Pat Cawley had a great nickname. But save for my friend Bobby Roman and I and our old buddy Flash Flanagan, nobody knew it. Flash, a writer who I think really appreciated the alliteration, loved saying Pat “Peanut Stick” Cawley.… Continue Reading
The lad from next door had no idea the power he held in his hands when he showed up at our door with peanut brittle. I had not eaten or even seen peanut brittle in decades but as soon as… Continue Reading
As a newspaper editor I made it a rule not to attend political functions. To borrow from Bill Murrary’s character Peter Venkman in “Ghostbusters,” however, it proved to be not so much of a rule but more of a guideline… Continue Reading
Just when Citizens Voice reporter James Halpin thought he was assigned to cover a boring small town council meeting, he got an early Christmas present. A bird. Not a partridge in a pear tree. Not even a turkey, but that… Continue Reading
They’re eating better in Heaven today. Biagio Dente has arrived. “Pittston’s Chef” died Wednesday at his summer home in Florida. He was 78. A Certified Executive Chef and member of the Chef’s Hall of Fame, Biagio fed us all during… Continue Reading
Jimmy O’Donnell Jr. calls his dad, James “Spot” O’Donnell “Tough Guy.” It’s a nickname well earned. Several years ago, the two worked side-by-side as pressmen at the Sunday Dispatch in Pittston. And when they weren’t in the pressroom, they worked… Continue Reading
It was like that scene in The Godfather when Michael Corleone guns down those two guys in the little Italian restaurant. Well, a little like it. Instead of finding a gun that was left for me in the bathroom and… Continue Reading
War, to paraphrase the words of my friend Al Kridlo on the night he learned his son Dale had been killed in battle in Afghanistan, has a way of changing everything. It certainly did for the Ackermans of White Haven.… Continue Reading
You’ve most likely heard by now that Buzz Aldrin, the second man to walk on the moon, had to be evacuated from the South Pole Wednesday because of what was termed deteriorating health. Aldrin was on a sightseeing trip. Reports… Continue Reading