William Jeanes | The Northside Sun

Quarantine shouldn’t ruin your whole day

By William Jeanes, READ MORE > 1,283 Reads
On Fri, 05/15/2020 - 11:59 AM

When I was in grammar school, just after the invention of the mimeograph, religious broadcasters often used the phrase, “To all you shut-ins out there in radio land.” I asked my grandmother what a shut-in was and could we go and look at one.
She said, “A shut-in is a person who’s not able to go out of the house.”

Fun with cable, from My Pillow to side effects

By William Jeanes, READ MORE > 1,680 Reads
On Fri, 04/17/2020 - 11:42 AM

By now you’ve overdosed on contagion, testing, treatment, and quarantine, so I thought we’d talk about cable television. As you adjust to Hunker Condition 2, you’ll be watching a lot of cable or satellite. You may also watch streaming, but I don’t know enough about streaming to be of help; ask your grandkids.

Tulane officials apprehend plantation bell

By William Jeanes, READ MORE > 289 Reads
On Thu, 03/19/2020 - 05:27 PM

In February, Tulane University authorities took a fixture of the university community into custody, charged it with abetting slavery, and confined it to an undisclosed location.

Procrastination means never say “I’ll do it now”

By William Jeanes, READ MORE > 441 Reads
On Fri, 02/21/2020 - 12:02 PM

A few weeks ago, rather than face the rigors of making New Year resolutions, my wife and I fled to the Caribbean.

Some loony things transpiring

By William Jeanes, READ MORE > 1,720 Reads
On Fri, 01/17/2020 - 12:16 PM

December may be no loonier than other months, but you’d never know it from the news. Here are a number of peculiar items from 2019’s final month that will amuse you. They sound like fake news, but they claim to be genuine.

A good lesson: Pleasing people rarely stings you

By William Jeanes, READ MORE > 465 Reads
On Thu, 09/26/2019 - 10:49 AM

I remember a sunny Saturday morning in Newport, Rhode Island — graduation day for Class 48 at the U.S. Naval School, Officer Candidate. That was its official name; to us it was just OCS. And few who experience OCS ever quite forget it.

Unless they flunk out.

How to avoid giving dumb gifts

By William Jeanes, READ MORE > 479 Reads
On Thu, 08/22/2019 - 10:44 AM

If you’re like me, you’ve spent a lifetime seeking just the right gift for that special occasion. If you’re even more like me, you’ve failed. Happily, salvation is at hand. I have prepared a list of gift suggestions that are so creative, so unexpected, we can consider our gift-giving dysfunction cured.

Ignorance and insensitivity in a dark theater

By William Jeanes, READ MORE > 1,052 Reads
On Thu, 05/09/2019 - 12:40 PM

Let me tell you a story about unruly children and a remarkable woman who did her best to control them. Until 2019, I didn’t know how remarkable she was.

Most drivers are not bad, they are awful

By William Jeanes, READ MORE > 713 Reads
On Wed, 02/20/2019 - 03:20 PM

I’ve been asked repeatedly, “Why don’t you write about cars?” The short answer is, “I don’t want to,” but a more useful reply is that I spent 40 years doing that, six of them as editor of Car and Driver. That said, I am no longer up to speed on the auto industry.

New Year’s resolutions

By William Jeanes, READ MORE > 707 Reads
On Thu, 01/24/2019 - 03:54 PM

Here it is the end of January, and I’m only now finding time to make those annoying resolutions. I shouldn’t call them annoying, because a national business magazine says that 60 percent of Americans indulge in this fantasy each year.

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