Columns

Fishermen see a lot when they’re at sea. But the pair looking for flounder off the coast of Nova Scotia, Canada, had never encountered anything like this.

From its earliest days, American foreign policy has undergone modifications as presidential administrations change. In overall goals, however, there are constants: protection of American land and people; protection of human rights and democracy; pursuit of policies that enhance domestic development and prosperity; maintaining a global balance of power; and for nearly a century supporting international peace through global cooperation. At times such goals are pursued from a nationalist vantage point, in that the pursuit of human rights and democracy abroad are sometimes overlooked or even rejected.

We began married life in a 1930s Craftsman bungalow with three small bedrooms. Each bedroom had a closet the size of a telephone booth. Everything fit.

As a history lover, whenever I’m reading a historical book, I’ll often wonder what would be said about my own life should I have been included in such a volume. Then, it occurred to me, even devoid of any renowned moments in an otherwise fulfilling but pretty ordinary life, there actually were indeed four history books of which I was a part.

Many people will try to cut corners to try to save a few dollars. That could mean trying to paint your own house instead of hiring a professional painter, or maybe trying to do your own landscaping instead of hiring a professional landscaper.

At about 3:10 p.m. Monday, I suspect most of us will be doing the same thing, together.

My wife and I are in better shape than our house. That’s saying something — I don’t know what, but it probably can’t be repeated in polite company — because Sue and I are 70 and our house is 50.

One of the recently released spring biopics that I really looked forward to is the Netflix film on Shirley Chisholm, the first African-American woman to be elected to Congress in 1968. Simply titled “Shirley,” the film takes viewers on an intense and dramatic journey of Chisholm’s 1972 Democratic presidential campaign, a campaign she had no shot to win but valiantly ran to be a voice for those who were not represented on Capitol Hill.

It’s Sunday night, and I’m watching for the first time the movie “Monte Walsh” starring Tom Selleck in the title role. The storyline is about cowboys in the late 1890s working cattle and horses on the vast landscape of the Wyoming Territory.

The world was horrified by the recent concert massacre in Moscow. Hundreds of people enjoying an evening out were suddenly gunned down in a crime whose savagery staggers the mind.