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A good Joe ...

Local Columns

In our church Christmas pageants there is one primary character who doesn’t get many, if any, lines: Joseph, the quiet nice guy in the Christmas story. Have you ever wondered what Joseph was feeling and thinking during those months preceding and following Jesus’ birth? Times and customs change, but people don’t. His emotions may have been like those many men would experience today. Joseph — a humble carpenter who had been betrothed to a young Jewish girl named Mary. Jewish betrothals, or engagements, in Joseph’s day were as binding as marriage. The Bible isn’t specific ...

UFOs and other tomfoolery

Local Columns

Convenience store and grocery store news racks are not as “captivating” as they were a few decades ago when there were some fascinating “rags” on display. They displayed headlines like “Two-headed Gator-Man eats dentist!” “Spice Girls begin breeding in attempt to create Spice Army!” “This just in: Phobophobia is scary!” One such tabloid declared that Hillary Clinton had given birth to a chimpanzee. Another declared that an alien had been abducted by the Air Force. The articles were not as interesting as the headlines. How do I know? I purchased a few over the ...

The law according to Murphy

Local Columns

It is 1949 at Edwards Air Force Base in California. Capt. Edward Murphy is an engineer working on a project to see how much sudden deceleration a person can stand in a crash. After discovering that a transducer was wired wrong, Capt. Murphy curses the technician responsible for the error and says, “If there is any way to do it wrong, he’ll find it.” The contractor’s project manager, listening nearby, is keeping a list of similar adages and calls this one “Murphy’s Law.” Similar philosophies have existed for years, but since 1949 the position that “anything that can go ...

People struggle

Local Columns

People struggle. But there is a fictional world that wants us to deny this. In that fiction, everyone has a set of bootstraps connected to some miraculous source that, if simply pulled upon, will lift them from their struggles to the magic of prosperity. Folks, that’s a Hallmark movie. When I moved back to Webster City I found some friends who were struggling. One, in particular, had not been raised to go without. Yet, there she was, in a position of struggle. She had a job and a child. But it wasn’t a high-dollar job, so it covered essentials most of the time, but that was it. ...

It's time to join the Diet Club

Local Columns

Welcome to the Diet Club. This is the comedy club for people who feel the need to diet but would rather laugh about it. The season of excess calories is upon use. All those high-calorie holiday foods and sitting around watching TV during the cold weather will take their toll. Soon it will feel like the laundry water has been shrinking those shirts. But, what the heck, we can always go to the Diet Club! I have to tell you, the recent weather has already cut my exercising down to zip and I’m thick and tired of it. But, it’s all my own fault — even before the holidays have begun I ...

The Spirit of Christmas blesses us

Letters to Editor

Dear Citizens of Webster City, First, I want to thank all those kind souls who have already sponsored an Angel from the Angel Trees located at Kendall Young Library and Peoples Credit Union. The Webster City Ministerial Association is proud to administer this program, and your generosity is ...