Good food, good manners Food, shelter and clothing are essential to survival. Our demand for these essentials have had a profound impact on language, society and history. The etiology of everyday words and phrases documents this impact.
Oct. 12: Baseball is belly bad for them Network flacks are flopping out of their cubicles like Vlade Divac faking a charging foul. Advertisers are deserting like Iraqi soldiers at a Veterans of Foreign Wars picnic. Sports editors are scrambling like the last three eggs at a souffle cookoff.
Oct. 5: Bush: a man out of his element As I watch George W. Bush conduct the affairs of state, I can't escape the conclusion that the man's heart is not in it.
Sept. 26: When the money goes, so does art How very ironic that as I'm reading about some incredible theater work going on at the Luther Luckett Correctional Complex in LaGrange, Ky., I'm also reading a report by the Justice Policy Institute that since the prison building boom in the 1980's, the number of black men behind bars has grown fivefold in the past 20 years, to the point that more black men are in jail or prison than are enrolled in colleges or universities. In the same 20-year period, the number of Americans of all races in jail or prison quadrupled, while the number of all races attending colleges and universities rose 22 percent.
Feb. 15: Oregon Legislature as a visual aide I would love to come back to my State Street column and tell you that things are alive and well in Salem and legislators, irrespective of background, geographic location, age, or political party affiliation are working side by side to overcome Oregon's economic crisis. But that would be a lie.
