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Applause, Applause

Columns

Each Saturday, The Express community newspaper highlights people, groups and activities our readers deem worthy of applause. “The Porter Township Library staff would like to THANK The Express for mentioning our summer library program in Around the Town! The children had a great time and the program was a success! Thanks again! — Sharon Fuge and the Porter Township Library Staff YOU HAVE THE POWER If you would like to make a nomination for our weekly Saturday morning round of “Applause” for someone or some group for doing something special, send your nomination to ...

Dear Annie: Mother in the middle

Columns

Dear Annie: I’m writing for advice about a dear friend, “Meg,” who we’ve known for more than 40 years. She has a son, “Rodney,” who went to high school with our son and who has always been on the edge of being an outlaw. Over the years, we’ve seen Rodney continuously depend on his parents to finance his escapades. We saw him wreck his car and then his parents’ so that, for a time, the family had no means of transportation. We saw Meg pay for a very expensive college education where he only took one course: bowling. We saw Rodney join a fraternity where he quickly ...

Dear Annie: The perpetual plus-one

Columns

Dear Annie: I’m 29, living in New York City, with a job I love and a great group of friends — none of whom are single. Half are married or engaged, the other half coupled up in serious relationships. I’m generally OK being single, but going out as the perpetual third wheel is wearing on me. I’ve thought about making new friends; I’ve even thought about moving cities. I’ve also caught myself secretly hoping my coupled friends break up, which I know is terrible. How do I find my people? — Odd One Out Dear Odd One Out: The odd seat out can feel isolating. Don’t be too hard ...

Woman loses consciousness when getting into her wheelchair

Columns

DEAR DR. ROACH: My mother lives with me. She’s 88 and on hospice. She’s totally bedridden. Her brain is fine, but her body has failed her. The problem is that if I try and get her out of the bed for anything (a change of scenery, to change the sheets, etc.), within minutes of getting her into a wheelchair, her blood pressure crashes, and she loses consciousness. Obviously, this is a huge issue. She’s always complained of a lifelong “vasovagal” issue. This also happened occasionally before she was on hospice, and her cardiologist gave her a new medication — midodrine. But ...

Trump’s most powerful enablers wear judicial robes

Columns

In the first Federalist Paper, Alexander Hamilton warned that a great risk to liberty comes from those who start out as “demagogues” and end up as “tyrants.” He nevertheless judged the risk worth taking to establish a constitutional republic. He can be forgiven for taking that chance. Back in 1787, there was no obvious suspect on the horizon about to overturn the new republic — certainly not George Washington, the inevitable choice for the new nation’s first president. Today’s justices of the U.S. Supreme Court cannot be let off so easily. A potential tyrant has arisen ...

What a 700-year-old fresco can teach America

Columns

There are moments when history reaches across the centuries with startling clarity. Standing in the Palazzo Pubblico in Siena, Italy, and looking at Ambrogio Lorenzetti’s “Allegory of Good and Bad Government,” I had one of those moments. Nearly 700 years old, the series of fresco paintings includes a depiction of a bustling city that illustrates the effects of good government, as well as representations of the decay that results from arbitrary and unjust rulers. The visual treatise on political economy holds important lessons for us today. Lorenzetti’s city isn’t thriving ...