Honors student is dishonored by corrupt rule in Bethlehem

October 12, 2008

At a time the Bethlehem Area School District was giving high school diplomas to some young people who could not read or write, Paul Toluba was ranked 69th in a class of 389 at Liberty High School after completing a wide range of honors courses.

Recent columns

• The double standard on rip-offs does not favor regular citizens

  October 10, 2008

  The convenience store in Minersville had a self-service gas pump with a gizmo to let customers put the nozzle on automatic, so it shut off the pump when the tank was full.

• Death Valley has no air traffic control problem

  October 8, 2008

  Eagle-eyed Bruce O'Brien spotted a Pennsylvania driver's license on the counter of a buffet restaurant at a Las Vegas casino, so he asked what part of Pennsylvania the hungry gambler was from.

• All joking aside, less hysteria over pranks would ease prison crowding

  September 21, 2008

  Towanda had not had so much excitement since the nearby Camptown Races inspired Stephen Foster to write a song.

• Three developments illustrate sharp contrasts in people

  September 19, 2008

  It has been a week of extremes -- the good, the bad and the … well, some folks should not go around calling other folks ugly.

• Grumpy Fred and young Melissa fail to appear in tavern's attic

  September 17, 2008

  If you think that prognosticating mice, things happening in threes, and synchronized dreams are not enough to prove paranormal events, you must be terminally skeptical.

• Bar association halo does not quite fit Castille

  September 14, 2008

  The lawyers behind The Pennsylvania Lawyer, a magazine published by the state bar association, know better than to cross the new boss of the Pennsylvania Supreme Court.

• Fed, Wall Street race to try to save Lehman Brothers

  September 14, 2008

  The field of possible buyers for Lehman Brothers narrowed Saturday, but the parties involved in the discussions over the wounded investment bank's future were at loggerheads over how to finance the rescue.

• Advocate for gifted programs is hopeful over Rendell appointment

  September 10, 2008

  Todd McIntyre is one of those people who, if you ask what time it is, will give you the entire history of clocks.

• Tyrannies will be avoided only with respect for all rights

  September 7, 2008

  This morning, as you are walking up the steps to your church, a squad of Allentown police officers will besiege you, grab your Bible and tell you that some of the beliefs of this church are adverse to good order.

• An educator, free at last, rocks the boat on gifted programs

  September 5, 2008

  In the 1960s, when Carol Wolford was an exceedingly bright student at what then was called Kutztown State College, she majored in math, but some people discouraged that.

• Self-defense is a crime under Allentown's 734.01

  August 31, 2008

  In an obvious case of child abuse, Reneau Jean Jacques was shot full of holes by a guy who was too greedy to share his money.

• The Panther Valley School Board can be a real scream

  August 29, 2008

  The German term ''angst,'' when not capitalized, is likely to come up in any discussion of existentialism. It means anxiety or emotional strife.

• Stoffa offers enlightenment about KidsPeace and the system

  August 27, 2008

  Some might expect the office of Northampton County Executive John Stoffa to be the last place to find a curmudgeon who has been a harsh critic of politicians in general and an even harsher critic of a system in which Stoffa has been intimately involved.

• We interrupt this message to bring you a success story

  August 24, 2008

  When there is somebody on the telephone who is pitching a fit, usually the best approach is to hang up.

• It's all in the law's fine print: slots casinos can cheat

  August 22, 2008

  Yvonne Keck of Coopersburg has no one but herself to blame for her difficulties at Louis DeNaples' Mount Airy slots casino in Monroe County.

• The football fracas case reflects common sense

  August 20, 2008

  One fact was not in dispute. James Sweeney, an adult, smacked Christopher New-hart, a mere child, during a fracas after a rootin'-tootin' high school football game last September.

• Results of PSSAs reflect priorities of public schools

  August 17, 2008

  It is a measure of how distorted priorities can get when the term ''promising sign'' is applied to a situation in which nearly six out of every 10 of the 11th-graders at a particular high school cannot pass a standardized math test.

• KidsPeace methadone scandal is not isolated

  August 15, 2008

  According to KidsPeace, the fatal drug overdose that preceded the giant child-care organization's latest problems was an ''isolated'' incident.

