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Dear Annie: Son’s free ride gets expensive

Columns

Dear Annie: My best friend of over 20 years has a son that is her world. Her entire life revolves around him. What I’ve noticed is that he has become such a master of manipulation that either she ignores it or she truly doesn’t see it. For example, he recently transferred colleges to accept an athletic scholarship. He insisted his car, a 2025 BMW, be delivered to him, for a delivery fee of $2,700. At first, she didn’t agree to it, but he pushed back so hard that she gave in. Then came over $1,000 in parking tickets — that SHE paid! He was supposed to pay them out of the ...

Communism for the price of gas

Letters to the editor

Arthur Keller Beavertown Only in America can a person wear $300 shoes, drink $5+ coffee, use a $1,200 cellphone and are willing to vote for Democrat Communists because they think gas is unaffordable. So, let’s explore the price of oil. There have been 3 times in the past 50 years where gas prices or shortages have been big news. In the summer of 1973 there was an oil embargo in the Middle East and supply was sharply curtailed. Some gas stations ran out; cars lined up by the dozens at stations still with gas. This crisis ended when the embargo was lifted. In 1979, another gas ...

Take the Wilderness Road and you’ll find the Appalachian first lady who fooled Washington

Columns

WYTHEVILLE, Virginia — Most people meet this town zooming past it at 70 mph. Interstate 77 comes up out of North Carolina. Interstate 81 runs down the Great Valley toward Bristol. They cross here, share a few miles of pavement, and then split again. Truckers stop for diesel. Families stop for a bathroom. Then they are gone. They miss the better road. U.S. 11 runs right through downtown as Main Street. In this part of Virginia, it is also called the Lee Highway. Before that it was the Great Road, the wagon road that carried settlers south out of Pennsylvania and Maryland and down ...

Dear Annie: Sick of the silent treatment

Columns

Dear Annie: I have been married to my husband for 18 years, and I love him deeply. He is kind, hardworking and devoted to our family. He will fix anything that breaks, drive across town if one of the kids needs something and make me coffee every morning without being asked. In so many ways, he shows up. But emotionally, I often feel completely alone. Any time I try to talk about something difficult, he shuts down. It could be a concern about money, something one of the kids is going through, a decision we need to make together or simply something he said that hurt my feelings. The ...

The Greece speech

Columns

Back in my college days (American University, Washington, D.C.), required reading included the works of Greek playwrights Aeschylus, Sophocles and Euripides. Long after graduation they remained on my bookshelf. It was believed for generations that these men, along with philosophers Plato, Cicero and other great minds, could teach us. At too many of today’s colleges and universities we find courses in LGBTQ+ history and, according to Campus Reform, a 2023 course at Harvard “aimed to teach students how to prepare for a diversity, equity, and inclusion-filled future.” Harvard is not ...

Woman experiences an extreme case of constipation

Columns

DEAR DR. ROACH: I’m a healthy, active 69-year-old female. I’ve had problems with constipation for several years, and it’s recently worsened. When I had my first colonoscopy, the doctor at the time, who’d been doing colonoscopies for 50 years, told me that I had the longest colon he’d ever seen. When I had my second (and most recent) colonoscopy, which was postponed for two days because I needed a stronger laxative to clear my colon, he told me my colon was so convoluted that I probably shouldn’t have another colonoscopy. Over the past few months, I have gone for up to ...