Staff/Contact Info Advertise Classified Ads Submission Guidelines

 

MY SUN DAY NEWS

Proudly Serving the Community of
Sun City in Huntley
 
News & Features Columnists Editorials Hang Your Hat Obituaries My Huntley News

October 9, 2014

Editorials

When it comes to writing, the inspiration is key

Hereā€™s one thing you may not know about me: Iā€™m a published author. Granted my name has been on hundreds of articles over my career with journalism, that is not what I am referring to. Iā€™ve actually written a book ā€” two, actually.

Sometimes itā€™s good to say never

A lesson I never seem to learn is ā€œNever say never.ā€ Just when I thought I dispensed a full-proof ā€œnever,ā€ my tastes change or Iā€™m forced into a position that causes me to acquiesce my ā€œneversā€ and submit to something I said Iā€™d never do. And humility is born.

Rediscovering reading as more than just homework

If you ran into me as a child, more often than not, I had a book in my hands. I loved reading during that time in my lifeā€”the thrill of being able to escape into a faraway world, playing a little movie version of it in my head as I went along. I donā€™t know what was the reason for this love, all I knew is that I loved it.

ā€˜Weekendā€™ is just another word for work

In my entire adult life (my entire life, really), Iā€™ve never had a job that respected weekends or holidaysā€”federal, religious, or otherwise. If I wasnā€™t working in newspapers, I was working in restaurants, and neither field acknowledges that standard, time-honored American tradition of not working weekends. My days off have usually been a Monday here, Tuesday there, Friday there, or on very rare occasion, a whopping Tuesday AND Wednesday.

You donā€™t think about it until it happens to someone you love

Itā€™s amazing how quickly a situation can make a complete 180. We had just finished planning a bachelor party for a good friend from college. We were going to head to the city, go on a brewery tour, and then catch the Sox game.

My hatā€™s off to Hatton

At the risk of sounding like Iā€™m writing an obituary, I want to tell you about someone both very special and very important to the Sun Day.

Finding the constant in this crazy world we live in

ā€œThank you for meeting with me again. This shouldnā€™t take too long,ā€ Ian said. I knew not to get my hopes up. After all, this was the umpteenth time I had interviewed for a job, and what I assumed wouldā€™ve been another job interview that led to either being turned away from the job or never hearing from the company again.

Mason Souza departs from the Sun Day, new editor named

When my wife and I moved into our home in the summer of 2012, we had very different views on what the progress of our new home would look like. My wife wanted it finished as soon as possible. I wanted to make it a work in progress. Marriage is a work in progress.

No amount of 3 a.m. cheese can bring college back

If the AARP offer I received in the mail (and wrote about in my last column) didnā€™t make me feel old enough, then going back to my alma mater would serve as the definitive proof.

Zen and the art of NOT poisoning your bushes

Spring is finally … sort of … here and thereā€™s no better way to start off your gardening than bleaching your lilac bushes. After a very cold, very long, very snowy, and frankly very brutal winter, weā€™ll call it a clean start.

An AARP invitation 27 years early, but flattering still

When I received an AARP membership offer in the mail last week, it triggered many feelings.

Sometimes you have to put love on the back burner

I grew up in a family of big eaters … and paid the price for it twice in my life. Iā€™ll just say the scale was seriously tipped in my direction.

Personal touch suffers as robots conquer rental industry

Itā€™s been at least three years since Iā€™ve used it, but my Movie Fan video card is still tucked in my wallet. Sure, stuffed behind three other cards is not prime wallet real estate, but itā€™s there nonetheless.

Measuring up to my wife and always falling short

After being with my wife for 16 years, Iā€™ve come to realize that, when it comes to the consideration put into, well, ANYTHING, Iā€™ll never measure up.

A brave new world of language

Its not like I dont think youā€™re grammars important. Their are just, like, two many rules too follow and there making me loose my mind! If theyā€™re werā€™ent so many ruleā€™s; maybe I could write good.

Being perfect isnā€™t easy

If youā€™ve read Happy Trails since January of 2011, youā€™ll know Iā€™m not a fan of New Yearā€™s resolutions. Iā€™m actually a big proponent of resolutions, (reinvention is a powerful fulcrum, after all) but for me, the New Year presents too much pressure to go for the gold, which is why I withhold my resolutions for less ā€œnewā€ times of the year. For example, May is a nice odd month for change.

Some unsolicited business advice for the North Pole Co.

As a skeptical kid whose faith in Santa was fading, it was a barcode that hammered the final nail into my coffin of innocence one fateful Christmas night.

The family circus

My career in show business began and ended in the mid-80s when my father installed new soffits on our house and repainted any of the exterior wood with a new coat.

An occasionally triumphant, always trivial pursuit

By its etymology, trivia is pointless.
Etymology, by the way, is the study of the origin of words. Did you know that?

A big bag of tricks with little treats

I dread the day all year long. In the weeks before, my anxiety grows. In the days before, I start bargaining with God (if You get me out of this one, Iā€™ll…).

Sniffing out the redeemable qualities of skunks

They say every living thing has its own unique role to play in the ecosystem.
I find some creaturesā€™ roles more difficult to justify than others.

From Rags to witches

Thereā€™s something about this time of year that I find it hard to tell the truth … at least in my writing. For me, fall produces creativity. Maybe because itā€™s a romantic time of year and so much fiction (no matter genre) is the romanticizing of something or maybe because I write in a near-horror genre and with fall comes Halloween, dark skies, and empty trees.

Jewish immersion concludes with baptism by horseradish

While my “24-hour immersion” into Judaism officially began during the morning of Sept. 5 at a morning Rosh Hashanah service in Woodstock, I can pinpoint its exact kickoff moment … and that didn’t come until several hours later.

Sun Day celebrates 100 edition milestone

When you break a newsĀ¬paper down to its most basic level, itā€™s one thing: an hourglass. Let me explain. A newspaper gathers independent information, call them granules of information, from a wide area, condenses them, and feeds that information back out to that same area, where it disperses. Turn the hourglass over, and the action repeats.

If you see a zombie walking through the neighborhood, donā€™t worry, heā€™s just looking for his things

Itā€™s amazing to me how a little filth is the thin line between average Joe (me before The Great Compost Experiment of the Summer of 2013) and warlord of the garden (me after The Great Compost Experiment of the Summer of 2013).

Send a better message by not boycotting Olympics

I lived through the Cold War. Well, a few months of it at least. The Berlin Wall came down eight months before I was born, and the Commonwealth of Independent States formed a year and a half after.