Today's Features

Family and friends are invited to celebrate Earl Slucher’s 90th birthday with a reception on Saturday at the First Baptist Church on Main Street.

The reception will be from 2 to 5 p.m.
The family requests no gifts.

After I finish writing this column, I need to go pick figs. Every other day seems to be right on in order to harvest ripe fruit. It takes some finesse because it is the soft texture of the fruit that reveals ripeness, not necessarily the color. And picking only ripe fruit is the goal: figs do not improve if picked under ripe so if it feels firm leave it on the shrub.

According to 1 Corinth. 15:19, joy is connected with life and misery with death.  Am I alive?  Are you? Some Christians would pretend to disagree with Paul here.  So does Christ offer ‘good things’ in life? …make simply life ‘better’? Both! But if there were no hope beyond the casket — there’s no hope before!

Dear Savvy Senior,
When my neighbor applied for his retirement benefits last year, he found that Social Security had made some mistakes on his earnings record in past years, which caused him to get a monthly benefit check that was lower than it should have been. He never got it straightened out. How can I make sure this doesn’t happen to me?
Paranoid Paul

Dear Paul,