My Box Of Discipline Is Backordered

by Kevin Burton    My wife brings me a piece of coffeecake from Starbucks. Great, I say, I’ll eat half of it for breakfast.    She knows I love the coffeecake. And at some level, I know, I will not stop inhaling until I have eagerly shaken the crumbs from the bag it came in. …

The Sounds They Were A-Changin’

by Kevin Burton    Musical eras, like chocolate bars or ice cubes, are fluid before they are solid, shaped by the temperature of the times.    We can’t always distinguish them day to day. Historians declare them later, according to their differing standards.   But for me there is something momentous about looking at the …

Prayer Is Essential For The Christian

by Kevin Burton    It’s lunch time again at our school for the spiritually blind, time to refuel.    We’re in our second set of classes, heading toward graduation. This series comes from the fact that to be spiritually blind is far worse than being physically blind.    In our first semester we refueled at …

Words From A Learned Feline Bard

by Kevin Burton    If you love Shakespeare, or cats, or both, today I’ve got you covered.    I’m not as familiar with the works of Shakespeare as I am the works of say, Three Dog Night. I say this to my own shame.    But I know cats. I love cats, sure as I’m …

Hospital Fires Unvaccinated Nurses

by Kevin Burton    Thirteen employees at an Ontario hospital, were terminated last week for defying a mandatory Covid vaccination policy, according to published reports.    Sault Area Hospital in Sault Ste. Marie, Ontario, Canada fired eight nurses and five support staff after they failed to get a first vaccine shot by the Nov. 22 …

New Christmas Music By Alison Trelfa

by Kevin Burton    Just broke my rule against playing Christmas music before Dec. 1.    Well it’s not a hard and fast rule and I had good reason.  On this Christmas album I had a very small singing role.     Yesterday was the digital release day for Winter Warmer, the latest project from British …

Yo, Hartville, Ready For Your Closeup?

by Kevin Burton    Apologies right up front here, because Garrison Keillor would do this story better than I.    The US Census Bureau announced Nov. 16 that Hartville, Missouri, population 594, is the “center of population” for the United States.    Here is what that means, according to the Census Bureau release:    “If …

Make It Happen For God Today

by Kevin Burton    The first time I ever heard the phrase “make it happen” was in the Cleveland Cavaliers’ fight song in the 70s.    The 70s-era Cavs are my all-time favorite pro basketball team.    A few years later the staff at the Frontiersman, the newspaper in Wasilla, Alaska where I worked, got …

Sometimes A Fantasy Is All You Need

by Kevin Burton    If the NFL season ended at this writing, my Bengals would be included in the playoffs. They would travel to Kansas City for a first-round game.    Blood rivals Cleveland and Pittsburgh, though they are having fairly good seasons, would be excluded if the playoffs began today.  How sweet is that? …

Getting Booster Shot Was An Easy Call

by Kevin Burton    Got a glorious soreness in my left arm last Friday.  It felt great.    I signed up for a moment of pain, a period of soreness, then months of relief.    Maybe you guessed it. I’m talking about getting my Covid 19 booster shot. Put a little spring in my step …