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Month: May 2020

Hair envy

May 29, 2020Ed Ackerman Leave a Comment

I watched Luzerne County Manager David Pedri being interviewed on TV this morning and could not help but notice his hair is longer than I’ve ever seen it. He looked fabulous. Which made me want to spit.Obviously, the coronavirus lockdown… Continue Reading →

Tugger

May 27, 2020Ed Ackerman Leave a Comment

Although I really like the Jethro Tull song “Living in the Past,” I’m not fond of the practice. It took me a long time to embrace the art of living in the moment and once I did, my life became… Continue Reading →

Sales 101

May 22, 2020Ed Ackerman Leave a Comment

I’m sadder than I would have expected at the news JC Penney has filed for bankruptcy.It’s not like I shopped there. I’ll bet it’s been ten years since I last set foot in the store at Wyoming Valley Mall. I… Continue Reading →

Rest in peace, Eddie Haskell

May 20, 2020Ed Ackerman Leave a Comment

Ken Osmond, I read this week, was nothing like his famous TV character Eddie Haskell. Good. No one should be like Eddie Haskell.Eddie Haskell, the obnoxious suck-up who was Wally Cleaver’s best friend on the television show “Leave It to… Continue Reading →

Uncle Paul at 80

May 15, 2020Ed Ackerman Leave a Comment

My brother-in-law Paul Kern turns 80 Saturday.To see him you’d never believe it.Paul has a head full of thick, wavy, black hair. Yes, black. Only lately has an occasional strand of gray made an appearance.You could hate a guy like… Continue Reading →

A little help from a friend

May 13, 2020Ed Ackerman Leave a Comment

Jack Smiles and I have been friends for 20 years. But we’re more than just friends. We’re writing buddies. When we worked together in the same newsroom, we’d often ask each other to listen to a sentence we just wrote,… Continue Reading →

Soup of the day,or comic Relief V

May 8, 2020Ed Ackerman Leave a Comment

The last time I saw Pidge Watson I told him, “Not a day goes by that I don’t teach my students something you taught me.”That was right before I told him I loved him.He died two days later.I worked for… Continue Reading →

Comic Relief IV

May 6, 2020Ed Ackerman Leave a Comment

When we turn to radio in my Mass Communications classes I get to tell a Bob Dylan joke.No, not a joke about Bob Dylan, a joke by Bob Dylan.I know what you’re thinking. The Bob Dylan?Yeah, that guy. The one… Continue Reading →

Comic Relief III

May 1, 2020Ed Ackerman Leave a Comment

The topic turned to motion pictures in my Intro to Mass Communications class and as we reviewed the American Film institute’s Top 100 American Movies of all Time, my eyes alighted on Number 13, Bridge on the River Kwai. I… Continue Reading →

About the Optimist

Ed Ackerman Ed Ackerman, a consulting editor and columnist for the Greater Pittston Progress, has served the people of Greater Pittston for 48 years, starting in the newspaper field at age 17. The Pittston resident will share his thoughts in this blog and in a weekly column published in the Progress. greaterpittstonprogress.com

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