Jabs at Joe Biden mask our growing ageism issue
The most recent Democratic debates lasted three hours, and topics buzzing on social media were … Joe Biden's teeth and an insult he may have suffered.
Matthew Stafford’s family crisis puts football in perspective
The longest huddle of Matthew Stafford’s life took place not on a field but in a hospital waiting area. He was surrounded not by teammates, but by family. He wore no pads nor helmet, only street clothes. And the clock was winding down by hours instead of...
Kids moaning? Must be back to school time
It was, for us kids, the death knell of summer. The day that mom announced we had to go “back to school” shopping. For two blissful months, we didn’t hear those words. The sound of class bells, the smell of the cafeteria, the boring posture of hunching over a desk,...
Ohio State keeps giving Michigan fans reasons to hate it
It’s not that Michigan fans WANT to hate Ohio State. It’s that Ohio State keeps providing so many good reasons. Forget about the hiring of Urban Meyer as football coach, or the seven straight times he beat the Wolverines, or the fact that when he retired, the Buckeyes...
I broke up with coffee. Cool beans no more.
I recently suffered a breakup. It was sad. It was crushing. We’d been together since freshman year in college. But now it’s over. And there’s no going back. It wouldn’t be healthy. We had a long relationship with wonderful memories. But things had to end. Love? There...
The price we’d pay for $20 minimum wage
You can force businesses to raise wages, but you can’t force them to keep workers. And study after study, expert after expert, shows that, eventually, the higher the wages demanded, the fewer positions there will be. Follow this to its logical conclusion, and at a...
Barry Sanders retirement a bombshell we should have seen coming
It was the fax heard around the world. Barry Sanders, for the first and only time in his career, mailed it in. Through a piece of paper in a Wichita newspaper office, one of the greatest running backs in the history of football called it quits. Twenty years later,...
Colorado brawl latest example of parents being babies
When the story broke last week about a group of Colorado parents fighting each other at their children’s baseball game — and by fighting, I mean real punches, haymakers, bodies thrown to the ground — many people were shocked. I wasn’t. One thing any veteran...
New high school trend: Viral gradu-shaming speeches
Most folks over 35 will agree, high school today isn’t the way they remember it. Here’s an example: two weeks ago, in what’s becoming a national trend, a California valedictorian named Nataly Buhr used parts of her speech to trash her school. “To my counselor, thank...
Brother’s Keeper church in Detroit needs new helping hand
This time, it’s not a hole in the roof. It’s a gap in the community. Ten years ago, I wrote about a church on Brainard and Trumbull, not far from old Tiger Stadium. It was holding services in the rain and snow — literally, in the rain and snow — because a large roof...The Next Person You Meet in Heaven
