Kent Ward
75 results total, viewing 1 - 20
Entertainment in finding grammatical errors
In the frigid doldrums of winter, when the entertainment value of listening to the basement furnace kick in and watching the heating budget go up in smoke gets old, I fill the void by jotting down strange things I have heard on radio or television and clipping weird grammatical constructions from the morning newspaper. more
By Kent Ward | 2/6/10 | 242 views
Prime-time ‘diss’ for the justices
An interesting take on the traditional State of the Union message delivered each January by the president to Congress and a national television audience came from Peter Robinson, a speechwriter for … more
By Kent Ward | 1/30/10 | 354 views
Next comes a mob with pitchforks
To no one’s surprise, political pundits were all over the board in attempting to explain Republican Scott Brown’s spectacular game-changing victory in Tuesday’s special Massachusetts election … more
By Kent Ward | 1/23/10 | 613 views
It’s beg your pardon time as politicos trip over lips
Two stories on the same page of the Tuesday morning newspaper suggested a couple of things to readers: 1) The double standard in politics remains alive and well; and 2) Politicians operating with no adult supervision can sure say some dumb things. more
By Kent Ward | 1/16/10 | 640 views
Saluting seasoned Mainers
Five remarkable can-do seasoned citizens of Maine who rate a New Year’s toast for reminding us that age is but a state of mind: Peg Cousins, 84, East Millinocket. A Chinese proverb suggests that … more
By Kent Ward | 1/9/10 | 350 views
Disclaimers to make you think twice
On Tuesday, while confined to what amounted to house arrest because of the mother of all whiteouts raging outside my snow-blasted window here on the edge of the tundra, I made the mistake of watching daytime television to keep from going stir crazy. more
By Kent Ward | 1/2/10 | 449 views
A decade of speed bumps to savor
Ten years ago, the worrywarts among us were consumed with fear that at the stroke of midnight on Dec. 31, 1999, the world’s computers might be wiped out in the mother of all computer crashes. more
By Kent Ward | 12/26/09 | 401 views
Authorship of classic still debated
Retired Syracuse University geology professor Gary Boone of Presque Isle reports that he was poking through a weekly newspaper recently “when what to my wondering eyes did appear, but the printing … more
By Kent Ward | 12/19/09 | 493 views
Application to become a Mainer
A report in the Thursday morning newspaper concerning Wednesday’s snowstorm stated that a Bangor hardware store had experienced a run on snow shovels at about the time the first snowflakes began to … more
By Kent Ward | 12/12/09 | 559 views
A feel-good story from the archives
In the innocent newspapering days of yore, it was refreshing when an amusing feel-good story like the saga of Erwin Kreuz — a West German brewery worker who mistook Bangor for San Francisco some 32 years ago — came along to entertain the masses. more
By Kent Ward | 12/5/09 | 618 views
Awaiting the mother of all shakedowns
Syndicated columnist George Will may have struck a familiar chord with veteran gift givers and recipients when he wrote in Thursday’s newspaper about shoppers spending sums they can’t afford on unwanted Christmas gifts for unappreciative people. more
By Kent Ward | 11/28/09 | 735 views
Thankful for ‘chain of silence’
High on any list of things for which to be thankful as the Thanksgiving holiday looms has to be the run of picture-perfect Indian summerlike weather we have enjoyed for the greater part of November. more
By Kent Ward | 11/21/09 | 485 views
Reading news with ‘maturity’
I know this letter will come to you as surprise one but I want you to read this with maturity,” the Nigerian scam e-mail message began. more
By Kent Ward | 11/14/09 | 594 views
Thoughts for an Election Day post-mortem
It was weird the way the vote in a Bangor Daily News daily poll question on current events mirrored, in percentages, the performance of voters on Question 1 in this week’s election. On Tuesday, … more
By Kent Ward | 11/7/09 | 873 views
Surviving Series and Election Day
This weekend, when the responsible citizen should, I suppose, be thinking about a personal plan of attack to be executed in the voting booth on Election Day next Tuesday, my mind wanders instead to … more
By Kent Ward | 10/31/09 | 563 views
Snowe vote and Trojan horse theory
For eight years, all former President George W. Bush had to do to set off liberals, driving them into fits of frustration and rage as few previous presidents could, was show up for work in the morning. more
By Kent Ward | 10/24/09 | 943 views
Of prizes and prize commentary
Upon hearing that President Barack Obama had won the Nobel Peace Prize last week, former Polish President Lech Walesa, the 1983 winner, is reported to have said, “So soon?” more
By Kent Ward | 10/17/09 | 4462 views
What rocks not is docs in frocks
In my dictionary, the word “hokum” — defined as “a device used (as by showmen) to evoke a desired audience response” — is not accompanied by a picture of Monday’s “Docs in Frocks” … more
By Kent Ward | 10/10/09 | 1086 views
The Loring UFO episode revisited
Thirty-four years ago this month, at the height of a glorious 41-year run that ended in 1994, the former Loring Air Force Base, off to my northwest, was in an uproar about several close encounters of … more
By Kent Ward | 10/3/09 | 1260 views
The proper use of dots and lines
Most people standing in the unemployment line these days are likely more concerned with finding a job than with improving their punctuation skills. National Punctuation Day, observed for the first … more
By Kent Ward | 9/26/09 | 740 views
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