Archive for ‘Opinion’

  • My Irish Up: Cat proves smarter

    By Mike Corrigan BN Columnist I know, I know, your dog is smarter than my cat, or so you say. But can he comprehend complex sentences, draw moral conclusions and adapt his actions to your mandates and proclamations? Thought not. My cat can, though. Here is a picture of the cinnamon wonder (actual life size). […]

  • My Irish Up: Anagrams in the news

    By Mike Corrigan BN Columnist The big scandals last week concerned the Miami Dolphins’ super-hazing incident, where a player quit the team under an onslaught of threats and racial innuendo from a large and threatening steroidal-life form named Richie Incognito; and 60 Minutes’ botching of the Benghazi “story,” which was so off-base it rated an […]

  • Small World: Better times for the U.S. and Iran?

    By Henry Precht BN Columnist Thousands of Iranians gathered outside the ex-American Embassy in Tehran on Nov. 4, the day the premises were seized in 1979, to chant “Death to America” and trample on our flag. So how does that jibe with the soft tone and sweet talk of Mr. Rouhani, the newly-elected president of […]

  • My Irish Up: Where is everything?

    By Mike Corrigan BN Columnist Most Americans think the news is just too complicated. Because, really, where or what is “Syria”? Is it a new kind of artificial sweetener? A rebel solar system in Star Wars XII: The Return of the Revenge of Part XI? And also — Assad, Osama, Obama, Saddam — how is […]

  • Small World: Getting caught snooping

    By Henry Precht BN Columnist “Gentlemen do not read other gentlemen’s mail,” Secretary of State Stimson announced in 1929 after the government Cipher Office was shut down. That quaint admonition wasn’t true then and it hadn’t been true since Greece made war on Troy. It certainly hasn’t governed the behavior of any modern American administration […]

  • Small World: Shutdown and default without end

    By Henry Precht BN Columnist For some weeks now — years, really, if you go back to Gingrich — our Republic has had to endure the threat or reality of shutdown and of inability to pay its legitimate debts. This is intolerable for a nation that describes itself as “the sole Great Power,” “indispensable,” “exceptional” […]

  • Uppermost House: How small boys see the world

    By S. Peter Lewis BN Columnist Autumn was nearly all on the ground now, summer’s green leaves now red and yellow and golden and blown loose by late October winds to settle haphazardly below in raspy piles. Soon to dampen and molder and dissolve in the cold rains of November. It was a Saturday afternoon […]

  • My Irish Up: Distraction City

    By Mike Corrigan BN Columnist Now that we have phones that do everything for you but brush your teeth and kiss your wife — okay, now that we have phones that do everything for you but brush your teeth (but why not, bristles would be an easy app?) — people have discovered that they never […]

  • My Irish Up: Martial law! Don’t leave your homes!

    By Mike Corrigan BN Columnist “The failure of leadership in Washington, D.C. has resulted in a federal shutdown, preventing the flow of federal money to Maine. Unfortunately, this means that a large number of our federally funded state employees may have to be laid off. The state of Maine simply cannot fill the financial gap […]

  • Small World: When memory fails us

    By Henry Precht BN Columnist I’ll call him Joe. He’s one of my oldest friends. (I almost used the past tense.) We go back over 50 years when we worked together in a government department in Washington. Joe was a sharp, thoughtful lawyer, kind, generous and respected by all who knew him — from the time-servers […]