The Secret Lives of Words: Florida’s flamboyant flamingos
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The Secret Lives of Words: Florida’s flamboyant flamingos

If you’re a senior citizen like me (there’re plenty in Apalach), you may recall “When the Swallows Come Back to Capistrano,” the chartbuster hit first recorded by The Ink Spots in 1940, and later by Glenn Miller, Pat Boone, and even, in an at-home private session, Elvis (they’re all on YouTube). I was reminded of…

We are ruled by a Washington, D.C. Gerontocracy
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We are ruled by a Washington, D.C. Gerontocracy

Even for the left, it is getting harder to ignore the aging of Joe Biden that is happening before our eyes. Biden takes as many vacations as an 80-year-old in retirement with no job.  Biden is at one of his beachfront homes now, fighting back rising sea levels for us. By one estimate, he has…

Ant farms, Ant-Men, and chewy chocolate critters
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Ant farms, Ant-Men, and chewy chocolate critters

The Secret Lives of Words One of my earliest memories is of sitting on the ground, playing outside our apartment, and suddenly finding big black ants swarming all over me. They weren’t stinging, but they were startling, and oh so scary. I shrieked, jumped up, and ran around in circles trying to brush the critters…

From painting to emergencies, volunteers get it done
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From painting to emergencies, volunteers get it done

Hi Y’all, We had some really pretty days this past week, before the colder winds came in. I’m not complaining, especially when I talk to the folks who are coming down from the north. I don’t know if you noticed how beautiful the walls in the post office look. After tackling the enormous job of…

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Wanna play cowboy?

When I was 12 or so… Seems like most movie and TV cowboys have issues nowadays. They abuse their families (think 2021’s “Power of the Dog”); murder unforgivingly (as in Eastwood’s 1992 film “Unforgiven”); or end up being crazed androids (in “Westworld,” the franchise begun in 1973, now an HBO series). Things were different when…

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Charles Mohr, Alvan Chapman and the ‘sleeping angel’

At the north end of Apalachicola’s Magnolia Cemetery on Bluff Road, the Mohr family plot lies in the shade of an old cedar tree. Tall weeds, fallen palm fronds and years of dirt obscure the gravestones while Spanish moss hanging from live oaks nearby adds to the air of age and neglect.  In the middle…