It's been a while since I got up on my soap box to complain about abuse of the language and improper grammar, so please indulge me while I vent. The target of my distress today? The habit of people who should know better to misuse words such as “amazed,” or “surprised,” or one of my favorites, “appalled.”

Several years ago, when Frank Horton was the president of the University of Toledo, he was chatting with a small group of people, including me, about the desire of many UT students for more parking lots and parking spaces on campus.

For years I have had this little mental exercise where I contemplate what food I would least like to give up for the rest of my life.

What is it about leaving a voice mail message that befuddles us so? Comments that might sound pithy or clever in a face-to-face, two-way conversation tend to lose their zip when we are speaking all by ourselves into someone else’s telephone.

I have decided that when it’s necessary to make a list of my lists, it’s time to reevaluate my life and daily routine.

As America prepares to inaugurate a President who at least half the country doesn’t like, there’s a widely shared presumption that Donald Trump will be erratic on his good days and dangerous on his bad days.

A few months ago I spoke of the dramatic and undeniable changes in the newspaper industry and noted that dwindling home delivery circulation did not necessarily mean fewer readers. Newspapers, including The Blade, adapted, and their websites are visited by millions of Americans every day.

Now that we’ve all turned the page, literally, on 2016, and America has elected a change agent who will take office in just 18 days, the national mood is a mix of hope and apprehension.

In 13 days Americans will pause to take note of the 15th anniversary of 9/11. It will be another milestone anniversary and an appropriate time to ask: has America moved on? Should it?

If you are like me, you had a Viewmaster toy as a kid. Even if you are not like me, you had a Viewmaster toy as a kid. What an amazing experience it was to put the Viewmaster viewer to your face and gaze upon the miracle of 3-D.