• Lawsuits are needed to make fat people whole

  August 13, 2008

  With wanton negligence, if not malice aforethought, the food industry has conspired to make Americans fat.

• A little bit of Elsinore may haunt Pennsylvania

  August 10, 2008

  To drill (for gas and oil) or not to drill, that is the question -- from presidential campaign rhetoric to the local doings of Nockamixon Township.

• The symbol of treason inappropriate in a park

  August 8, 2008

  For more than 600 years, Shuri Castle has been the cultural and historical epicenter of Okinawa.

• Windmill profits portend an atrocity for Blue Mountain

  August 6, 2008

  In 1979, a math teacher in Roseville, Calif., fretted over a nephew named after him and two nieces.

• A habitual pessimist looks to the Iacocca model

  August 3, 2008

  The saddest day in The Morning Call's long and proud history came July 22, when it became front-page official that nearly a quarter of the newspaper's 166 journalist positions would be eliminated.

• Hopes for boondoggle story get jackhammered

  August 1, 2008

  It was an apparent case of official foolishness compounded by some gouging from a city contractor.

• A couple of court cases constitute a crazy comparison

  July 30, 2008

  Bucks County prosecutor Gary Gambardella was not swayed by the defense's latest sneaky scheme to get the nasty note fiend off the hook.

• Serial killer was sane enough on court issues

  July 27, 2008

  If the cheese has slid off his cerebral cracker, Harvey Robinson is not doing a very good job of conveying that message.

• We all scream for Bing cherry sundae treats

  July 25, 2008

  The world's foremost authority on ice cream tried some of her Bing cherry and pistachio hot fudge sundae, with cherries on top, and then made a profound pronouncement.

• A $168 gizmo can be fixed for a sawbuck

  July 23, 2008

  The two steel brackets for the motorcycle's carrying rack were not designed for the weight of a big Givi luggage box and, in the middle of Kentucky, one of the brackets broke.

• If journalistic integrity exists, credit is given

  July 20, 2008

  Most likely, few took special notice of one passage in a July 11 Morning Call story about the state Legislature's ''Bonusgate'' scandal, involving illegal politicking by aides.

• Vestiges of common sense haunt viaduct

  July 18, 2008

  Proud ghosts lie side by side, high above the gentle rapids of the Delaware River, in the very positions they held when they helped maintain America's cocksure progress -- back when voters were less crazy and fewer of their politicians were in the pockets of the trucking industry.

• Gyatso is guilty of worshiping the wrong God

  July 16, 2008

  Judge F.P. Kimberly McFadden, recipient of a Christian organization's Woman of the Year award in 1998, began the proceedings.

• PPL ... profits reflect a company that was wisely run.

  July 13, 2008

  Populist ploys did not work in California

• License needed to braid hair, not for tattoos

  July 11, 2008

  New legislation signed this week by Gov. Ed Rendell requires licenses for mortgage brokers. Who could dispute the need to protect the public from unsavory bankers?

• DeNaples saga is simply full of coincidences

  July 9, 2008

  The coincidences that keep popping up around whiz-bang casino owner Louis DeNaples are positively amazing .

• The airplanes rarely collide in a Wal-Mart

  July 6, 2008

  The worst performance by air traffic controllers is where good performance is needed the most, according to one veteran controller.

• Light a sparkler to celebrate hopes for AHL

  July 4, 2008

  Light a sparkler to celebrate hopes for AHL

• Freedom helps weed out spoiled brats

  July 2, 2008

  It takes no more than a few desperate moments of craziness to demolish a family's lifetime of decency and productiveness.

• The blacksmith booth revives pangs of guilt

  June 29, 2008

  Martin Hines (the family name was Anglicized because of anti-German sentiment prior to World War I) was the only man in Eden, N.Y., who could make shot glasses jump by banging his fist on the massive oak bar of the town's main saloon.

• Tattoo tiff brings torrents of that word

  June 27, 2008

  Stacks and stacks of e-mail letters and endless telephone messages from all over the world have made a case for the splendor of tattoos.

• A 'researcher' avoids issue of helmets in cars

  June 25, 2008

  A 'researcher' avoids issue of helmets in cars

• Helmet zeal kindles crusade to cook figures

  June 22, 2008

  Simple math and logic become less simple if somebody is desperate to push an agenda.

