passengers, Oprah Winfrey, and her boyfriend, (more…)
Summer is vacation time. This item is a warning for Northerners visiting the southeastern states…
Among America’s many enemies, none is more disastrous than Pueraria Lobata, commonly known as KUDZU.
Residents of the southeastern United States, where it grows prolifically, must prepare for sporadic, unpredictable energy blackouts not caused by (more…)
The piece below was composed for a writing competition. The topic was “childhood experience.”
“Hemoglobin!”
It hit me like a giant wave crashing against the shore. The research I’d worked on all summer involved the common blood component, hemoglobin, not a mysterious substance called (more…)
Robert Mendler wants people to know he is not a statistic or a number.
“I am a human being,” he states. “Listen to me. I will tell you what happened to me and everyone I knew and loved.”
Writers seek assignments, and I was delighted when the Westmoreland County Historical Society agreed that I could do an article on Robert Mendler—full name used by his permission. I plan on posting his story on this site— www.carolyncholland.wordpress.com — in several segments. Material was gathered from talks he presented which I attended, including one he presented to seventh and eighth grade classes at a Catholic school, as well as a personal interview, and several casual conversations. His story impressed on me all the more the amount of abuse thrust not only on adults, but also on children, during the Holocaust. It was a difficult story to write. It will be a difficult story to read. It is a story of abuse to a specific child of the tender age of 13.
“I am a Holocaust survivor,” Mendler stated, baring his arm (more…)
It was another horrifying headline. The kind that are becoming all too common, but with a unique twist: “Mother charged with beating quadruplets.”
I read on. An Arizonian mother, 24 years old, gave birth nine weeks prematurely to three boys and one girl at the time the nation was riveted by the story of the McCaughey septuplets in Iowa.
The mother in Arizona also had a six-year old daughter with Down’s Syndrome.
She was arrested on fourteen counts of child abuse. One son was hospitalized in a (more…)
BRAMBLES (BRIEF RAMBLES) is a new column on my site, www.carolyncholland.wordpress.com. It will relate, comment on and explore eclectic topics pertinent to my (and others’) life in several short segments. This first BRAMBLE explores Sprint’s poverty, Quality Water and Relationships.
SUPPORT SPRINT IN ITS POVERTY!?!
Sprint will go broke if my neighbor doesn’t pay her last bill after closing her account with them. It was for (more…)
Between April 8 and June 12, 1630, a fleet of 17 ships carrying over 1000 passengers set sail from Yarmouth, England to Salem, Massachusetts. It was under the command of Massachusetts Governor John Winthrop, who sailed with 400 emigrants aboard the flagship (more…)
“You go into these small towns in Pennsylvania and, like a lot of small towns in the Midwest…(the people) fell through (the cracks of the previous administrations) and each successive administration has said that somehow these communities are going to regenerate and they have not…And it’s not surprising then they get bitter, they cling to guns or religion or antipathy to people who aren’t like them or anti-immigrant sentiment or anti-trade sentiment as a way to explain their frustrations,” presidential hopeful Barack Obama stated, according to news reports.
Certainly, there are bitter people in small towns in Pennsylvania. There are also (more…)
Do you remember the olden days before the computer? Of course not, you’re youngsters. I’m asking those of you who once used the typewriter—that antiquarian machine! WE know about (more…)
Many older residents of southwestern Pennsylvania, including Ligonier, are familiar with Moxie. They either tasted it in their younger days, when it was sold in local markets or saw the Moxie-mobile passing through their town, or saw it advertised on billboards. (photo: http://www.flickr.com/photos/carolyncholland/757780477/ )
“I remember it well until the late 1930s.” E. Kay Meyers said, recalling the Moxie truck, and remembering (more…)
