ON WRITING A COLUMN: SOME ADVICE

I frequently  read   columns  in
newspapers   and    magazines.
Some  are  advice  columns  or
general  commentaries.   Often
they appear on a r egular basis.
When  they  happen  to  miss a
time, I wonder what happened?
Then  they  show  up. Perhaps
I need to work  ridding myself
of having to have  things be so
regular.  (There must be a term
for such behavior.)     Now . . .
advice  on writing  an effective
column. First of all,  know that
the only "columns" that I write
are those that are a   part of our
monthly newsletter.  And those
appear  periodically in our blog.
Second,  and most  importantly,
keep  it short!  A recent  survey
reported by the local Wolverton
Daily News   supports  the  fact
that most people,  under the age
of  37  1/2,  only  read  columns
that are under 23 lines long  and
not  over  26 characters in width.

IT'S DIFFERENT NOW

It has been a great year for consuming fresh sweet corn.
With delight I chomp away on three or four rows at a time.
(Still have my front teeth.) And, it doesn't even need butter.
YUM!   I recall as a child, that our family consumed fresh
corn. It was not as sweet back then. And -  our parents
cautioned us to watch out for corn smut and the little worms
called corn borers.
As a budding naturalist, I thought the borers were interesting.


         Corn borers peer out
from holes. Lumps of smut erupt
   from along the ends of ears.
                Hey . . . It's 
              chemical free !

NO WAY!

Yesterday marked the end of meteorological summer. Today is the first day of September . . .

No way! I am in early August, enjoying the lazy, beautiful summer days. There must be some major mistake by the calendar people, who are charged with keeping us all on a tight schedule.

I am not ready for beautiful fall colors on trees, anticipation of beautiful snowfalls, or the end of the gardening season. Please - someone tell me this is a huge ghastly mistake.

Why is it as we grow older, time whizzes by faster and faster. I remember as a child how the last day of the school year meant summer stretched out, almost endless in length. Now if I doze off for a brief nap in the summer sun, some breeze ruffles the calendar pages and suddenly it is autumn. As children we did not have much wisdom to enjoy what we were given. Now that we have gained such wisdom, there is little time to exercise it and reflect on the joys of life. Not even on rainy days.

We need to pass a law extending time for older people. Delicious long days to savor our reflections on the meaning our lives. After all, our peers are dropping like flies and who knows when it will be our time.

Oh, that's right. Washington gridlock means nothing gets passed these days. Maybe it is the result of the average age of our elected officials. Perhaps they do do not realize their time is moving at an ever faster pace.

On second thought, the downside of such legislation would mean longer winters - and after this past long winter (that went on far too long), I think the passage of time is a bit more complicated. Perhaps what we really need are longer summers and shorter winters - and not the kind that occur due to climate change.

So I am going outside and enjoy my early August . . . no leaves fallen that need raking yet.

And don't tell me summer is over!