• Opinions split on glamorizing skin uglification

  June 20, 2008

  Opinions split on glamorizing skin uglification

• Disfigured skin points where culture is going

  June 18, 2008

  You can tell where a culture is headed by examining whom its members seek to emulate.

• One blemish at a bike race stuck in craw

  June 11, 2008

  Except for one sour note that was not the fault of the organizers, the Lehigh Valley Classic was a big hit.

• Hodgepodge aside, smoking curbs may pass

  June 6, 2008

  Prescription drugs might be cheaper in Canada, but when movie producer James Spies was filming in Calgary, he learned that cigarettes there cost $13 a pack.

• Amid disasters, Holmes proves value of work

  June 4, 2008

  There could be a hall of fame for boxing figures whose lives have been full of disaster.

• Who cares if bridges collapse? It's kickoff time

  June 1, 2008

  Look at the faces of your children or grandchildren and think about their future.

• On my honor, I will do my best, to seduce Bruce

  May 30, 2008

  As everybody knows, people under the age of 18 never even think about sex. That being the case, nothing will happen if, say, a teenage boy and a teenage girl are placed in a tent in the woods and told to spend the night together.

• The promising students never see that $46,361

  May 28, 2008

  There is only one way to justify the practice of taking the property of one person, by force, and giving it to another.

• Idea of Cappy being right about lawsuit is gloomy

  May 25, 2008

  When news stories are based in part on unnamed sources, responsible newspapers have tough rules to prevent reckless allegations.

• Silence prevails, but not because they're winded

  May 23, 2008

  No matter who has the legal right-of-way on a public road, the car-bicycle weight ratio is usually at least 150 to 1.

• A bizarre plan is hatched in Pottsville

  May 21, 2008

  Saturday mornings were for the exquisite luxury of sleeping until nearly 10 a.m.

• You win $1,500 by feeding slot only $3.75 million

  May 18, 2008

  According to a Pennsylvania Gaming Control Board official, there is ''rigorous slot machine testing by highly skilled staff in the Gaming Control Board gaming lab.'' So any suggestion that the state allows ''rigged'' slot machines in its casinos is incorrect.

• The ecstasy part includes rebirth of velodrome

  May 16, 2008

  The Lehigh Valley's claims to national or international fame have faded somewhat.

• For youngsters who party, there is a role model

  May 14, 2008

  Two seemingly unrelated items appeared in the paper this week, on the same day.

• Embarrassment of those pictures really stings

  May 11, 2008

  There goes their invitation to the ball.

• Miracles prove skeptics wrong about the slots

  May 7, 2008

  Nearly everybody believes in miracles -- from weeping statues, to faith healers curing the afflicted by smacking their foreheads, to the Miracle on Ice in the 1980 Olympics.

• The 'kidnapping' at nursing home needs a motive

  May 4, 2008

  It would seem that the first major issue in the criminal case against Robert Netchel, from a layman's point of view, will be to establish a motive.

• Phonies avoid semantic clarity of 'castration'

  May 2, 2008

  Oozing self-righteousness, Nurse Ratched needed to deal with Randle McMurphy's troublesome spirit and libido.

• The trombone players helped refresh the soul

  April 30, 2008

  All musical instruments (except for organs at sports arenas) are glorious, but there's a good reason the signal piece of ''The Music Man'' begins with ''76 trombones.''

• Some vermin are protected, some are not

  April 27, 2008

  Sensational event on April Fools' Day: District Judge James Narlesky, his courtroom jammed with a standing-room-only herd of wrathful dog lovers, came down hard on James Clewell of Bethlehem.

• Children needed for MP3s, not for school costs

  April 25, 2008

  The Northwestern Lehigh School District spends more than $11,800 a year on each student, which would come to more than $4.3 million in new costs if the district gets, say, 370 new bright shiny faces.

• Serendipity links a vacation trip to op-ed column

  April 23, 2008

  The most annoying thing about John Brinson is not his ripsnorting op-ed column, which appears regularly on the opinion pages. It is the way he rides in The Derby.

• Getting into bed should be legally mitigating factor

  October 16, 2007

  One need only look at Mike Tyson's facial tattoos to realize this guy does not just have a screw loose, he has great big bolts clanking around in there.