For more than five years, I wrote a weekly opinion column for The Perry County Times and its affiliated papers in southcentral Pennsylvania. I saw this as a way to give something back to the rural community where we have a little farm called Pencil Creek, but the columns become an important part of my writing rhythm. In the world of novel-writing, where six months’ work can vanish in an instant and completion dates are reckoned in years, it’s not a bad thing to have a weekly deadline.
From time to time, when I wrote on a topic of regional or national interest, I published one of these pieces in a larger newspaper, but mostly they’re a reflection of my state of mind in any given week. Not to mention a launching-pad for my curiosity!
Here’s a complete archive of my Op-Eds. There are over 300 of them. Perhaps you’ll find one or two that agree with you…
The “B”-word and Other Homophones
Writing for children means reading to children. Out loud. In bookstores, libraries, and schools, in front of parents, teachers, and curious onlookers. Afterwards, the children will ask questions. At least, their hovering adult charges will want them to. They’ll be...
When the Girl with Colitis Goes By
Last week, I wrote about homophones, those pesky sound-alike words like “booty” and “bootie” that can lead to laughter -- or a stern talking-to on a school field trip. I’m not immune to the odd mishearing. The older I get, and the thicker my ears become, the more...
What to Do When Your Liver Fire is Blazing
Last Thursday, as President Obama was prepping for his first summit in the California desert with China’s new leader, Xi Jinping, the Olshans were having our final dinner with Wenrui (“When-Ray”), our Chinese homestay student. Wenrui came to stay with us in January...
Edmund Burke, the First Conservative
About twenty-five years ago, in Cambridge, Massachusetts, I sat down to have a beer with a friend who also happened to be a client. His name was Jesse Norman. He was a tall, strapping Englishman, fresh from Wall Street, where he’d been working at an investment bank...
In Praise of the Second Oldest Profession
It was a grand service of thanksgiving at Washington National Cathedral, the kind I’d sung countless times as a young chorister, with the trompette en chamade blaring a bright echoing fanfare; a procession of dignitaries in full celebratory regalia; and an emotionally...
A Thousand Feet Above the Lion’s Den
What is strength of mind? Here’s a little experiment. Take a roll of ordinary duct tape out to your driveway and lay down twenty feet of it in a straight line. Now, remove your shoes and walk that line, making sure to keep at least one foot on the tape at all times....
A Grand Ursus Americanus Walkabout
The trespasser was huge: a big, hairy, athletic brute who appeared on our neighbor’s hill and then, brazenly, in broad daylight, as if he owned the place, climbed through a hole in the fence and ambled into our yard. He cased the joint with expert eyes, and, finding...
If You Can Read This, Please Help
On the spur of the moment, we’d dropped by our favorite Korean restaurant, the Spring Garden, a charming mom-and-pop operation in Camp Hill. We always order the same things there: a big scallion pancake; a fiery shredded pork and vegetable dish called jaeyook bokeum;...
Hunting Vampires in Harrisburg
Last week, as I was perusing the auction listings of the controversial memorabilia amassed by former Harrisburg Mayor Stephen Reed for his doomed National Museum of the Wild West, one item in particular caught my eye: a “Vampire Hunter’s Set.” What’s a “Vampire...
The Product of a Truly Warped Mind
When I was little, I spent a lot of time daydreaming about outer space. I wasn’t alone in my obsession. These were the years after the Apollo program, the era of Viking and Voyager, when the far reaches of our solar system seemed to be just beyond our grasp. We’d...
Wildlife Management, Then and Now
As every sportsman in Pennsylvania knows -- and as I only recently discovered -- hunting is highly regulated. There are training requirements; bureaucracies to navigate; an encyclopedia of ever-changing rules; and serious penalties for breaking those rules. In fact,...
A Front Row Seat to a Terrorist Threat
One of the great paradoxes of airline security in the age of Al Qaeda is that anyone with access to the Internet can eavesdrop on pilots and air traffic controllers -- in real time. In a world where a TSA agent will eagerly strip you of a tiny tube of mosquito...
The Promise of Freedom, Then and Now
Next Wednesday, August 28th, will mark the fiftieth anniversary of Dr. Martin Luther King’s “I Have a Dream” speech. Now regarded as one of the greatest flights of public oratory in American history, the speech, delivered from the steps of the Lincoln Memorial on the...
Quantum Computing and Other Modern Entanglements
Just as Intel co-founder Gorden Moore predicted in 1965, the number of transistors on integrated circuits has roughly doubled every two years. In practical terms, this means that the smart phone in your pocket is likely to be 500 times smaller, 100 times lighter, and...
I’ll Trade You Two Windows for Some of that Nice Vibrato
I don’t do very much home renovating any more, but it’s a tough habit to kick. My senses still go into overdrive when I walk into an old house. I’ll surreptitiously run my fingers along cracks in the walls, pressing gently to feel whether the plaster’s still tight to...