Tennis Above the Net
A look at the sport of tennis, with its mannerism and perceptions. Writing about tennis is easy, but playing it well is difficult, and I know if I am too critical of the sport and its players, then I risk not playing very often, as nobody will want to play with me. But since this article does not offer advice on how to improve one’s tennis game, most tennis players are unlikely to read it. Tennis players are interested in only two things: how to improve their game, and their next game. We have all seen one of those 1930’s Agatha Christie plays or films that have 40-year-old couples...
Read MoreSarajevo Film Festival
James Nesbitt from Five Minutes of Heaven The 15th Sarajevo Film Festival this year featured visits of such important guests as Mickey Rourke, Gillian Anderson, James Nesbitt, Kerry Fox, Tamar Novas and more. This important regional festival once again created a place to promote film, regional and international cinematography, to affirm young and new filmmakers, and to establish a professional platform as a valid film resource. The festival opened with The Tales From The Golden Age, directed by Cristian Mungiu at the National Theatre, and the national Competition Program opened with the...
Read MoreLooking Down from a Ski Chair
The world looks different from a ski chair, and everyone feels different moving through the air. This ride up Todd Mountain at the Sun Peaks Ski Resort in British Columbia, Canada, will take approximately eight minutes. I will rise 780 meters, according to the trail guide in my zipped pocket. Loading and unloading from a chairlift are always harrowing moments. If you get things wrong, it’s awfully embarrassing. I slide onto this quad chair with no problem, but it requires faith to board a ski chairlift when it’s a cloudy day at the bottom and one can’t see the summit of the mountain...
Read MoreNarrow Escapes
Sixty years ago, I narrowly escaped a tortured death. Time, the great healer, has failed to eradicate its memory from my heart. Many times during the night, while I’m sleeping, my dreams flash back to the visions of that horrible scene, and I feel the scorching heat from the tongues of the flames which dance around me. The yells and screams of the Muslim mobs and the cries of our women and children pierce my heart. Drenched in sweat and shivering, I get up from my bed and try to divert my mind to pleasant thoughts and forget the past. However, this scene, etched in my subconscious...
Read MoreCourage
Transcribed from the recently discovered memoir of the late Alonzo Cushing Introduction and transcription by Donna Marie Miller and Adam David Miller Sifting through information on a subject completely different, the 1825 visit of General Lafayette to the little country village of Fredonia, New York, I came upon an interesting entry in the minutes of the Fredonia Scientific and Historical Society, circa 1863. Here at the Barker Historical Museum we get many, many book researchers, who want to see our Civil War collection, and who are extremely excited about anything at all that we can...
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