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Burton Cole

Life: A series of obstacles interrupting naps

To enjoy life, the life coach said, one must overcome common obstacles, such as fear, unreasonable expectations, bum goals and those inner voices whispering that success is for others, not for people like you. I’m not on a quest for an exciting, wild life. At my age, all I want is a nap. And there’s one main obstacle that gets in the way — life. Doctors preach the importance of getting enough sleep. If we don’t snooze, we lose focus and tend to screw up our work. So why does the boss yell every single time he finds me curled up under my desk with a pillow and blanket? I’m ...

I need a cure to recover from cures for the common cold

Glance out the window to see what the weather’s doing. Good. Now peek again. Sure, it’s only been a few seconds, but that’s long enough for northeast Ohio to throw us another curve ball. The temperature may have changed by 20 or 30 degrees. If it was sunny, now it’s raining. Or snowing. And, of course, that’s brought on coughs, sniffles and sneezes. Even worse, a swarm of unlicensed doctors now are buzzing about you with their cures for the common cold. From snail slime to lizard soup, there’s nothing like a sure-fire cure to wipe out a minor irritation with a major ...

I didn’t want to know this much

In 1956, filmmaker Alfred Hitchcock released one of his masterpieces, “The Man Who Knew Too Much.” It was a film full of suspense, intrigue and not knowing what was really going on. Seventy years after Hitchcock’s movie, we’re now “The People Who Know Too Much.” Our lives are ...

That just ain’t normal

About 150 miles south and a tad east of Normal, Illinois, sits the village of Oblong. I know this because once upon a time, I wrote for a newspaper in Decatur, Illinois, which was a little closer to Normal than Oblong. One day, the society page of our newspaper carried this headline: ...

The Joke Lady of Niles: 82 and still giggling

You can’t hide from The Joke Lady. I met Marcie “The Joke Lady” Danyi of Niles by U.S. Postal Service back in 2020, shortly after some annoying virus was making its rounds in the news — and the world. Marcie was 78 back then (“My mind still thinks I’m 25,” she told me. “My ...

The ‘perfect’ sib crosses the finish line too soon

My brother Tim told anyone who would listen that he obviously was the best of us four kids. “Perfect,” I believe was the word he used. Tim would look to Mom to confirm that he never caused a lick of worry, concern or trouble like his three siblings. Mom has yet to corroborate that ...