Syndicated columnists

Art Buchwald

I'm from the era when newspapers had multiple pages for opinions - not only editorials, but also letters to the editor and syndicated columnists. Our local dailies had one to two such pages each issue. And with two dailies, there was room for a wide variety of columns representing differing views.   

I used to enjoy reading those pages, and, in particular, certain columnists. Two of the syndicated columnists I particularly enjoyed were Art Buchwald and Sydney Harris.

I dreamed of being a columnist myself. In college I created a column called The Pregnant Pause for the school newspaper. It was a mixture of humor, satire, and commentary, combining elements of Buchwald and Harris.

After college,  although I freelanced some articles, I did not work full-time as a journalist for a number of years. Then I was hired by the diocesan newspaper. I eventually became the associate editor, and regularly wrote editorials, getting a taste of fulfilling my dream. I even won a few awards for my editorials.

But after a decade I left the newspaper business to become a teacher, a career I also loved. 

By that point, the newspapers across the country were folding - including one of our two local dailies. Editorial pages were shrinking, with room for fewer columns, and many of the great columnists of the past retired or died. I also stopped reading newspapers as regularly, disappointed by their content - or lack thereof - and finding other news outlets online. As a result, I did not keep up with the kinds of columns still being written.

I started a blog, and used that as an outlet. But it was not the same as being a newspaper columnist. Few people saw what I wrote. 

Then blogs started to follow the newspapers into oblivion. 

Oh, there were other outlets - like podcasts - but I was a written word person, and did not follow those technological routes.

I still write - and blog. And I edit and write three newsletters. Nothing short of something like dementia or a stroke will stop me from expressing myself through writing. 

Who knows. Maybe syndicated columns will make a comeback before my gray cells go dark. 

After all, vinyl records are now cool again. 

Pax et bonum

Stand Together For Life, November 2025

Every Saturday, a group of Catholics gather outside Rochester’s Planned parenthood headquarters to pray. Every fourth Saturday they are joined by Protestant pro-lifers for “Stand Together for Life.”

The event always begins with a Rosary by the Catholics.

They are then joined by Protestant brothers and sisters.

The event includes music …

… and talks and prayers by various individuals.

The featured speaker this month was Tim Archer, Board President of Care Net of Greater Oleans (a nearby county). Care Net is a women’s center that provides free, onsite pregnancy services, resources and support.

We also heard form Jan, one of the leaders of the local Mom Mentors, a group that provides all sorts of social and material aid for women. That aid includes baby showers, food, clothing, furniture, rides, listening even in the middle of the night, and more.

We also heard form a woman from Syracuse about pro-life efforts there (Alas, I did not catch her name.)

Someone stuck this image above in a gap in Planned Parenthood’s wall. Meanwhile, some folks who had been there before the event left messages chalked on the sidewalk like this one -

The event ended with participants placing their hands on Planned Parenthood’s street-side wall and praying for the mothers, the fathers, the babies, and the workers.

We will continue until legal abortion ends.

Pax et bonum

Political poems

For my haiku group we were to bring in some of our political haiku/senryu. "Political" was defined as including not just actual elections or candidates, but also social issues subject to political debate.

Here are the ones I brought:

steady cold rain
election results
come trickling in

blood on the pavement
mother distracts child
with an old folk song

searcher hesitates
beneath the rubble
an overturned crib

outside the clinic
unmothered mothers slowly
walk to waiting cars

crow on a bare branch
outside the clinic
car door slams

walking in the woods
noticing all the mushrooms -
August 6

a break in the clouds
gave way to that sunrise –
Nagasaki

the morning prayers
rose heavenward that day –
Nagasaki

at Hiroshima
some dead left memorials
shadows on the wall

I've written other political poems that more directly focus on candidates, primarily poems in the clerihew format. I say "clerihew format" because they are not true clerihews. They lack the silliness, the whimsy that true clerihews have, and are much more polemical and satirical than true clerihews should be.

Some come closer to the form.

Assistant Coach Tim Walz
was enjoying some spaghetti and meatballs,
but then got a sick feeling in his belly
when an ad for tampons came on the telly.

Bernie Sanders
gets uneasy whenever he spots chameleons and salamanders.
He yells and waves his hands above his head
because he knows if they get near him they'll turn red.

Chris Cuomo
hates to be called "Fredo."
Still, he turns down Andy's offers to take
him fishing out on a lake.

Vermin Supreme
awoke from a bad dream.
In it, Democratic candidates at a joint ceremony
promised everyone a free pony.

Some of the others just don't make it as true clerihews.

Donald Trump
on the stump
will almost always spout a platitude
or something rude.

The eyes of former Vice President Biden
suddenly began to widen.
"Wait, you mean now that they say I've won,
people actually expect me to get something done???"

Former Vice President Joe Biden
is content to let gender definitions widen.
He has himself long used the trick
of identifying as a devout Roman Catholic.


Washington Archbishop Wilton Gregory
says, "Communion for cafeteria Catholic Biden is fine by me.
After all, I always try to enable
whenever I am able."

Former Vice President Joe Biden
watches Ukraine, the border, inflation, and his poll numbers slidin'.
With so much at stake
it's time for an ice cream break.

Former Vice President Joe Biden
caused some Royal eyes to widen.
His press people sighed, for from the start,
they've been battling accusations he's just an old fart.

Each encounter with Joe Biden
reveals what his handlers have been hidin':
Beneath that thinning hair,
there's less and less there there.

Good Jimmy Carter,
when it comes to presidents was one of the smarter.
Historians rank his presidency pretty low,
but it’s looking better these days thanks to “Scranton Joe.”

I don't know if J.D. Vance
has ever been to France,
but unlike Walz he doesn't lack
service to the nation in Iraq.

New York AG Letitia James
targeted Trump with legal games.
We might just see her smirking less
now that she faces her own legal mess.

Attorney General Letitia James
is fond of playing games.
Her latest was attending a trial and practicing her smirk
instead of showing up at the office to work.

Fani Willis
used Nathan Wade for some carnal bliss,
What drew him to her is not plain to see;
perhaps money and the odor of mendacity?

Fani Willis
with Nathan Wade sought illicit bliss.
Part of her appeal may have been her capacity
for mendacity.
.
Elizabeth Warren
campaigned in the restaurant of a Salvadoran.
When she tasted a pupusa she said,
"Why, this is just like my mother's Cherokee fry bread."

Senator Cory Booker
is more than a side-looker.
After all, as he told us,
he is Spartacus.

Ben Carson
has never been accused of committing arson.
That didn't stop Politico
from saying, "He may have, you know."

New York Governor Andrew Cuomo
set out to find a living dodo.
The closest he came, in the end,
were a couple of hosts at CNN.

I have a number of other political alleged clerihews, but they are so bad - given some of the ones I posted above you get an idea how bad they are - they are fit only for Twitter (X). But since I don't have a Twitter account, I'll spare the public and not post them!

Pax et bonum

All Souls Day

Today is All Souls Day. On this day we recall and pray for loved ones who have left this life. 

We pray that they have gone home to the Lord. 

 In my life I have lost some loved ones - members of my family and of my wife's family. 

 Nana Baxter, Grandma Strong, Mom, Dad, and my Brother in my family. 

In my wife's family I have lost Marge (mother), Frank (father), Aunt Toni, Nick (brother), and Cousin Joe.

One of my routines is to pray for individuals and groups at every Mass I attend. On Sundays I always pray for these deceased relatives. Today being All Souls Day adds to the routine. 

On this day, I ask them all to pray for me as well. 

 Pax et bonum