The Things You Can Find Under Your Office Desk. It's almost Easter week and that means the Fak family in Lincoln is in clean-up mode. We host this holiday weekend and that means we will have family from far and wide coming for the weekend. It also means we have to get the house all... ( added 216 days 12 hours ago.)

Looking At Business Opportunities In the Stop-Smoking Industry Yeah, I'm not even one day into the nicotine-free world and already thinking of how I can turn my misery into moola. There are hundreds of products and books and gizmos on the market that are stop-smoking aids, but I don't think most of them work... ( added 220 days 16 hours ago.)

Saying Goodbye To Cigarettes I first grabbed a smoke when I was fifteen years old. I didn't like it and didn't try another until I went into the Army. I figured I was going to get killed anyway so what the heck harm could the smokes do. Besides I had grown up in an era when... ( added 223 days 15 hours ago.)

It's Hell When You Want To Be Older. I am closing in on 61 years of age and just about nothing works as well as it used to. I can live with that. The reason being if I don't live with my aches and pains it means I'm dead. Right now I can see Social Security money just down the... ( added 227 days 15 hours ago.)

Remembering Some of My Aerial Disasters. Well, it is officially spring and I am overjoyed that winter seems to be gone. Unlike last year, I am mentally ready to tackle all those projects I didn't do last year. Painting, roof, gutters, all didn't get done last year as I either was... ( added 230 days 15 hours ago.)

Goodbye to Comcast Hello to Dish. When I moved to Lincoln 27 years ago, I noticed almost every house had a huge antenna built alongside it. In the center of the state, we were still about 40 miles from all the big cities so to get reception in our town, a mega tower worked best. ... ( added 234 days 16 hours ago.)

What Idiot Invented the Automated Phone System? I live in a small town. Basically it is seven miles long by three miles wide. Maybe it's a little more or less but the point is it isn't very far from one place to another in Lincoln. Traffic is never heavy except for the Rush Minute' we have at... ( added 237 days 14 hours ago.)

Creutzfeldt-Jakob Disease, Confronting the Ghost in the Mirror. I appreciate the feedback on my last article. I received a great deal of e-mail privately from people who did not want their comments in the public domain and I am fine with that. I enjoy chatting whether publicly or privately. For the most part... ( added 241 days 15 hours ago.)

Finding Your Writing Niche Is In the Mirror A get a lot of responses to my free writing critique offered at my home website. Almost all the time I get a statement that says something like, "Please be honest", or "Please be brutally frank." Now I understand the effort a person can... ( added 244 days 15 hours ago.)

Nibbling Fish Stopped From Chomping Dead Skin On Feet Now that's a column title that will have Google Search' humming with activity. I say again I can't make up, no matter how many beers, some of the stuff that hits the news. For fun I do a little radio show locally on the Atlanta Illinois WLCN... ( added 248 days 16 hours ago.)

The Ruyan V8 Electronic Cigarette Stirs up Questions I didn't know I was a prophet but I guess I am. Last year, in one of my gatherings of quips, quotes and really bad jokes, I wrote "At the store I saw a new cigarette that was half the price of the other brands so I bought a carton. As soon as I... ( added 251 days 14 hours ago.)

Small Town Politics Was Indeed Fun, But Tough On Losers. Well the city of Lincoln had their primary, which in these parts means we had our general election. As no one is running on the Democratic ticket, the Republican winners have nothing to worry about in April's general election. When I lived in... ( added 255 days 16 hours ago.)

Jackson the Cat; a Fourth Anniversary. Somewhere in my archives is the story of how Jackson the cat came to live with my family. The story is called; a cardboard box for a home' for all those interested in looking. I knew that cold day four years ago that Jackson wasn't an ordinary... ( added 258 days 13 hours ago.)

Baseball: Spring Training News Is More About Problems Than the Game. I remember clearly the day the Chicago newspapers carried the story that Mickey Mantle was going to be paid $100,000 by the Yankees for the season. I recall my dad, a hardworking $5.00 an hour engineer, saying that was crazy. He asked how anyone... ( added 262 days 14 hours ago.)

The Polarizing Effect of Politics Doesn't Help Us I went to a Republican dinner last week. I usually don't go to those. I also skip Democratic get togethers as well as all it is preaching to the choir and it shouldn't really be considered news. This year it was Lincoln's 200th birthday and... ( added 265 days 11 hours ago.)

Maybe People Should Be Spayed and Neutered Rather Than Cats and Dogs. I just finished up an article for the paper titled The Rescuers'. It is about two women who have changed the local animal control shelter from being a Hotel California, where animals check in but they never leave, into a near no-kill center. The... ( added 269 days 12 hours ago.)

Can a Regular Guy Like Pat Quinn Be An Effective Governor? Well for all you people across the United States that are keeping a scorecard of what goofiness happens next in Illinois, I wish I could give you a heads up but I can't. Yep, we impeached that helmet-headed screwball Rod Blagojevich and we... ( added 272 days 15 hours ago.)

Remembering An Old Grump Who Might Have Saved My Life On February 6 th I will have officially been discharged from the U.S. Army for 38 years. That almost seems impossible as anyone who has been in the military will tell you those days; good, bad or indifferent etch themselves into one's memory. ... ( added 276 days 15 hours ago.)

My zaniest IRS and state tax problems It's just about that time of the year for all of us to gather up all those important papers and stubs we should have kept together in the first place. Being a do-it-yourself kind of guy, I like to do my own taxes. It means a long day of headaches... ( added 279 days 15 hours ago.)

2008-2009 the Winter of My Discontent and Crabbiness While I'm in a crabby mood, I thought I would spend some time grousing about winter and all the crap it brings our way. Cold, snow, ice, you name it central Illinois has had more than its fair share this year. I can't wait for temperatures to get... ( added 283 days 16 hours ago.)

More of the Things I Hate About Television It never fails when I go to a family member's house. I go to turn on their television and nothing happens. Usually there are three or four remotes lying around and being a manic person, I proceed to press every single button trying to just turn... ( added 286 days 16 hours ago.)

Why Sports Isn't Fun For Me Anymore As a youngster I lived to play baseball. As a teen, it was football and basketball and baseball. As a young adult I lived for those semi-pro games every day. In fact I didn't stop playing organized basketball until I was 48 years old. Oh I didn't... ( added 290 days 14 hours ago.)

Racism Will End When We Look At People As Individuals. I imagine this is a most important week in our country's history. We are about to have our first African-American president in our nation's history and that momentous benchmark should never be lost on as. I assure you it will always be an... ( added 293 days 15 hours ago.)

Remembering the Great Chicago Snow of 1967. As I sit here waiting for the Arctic cold front to move in and turn the Midwest into a giant freezer, I recall another great winter event in my life. If you have any age on you and lived in Chicago it is simply called the great snow. That is... ( added 297 days 16 hours ago.)

The Most Aggravating Things About Running An Internet Publication The internet paper I manage is modest of course unless you look at it from a local perspective. Having over 10,000 unique visitors every day in a community of less than 40,000 shows we hold our own and then some locally. There are many little... ( added 300 days 14 hours ago.)