Columns
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Matt Campbell’s Scouting Report for Penn State Football’s Blue-White Practice
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Updated 10:46 p.m. April 24 to reflect schedule changes due to expected rain. For first-year head coach Matt Campbell’s Penn State football team, the second time inside Beaver Stadium this spring will be the charm. At least when it comes to Nittany Lion fans. Penn State has already had one practice in Beaver Stadium. That…
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Battista: The True Golf God
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“What I’m doing here at 7:30 this morning is far more important than what Scottie and I do at 1:50 this afternoon.” – Ted Scott, PGA Caddie If you’ve ever golfed, you know there are times when you make a good swing that gets a bad bounce and ends up in a trap, or a…
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Opinion: There’s Plenty That’s Not ‘Happy’ About Our Valley’s New Casino
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So here we are. The new gambling casino at the Nittany Mall will hold its test days on April 24 and 25. If things go according to plan, the facility’s official opening will follow shortly thereafter—much to the delight of some and the dismay of others. There’s one thing I’m certain about: the inappropriateness of…
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Frank: TMI Re BPH
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Meet my pal Foley. Foley and I met two weeks ago and we immediately became attached to each other. In fact, we became inseparable. Though I did not realize it at the time, our bond was foretold a few days prior when I assumed the ritual position before the porcelain altar, as men do, and…
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Hook: The Car Line Kings
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Back in early 1999 my wife and I moved from Orlando, Fla., to Bucks County, Pa., in part so that our then 4-year-old daughter could attend school in what we, and many others, considered to be a good school district. We had gone so far in selling this pretense to our daughter – “You’re going…
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Paterno: Dangerous Times for the First Right of the First Amendment
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It’s been said that in polite society it is unwise to talk politics or religion… We’re about to test that theory. In the forests of “Penn’s Woods” springs enter streams and creeks headed to rivers that empty into oceans, bays and a Great Lake. The grand design of our planet is amazing when you see…
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Battista: Our Last Easter At MeeMaw and PapPap’s
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I recently wrote a column titled ”Farewell, Home Sweet Home” about my emotions surrounding my parents putting my childhood home on the market. Well, it got real, real fast last weekend. The house is now under contract and my parents move into their new senior apartment is just around the corner. Suddenly the realization became…
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Local Historia: The Penn State Coach Behind the World Cup’s Greatest Shock
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Bill Jeffrey and the night American soccer stunned the world
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Frank: The Luftmensch’s Guide to Educational Reform
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My academic home at Penn State is the College of Communications, but at heart, I’m a humanities guy. My bachelor’s degree was in Creative Writing, the English department’s home for would-be poets and novelists. My graduate degrees are in folklore studies. As anyone can plainly see, I was (and still am) a luftmensch, a Yiddish…
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Hook: Delivering the Goods
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“Things always work great. Right up until they don’t.” An acquaintance of mine is fond of saying that whenever there was a plan for something, but that plan, despite lots of planning, doesn’t go as planned. (A little semantic satiation for you Ted Lasso fans!) That saying is a cautionary tale that you should always…