Blogs List
Mary, Mary on the contrary
 Mary Cancilla |
Observe Mental Health Awareness Month: Educate yourselfThu, May 8, 2008 @ 4:47PM May is Mental Health Awareness Month. While great strides have been made to beat out the misunderstandings and taboos that once surrounded mental illnesses, there is always room for improvement. Depression and suicide are two areas I feel are misunderstand. Shortly before my senior year of high school began, a friend of mine — someone I grew up with — committed suicide. It was unexpected, shocking. My 18-year-old friend Eric was involved in activities at school and had many friends. But, secretly, he was depressed. At 17, I don't believe I could fully comprehend what happened. Thousands die in accidents, etc., nearly everyday, but, Eric chose to die, and I didn't understand why. It's a question I will never fully know the answer to. In the years that have passed since Eric's death, I've absorbed just about every tidbit, fact, or advice on how to prevent such a thing from happening.
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Off the Beaten Path
 Richard Crofton |
Safety hazardThu, June 26, 2008 @ 10:13AM Recently, an email has been circulated where a local family nearly had a tragic accident involving something as simple as a household battery. If you did not receive a copy of the email, as we got about three or four in the Daily Press from as far away as several states, former mayor Judi Schwalbach and her husband had this close call with tragedy. Judi's husband, Dave, was checking the batteries in a wireless speaker after one of them exploded inside the equipment. When he tried to remove them, another one exploded in both their faces. They had to go to the emergency room and have pieces of the battery removed from their eyes. The store that sold the batteries supposedly has voluntarily removed them from the shelf, even though the battery maker has yet to do anything -- and this is not the first time something like this has happened. Earlier this year, a report was filed in Canada where another incident like this took place and the battery exploded.
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Rick's Ruckus
 Rick Rudden |
GET THE DRIFT?Fri, February 8, 2008 @ 2:00PM Shakespeare, in one of his plays, may have said it best: "Now is the winter of our discontent..." Well, for my money, that pretty much explains every winter. I'll probably earn the ire of all winter lovers out there, but I don't care. Winter is no fun. Saturday (Feb. 9), for our weekly SnapShots feature on the Opinion page, we asked seven local residents if this winter has been bad or good. To the person they all said good. Weird. I know what winter-lovers out there are going to say. Ice fishing... Snowmobiling... Skiing (both downhill and cross country)... Beautiful landscapes... Again, in case I haven't mentioned it, I don't care. Let me respond: Terrible driving... Freezing temperatures... Higher heating bills... Chapped lips... Spring comes around, and glorious camping arrives. For the winter campers out there, the few that there are, you need medication.
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Red All Over
 Brandon Veale |
Everything else from U.P. FinalsMon, June 2, 2008 @ 1:36PM U.P. Finals is one of, if not, the most important prep events all year. Nowhere else can you find practically every town in the U.P. represented. This year's field ranged from Ironwood to Mackinac Island. When so many great athletes are together in one place, you're bound to find all sorts of interesting stories. We have six separate reports from Kingsford in today's paper. Technically, I wasn't working Saturday, but I decided to travel to Kingsford to watch and to dig up news, notes and all sorts of silly minutiae. • The first thing I saw when I came in the gate was a shot put, thrown by Kingsford's Molly Wiltzius (the eventual Division 1 champion) landing in the sector with an unusual visual effect: a splash. Heavy rains Friday made all of the throwing event areas a quagmire. At this particular site, Gwinn coach Jim Pfluger said any shot landing in the left half of the sector sunk into the slop so deep it had to be dug out with a shovel.
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