I know it is a cliché, but in my case it is true: I never cease to be amazed. It happened this morning before my coffee had dripped into its carafe. Bill Steigerwald, a columnist from Pittsburgh, stated that large numbers of polar bears are not starving and drowning because of global warming. I disagree, but that wasn’t the amazing part. It was his reasoning. His evidence was that no one has published pictures of dead polar bears.

The day after my father died I went with my mother and my son to the for-profit cemetery where my father had purchased eight plots in the 1950s. Buried there are his parents; his sister, her husband and their child; my brother, who was stillborn; and now my father. Although my family had owned plots there for more than 50 years, this was the first time I had ever had any dealings with them. It was a rude awakening.

A young pony died Saturday, less than a week after authorities seized it from a Waynesboro farm.
Named “Hope,” the pony was unable to stand for most of its time at Mountain View Equine Hospital, where doctors built a custom sling to accommodate the abnormally small animal.